Labour Mobility

This panel discussion looks at labour mobility across the Pacific region. Speakers include Mai Malaulau, Labour Migration Specialist at the World Bank; Luke Craven from the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Sydney, and La'aina (Lisa) Kaho, Ikale Contractors, an Australian employment company which works with employees from Tonga and Tuvalu on the Australian Seasonal Worker Program.

Labour migration is increasingly being recognised as an opportunity for development, bringing significant impacts for household income, developing countries' GDP, as well as health and education outcomes, with global remittance flows amounting to $440 billion last year alone.

In the Pacific, a region with the largest and one of the fastest growing youth populations in the world, new research suggests that labour migration will be especially pivotal in meeting a growing demand for employment - and that seasonal worker programs could offer an important precedent for increasing opportunities for low-skilled migration.

But how can the benefits from migration, and remittances, be amplified for Pacific Islanders? What has been the development impact of the seasonal worker schemes at home and abroad to date, and what might their future hold? Are there tradeoffs for communities back home?

Recorded
Friday 30 May

Moderator
Bronwyn Adcock, Journalist