International Migration Challenges in a New Era

In this book, four distinguished experts explore the consequences of contemporary migration. They devote separate chapters to immigration challenges in Canada and the United States, in European Community countries, and in Japan. It is in European Community countries in particular that immigration has become an issue of high politics. According to the authors, “the core difficulty is that Europe has become an imimigration region, having neither planned nor chosen to be one.” These chapters are followed by a chapter on changing approaches to refugees, using the cases of Iraq, Cambodia, Haiti and the former Yugoslavia.

The concluding chapter suggests a broad policy framework for dealing with contemporary migrations, “anchored in a new international imperative, the right of individuals to stay where they are. Most international migration today is an act of desperation, not choice. The vast majority of individuals prefer home and will stay there if conditions are even barely tolerable. It is that impulse on which policy must build.”

Text of Summary Highlights

Chapter II - Canada and the United States
“The long, rich tradition of immigration to Canada and the United States is one of the ultimate human manifestations of the upheavals of world history.... The proposition that membership in the society and opportunity for a better life can be provided to diverse peoples in exchange for hard work and democratic participation is a deeply held belief.... At the same time, immigration is a controversial, unsettled political question and a source of vigorous debate. Currently, that debate revolves around the broad question of whether sizeable immigration continues to enrich the economy and the culture or whether these nations, now mature and settled, need to substantially limit immigrant flows to secure prosperity and social cohesion among established populations.” (p. 12)

Canada
“With a population of just over 27 million, Canada’s annual target of 250,000 immigrants from 1992 to 1995 represents, at levels just under one percent of its population, sizeable flows....” (p. 17)

“Altogether, Canada’s immigration policy has been steadily honed and adjusted to embody a workable balance between generosity and economic self-interest. This balance is the linchpin for the policy’s political support and credibility....” (p. 22)

“Canada’s effort to respond to the central migration development of the last decade—the political asylum crisis—has been both the most ambitious and the most successful in the world.... Canada has achieved what no other nation has been able to in the political asylum arena: it has a system that is timely and perceived to be fair. These are the twin characteristics that are required if nations are to both uphold international refugee standards and discourage unfounded claims.” (pp. 23-24)

“A generous immigration program cannot be sustained unless integration is successful. Canada’s approach to the task is its policy of multiculturalism.... Canada devotes an exceptional degree of attention to the complexity of the integration challenge.” (pp. 24-26)

United States
“Always an ethnically mixed society, the United States is more so now than at any prior time. Net immigration, including illegal immigration, is about one million annually, with almost 90 percent from countries in Asia and the Americas.” (p. 26)

Illegal Immigration “Despite the political importance of enacting employer sanctions (in 1986), their enforcement is not working well.... (T)he central flaw in the sanctions scheme that was enacted is the absence of requirements for secure identity documents.... The debate about illegal immigration is reviving because the United States has been unable to measurably limit illegal flows at a time of sluggish growth and broad-based economic restructuring. New solutions will require Americans to make trade-offs between the commitment to a generous but controlled immigration system and principles of individual freedom as they have been traditionally practiced and perceived.” (pp. 31-32)

Refugee Policy “With the Cold War behind, refugee policy has lost its rationale and refugee admissions are increasingly anachronistic.... (P)olicy-makers seem quite comfortable with the status quo.... This, combined with the absence of an international strategic outlook that is enhanced by refugee resettlement, has produced stagnation in a policy arena where the U.S. has typically provided aggressive, high-minded leadership.” (pp. 32-34)

Immigrant Integration “U.S. integration policy has been to rely on a healthy economy and the vitality of public institutions, such as the education system, to provide opportunity and training that brings newcomers into the mainstream of American life.... Disturbing signs are appearing....” (p. 35)

Regional Economic Integration “(R)educing migration pressures is regularly cited by all parties as one of the benefits of NAFTA.... Job-creating growth in migrant-sending countries lessens the need people feel to emigrate. However, in the short-to-medium term,economic development is also likely to stimulate migration pressures. And ‘short-to-medium’ in this connection is 10 to 20 years.... The realistic objective must be one of lessening the irregularity and unpredictability of illegal immigration, not of averting immigration completely.” (pp. 37-38)

Chapter III - European Community Countries
“From 1850 to 1920, more than 50 million people, about 12 percent of Europe’s total population, left.... Forty percent of the population of the British Isles left; and 30 percent left Italy and the Scandinavian countries.... (M)igrations were intrinsic to development and modernization processes, just as they are for many developing countries today.” (p. 40)

“Today, Europe stands at the very crossroads of international migration pressures. It faces urgent demands from across the Oder-Neisse River to the east and the Mediterranean Sea to the south.” (p. 40)

Europe and Immigration Today
The Foreigner Issue “Foreigners from outside the EC are concentrated in France and Germany, the two countries that most actively recruited guestworkers through programs that were considered temporary labor market measures. These two, with somewhat over one-third of the EC population, have two-thirds of the non-EC foreigner population. For both, Islamic immigrants are about one-third of their foreign populations and are seen to pose major dilemmas where immigrant integration issues are concerned.” (pp. 41-43)

“Since the end of the guestworker programs, governments have declared that Europe is ‘closed’ to immigration from outside of Europe. However,...(t)he numbers that reside in Europe today as legacies of guestworker programs are higher than the number there when migrant workers were actively being recruited. This illustrates the power of immigrant networks as a dynamic of transnational processes. It further illustrates the substantial gap that has opened between political rhetoric and popular experience.” (pp. 43-44)

East-West Pressures “As sobering as the economic projections are, it is humanitarian emergencies that represent the most dangerous migration scenario.... If ethnic conflict can be ameliorated, East-West movements should eventually be able to be regulated within acceptable bounds.... In addressing East-West migration pressures, EC countries are likely to pursue economic integration, steadily incorporating Eastern Europe into EC structures with their promise of political stability and economic improvement in the years ahead.” (pp. 45-46)

South-North Pressures “More longstanding and more intractable than migration pressures from the East are those from the South.... Europe has no real choice but to commit itself to assistance efforts that narrow the widening prosperity gap with Mediterranean rim societies. This is likely to take the form of closer economic association, however, instead of the more comprehensive strategy of economic integration that is unfolding where East-West pressures are concerned.” (pp. 46-47)

“The Mediterranean divide may not be a long-term one. With aggressive development efforts, the Maghreb, Egypt and Turkey could develop relatively quickly. The divide then would become the Sahara.” (p. 48)

The Asylum Crisis “The most objectionable policy in the public mind is one where the nation appears unable to control a basic element of sovereignty, such as the choice of who resides in the country. This abdication of choice is what burgeoning asylum caseloads represent, and long-staying asylum populations symbolize national vulnerability.” (p. 50)

“The nation with the biggest asylum burden (Germany) has now also taken the most sweeping, agonizing steps of any European nation to respond. Even so, changing laws and procedures for handling asylum cases, either in Germany or elsewhere in Europe, will not be enough. And politicians would be wise not to promise an end to the asylum problem. That is because asylum systems are bearing the burden not just of refugees and refugee-like people, but of migration pressures overall.” (p. 52)

Immigration as an Issue of High Politics
“Europe sees immigration as inextricably bound up with its political, economic and social well-being, as well as its future security interests. This is very different from the way immigration is perceived and debated in Canada and the United States, at least at the present time.” (p. 53)

Parties and Domestic Politics “Germany’s experience has been the most painful, but it is symptomatic of Europe overall. The core difficulty is that Europe has become an immigration region, having neither planned nor chosen to be one. Leaders have been slow to grasp this new situation and its implications and have been unable or unwilling to take up questions regarding ways to regulate migration flows and manage cultural diversity. Even states that have accommodated substantial immigration, like France and Britain, steadfastly insist they are not immigration nations. Consequently, the policy debate that is needed about how immigration is changing European countries and the challenges that lie ahead has been occurring in the streets.” (pp. 54-55)

“Unless European politics are able to bring the full complexity of migration questions into the open and propose and critique comprehensive solutions, the gap between politics and public experience will continue to widen. Closing that gap is a threshold requirement for political leaders to embrace.... Europe’s collective efforts, through the European Community and other collaborative efforts, have begun to mobilize the kinds of responses and consensus that are needed to meet the challenge.” (p. 55)

European Community Structures and Policy “European Community states are steadily ceding their national powers in this arena to European regional structures and cooperative mechanisms. This trend reflects a growing conviction at national levels that solutions to migration pressures must be found through international cooperation. It is a marked departure from just two or three years ago, when the habit was to rely on unilateral action, largely limited to entry controls.” (p. 55)

“It remains to be seen how effective this extensive legal framework will be and how quickly European states will move to put it into actual practice.... Nevertheless, the many structures and policies that are evolving represent an impressive record of achievement. In combination, they constitute the principal elements of an immigration system. Nations’ immigration systems consist of explicit practices and mechanisms to effect visa issuance; border controls; admission of immigrants and their family members and of refugees and asylum-seekers; workplace regulation; legal and naturalization rights of non-citizens; and expulsion procedures. The policies that govern these functions and the functions themselves are now all at varying stages of being established among European Community countries.” (pp. 59-60)

Europe and Immigration Tomorrow
“The primary obstacle is the distance between European policy development processes on immigration questions and public opinion. As political leaders assert that Europe is not an immigration region, regional organizations have constructed a full-fledged immigration system.” (p. 57)

A Closed Debate “Officials of member states have not invited broad consideration of measures that will have profound effects on daily life and about which public opinion must be better informed and more fully considered.... This closed policy-making style seriously jeopardizes the success of the entire enterprise, and contributes to Europe’s democracy deficit.” (p. 61)

The Plethora of Forums “The best evolution in this regard would be for the EC processes and institutions to become the primary European setting for immigration policy development and implementation. This would place immigration squarely into the framework where overarching issues of regional concern are handled. It would also overcome the deficiencies of the intergovernmental process. In this connection, the Maastricht right of co-initiative should be fully utilized: the EC Commission should present an annual migration report to the European Parliament and Council that includes proposals for action. The presentation should be made by the Commissioner for Immigration and Asylum Issues, who would be Europe’s de facto High Commissioner for Migrants. Furthermore, EC institutions should work closely and cooperatively with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).” (p. 62)

Fortress Europe “Establishing immigration systems and policies in Europe should be the path to effective facilitation and regulation of migration flows that are inevitable and to incorporating immigration effectively into a nation’s economic and social goals. Nevertheless, Fortress Europe could also be the outcome if policy implementation is not generous and is driven by xenophobia. Europe’s response to refugees from ex-Yugoslavia represents a worrisome case.... Evidence that argues against the fear of a Fortress Europe is also strong....” (pp. 63-64)

“(S)hould the idea of a quota system take hold, levels of annual immigrant admissions could be proposed by the EC Commission, after consultation with the European Parliament, to the EC Council of Ministers. Or, the EC could establish a new position of High Commissioner for Immigration, with duties that would include making recommendations for meeting the EC’s immigration needs. A Migration Convention might also allow for a non-EC national legally residing in a member state to work in another EC country, thereby increasing the labor pool within the EC able to respond to the region’s labor demands.” (p. 65)

Chapter IV - Japan
“Japan’s historical experience on migration matters is completely different from that of either North America or Europe.... However,... the picture is beginning to change.” (p. 67)

Labor Shortages and Foreign Workers
“In 1992, Japan introduced a foreign worker trainee program intended to provide badly needed labor to certain Japanese employers while also giving training and experience to workers from less developed countries.... The intent is to train about 100,000 foreigners a year.” (pp. 67-68)

The Demographic Imperative “Japan is at a crucial demographic and labor force crossroads which has profound implications.” (p. 68)

Illegal Workers “The employment of illegal workers has...sharply risen, particularly in blue-collar and low-level service jobs. Estimates of the size of the illegal population show steady increases, from 160,000 in 1991 to 278,000 by mid-1992. This is a dramatic increase...over a few tens of thousands just three years ago.... The same issues and problems that have become familiar dilemmas in other advanced industrial societies are now arising in Japan.” (pp. 69-70)

Government Policy “Because the law prohibits admission of unskilled workers, the government’s foreign worker program has been explained not as a guestworker program but as an effort to achieve training and development goals for labor-source countries.... Nomenclature notwithstanding, Japan’s steps towards adopting the guestworker model to confront its demographic destiny have all the earmarks of the European experience of the 1960s and ’70s.” (pp. 71-72)

“Introducing foreign labor without systematically preparing the public for the significant consequences it may have for Japanese life could invite serious social and cultural antagonisms. On the other hand, Japan may be able to contain the broader social effects of guestworker programs by carefully segregating work among Japanese and foreigners and by imposing tight limitson the latitude given to foreign workers while in Japan. Albeit limited in scope, the journey on which Japan seems to be embarked presents the developed world with one of the more remarkable migration policy experiments underway in any Trilateral country today.” (pp. 72-73)

Japan’s International Role
“Japan has become increasingly active and engaged in some aspects of the international refugee agenda. It has defined its role as primarily one of providing financial support for humanitarian activities.... (I)t may not be possible for Japan to limit its role to ‘checkbook diplomacy’.” (p. 73)

Chapter V - The International Community and Refugees: Different Contexts, Changing Approaches
“The end of the Cold War has ushered in a fourth period.... Generous refugee resettlement by third countries is no longer politically attractive nor consistent with broader strategic objectives, so humanitarian relief has begun to concentrate on care-in-place and be accompanied by political initiatives to defuse the conflicts themselves.” (pp. 75-76)

The Aftermath of the Gulf War
“For the first time, the consequences of a refugee crisis were designated a political threat that called for political countermeasures. The international community had taken the unprecedented act of authorizing humanitarian intervention.... A (UNHCR) mission calling for protection to be provided within the country in which the refugee is in danger was entirely new.... Ultimately, the authority for UNHCR’s work in Iraq was based not on (Security Council) Resolution 688, but on a separate Memorandum of Understanding negotiated with Iraqi authorities precisely to resolve the contradiction between UNHCR’s mandate and the special circumstances of the Iraqi case.... Safety zones can be a pragmatic alternative to first asylum, but they cannot be established without the acquiescence of state authorities, if they are to be viable from a protection standpoint.” (pp. 76-77)

Cambodia
“The Cambodia (repatriation) operation...is inextricably linked with the most intense, comprehensive effort being made to date to facilitate peace in a deeply damaged country. As such, repatriation is an integral part of the peace process and an important test of the role humanitarian initiatives can play in achieving bold, new political objectives.” (p. 78)

“How far does UNHCR’s responsibility extend once refugees return home?...Institutional and policy links between repatriation and re-integration/development activities must be effectively made if repatriation is to break the cycle of turmoil that leads to further refugee flight.” (pp. 79-81)

Ex-Yugoslavia
“UNHCR’s dilemma has been deepened by the need for military protection to enable it to protect and deliver relief supplies. This represents an historic departure for agencies whose effectiveness is anchored in a fierce devotion to neutrality and impartiality, so as to be able to work on all sides of political conflicts with strictly humanitarian aims as the objective. In contrast, the Security Council and its forces have distinctly political purposes. The danger is that linking these military forces to UNHCR’s humanitarian duties could jeopardize and taint UNHCR’s ability to operate with confidence among all relevant parties. Nevertheless, conditions on the ground dictated the outcome. Humanitarian assistance could not be delivered in the absence of security. The linkage between humanitarian aid and military cover had to be made.” (p. 82)

“In the eyes of UNHCR, its work in ex-Yugoslavia brings it into a symbiotic relationship with political processes dedicated to finding peaceful solutions to the conflict.... By containing displacement, it sees its humanitarian activity as making time and space available for political initiatives to bear fruit.... Albeit courageous and perhaps visionary, humanitarianism has proven to be no match for deadly aggression.” (p. 83)

“Moreover, ex-Yugoslavia demonstrates that efforts to concentrate on the country of origin can also become a way to bottle up genuine refugees in their own country, rationalizing that they do not require asylum in other places because humanitarian agencies have been dispatched to the source. This is a dangerous tendency inherent in country-of-origin strategies, important and urgent though they are. The offer of asylum and temporary refuge must always be available as a genuine option for refugee emergencies. Relief agencies should not be required to operate in a milieu of life-threatening conditions combined with closed borders.” (p. 85)

Haiti
“The importance being attached to Haiti by the new Administration demonstrates how differently security and national interests may begin to look in a post-Cold War setting. Nations like Haiti, that have not been of any strategic interest to major Trilateral powers, except to be kept non-Communist, are beginning to demand attention because their poverty and oppression generates instability that can spark sizeable migrations. Such emergency, unregulated migrations can, in turn, undermine the well-being of neighboring states.” (p. 87)

Chapter VI - Where Do We Go From Here?: A Framework for Policy
“The causes of contemporary migrations are deeply embedded in the social, economic and political conditions of our times. Yet to the extent that nations have migration policies at all, most handle them as narrow, particularistic functions. To be effective, policy must go beyond conventional control and humanitarian measures, so that managing migration pressures becomes part of nations’ central economic, political and security objectives.

Comprehensive policies that address the causes of political and economic migrations will require a fundamental shift in the outlook and actions of Trilateral states. That shift should be anchored in a new international imperative, the right of individuals to stay where they are. Most international migration is an act of desperation, not choice. The vast majority of individuals prefer home and will stay there, if conditions are even barely tolerable. It is that impulse that policy must build on.” (p. 89)

Authors
(titles at time of publication)

Doris Meissner, confirmed in October 1993 as the new head of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS); former Director of the Immigration Policy Project at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Robert D. Hormats, Vice Chairman, Goldman Sachs International; former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs.
Antonio Garrigues Walker, Senior Partner, J & A Garrigues, Madrid; Special Advisor to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
Shijuro Ogata, Senior Advisor to Yamaichi Securities; former Deputy Governor for International Relations, Bank of Japan.