Migration and remittances have become very significant for many economies and been hailed as offering new opportunities for economic development. And certainly migration is a right for people in their pursuit of decent work and livelihoods for themselves and their families. In particular much attention has been given to how remittances increase incomes of receiving households and how these have become an increasingly large part of financial flows to developing countries.

Migrant workers, faith-based communities and international activists held a public forum in New York last June 22, 2009, examining the current global economic crisis and proposals to deal with the crisis from the perspective of working people, particularly migrant workers. This was held just before the start of the United Nations Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and its Impact on Development which ran from June 24 to 26, 2009 at the UN General Headquarters.

AsPac groups hold 5-day FFM in Malaysia

Malaysia is a hotbed of abuses against migrant workers. After the Fact Finding Mission (FFM) in Sabah organized by the Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants (APMM) and participated in by various NGO’s and migrant organizations, this fact is even better established.

Without the seafarers of the world, the global economy would stop on its tracks. About 90 percent of world commerce is transported by sea, on board 50,000 merchant ships, registered in some 150 countries, and manned by about 1.2 million seafarers of various nationalities.

It has been over three years since the massive demonstrations led by immigrants occurred in the U.S.

The 3rd Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) will be held in Athens, Greece on November 4-5, 2009. The first was held in Brussels in July 2007 and the second in Manila in October 2008.

Migration and the global financial and economic meltdown

When the U.S. housing “bubble” burst in 2008, it set off an unprecedented financial and economic crisis in the world’s largest economy that was rapidly transmitted, in an era of financial and economic globalisation, to other parts of the world. The global recession has wiped out millions of jobs and thrown many more people into poverty. An important question is: what are the impacts on migrant workers and migrant women in particular who make up half of the migrant labour force?

Neoliberal globalization policies have exacerbated the perennial economic crisis in poor countries resulting in greater poverty, unemployment, and underemployment. A further consequence of this is the forced migration of peoples from these poor countries who, for lack of options at home, find work overseas. But this deplorable condition is being depicted as a virtue by many developing country governments who have resorted to exporting labor as de facto state policy.

Nairobi, Kenya, 30 August 2009

We, the leaders of various people’s movements, community based groups, academia, NGOs and civil society organizations meeting in Nairobi under the banner of Peoples Movement on Climate Change (PMCC) to discuss strategies to confront the Climate Change Crisis for Copenhagen and beyond from 27 to 28 August 2009,

Or, Anticipating the Revenge of the Balikbayan Cargo Cult (Part 2)

A Review of MARISOL (2009)—a film directed by Hella Wenders; cinematography by Merle Jothe; produced by Barbara Mutschler and Florian Gerstenberg ; German Film and Television School, Berlin, Germany. Part 1 of this review was published in a previous issue of Education for Development Magazine (Vol. 8, No. 2).

Top recipients of migrant remittances among developing countries in 2008

Source: Migration and Development Brief 10, July 2009,Migration and Remittances Team Development Prospects Group, World Bank

Outlook for remittance flows to developing countries, 2009-11

Outlook for remittance flows to developing countries, 2009-11

e=estimate; f=forecast
Source: www. Worldbank.org/prospects/migration andremittances for data definitions and the entire dataset.1