A ground-breaking new United Nations study that shows there are now about 150 million migrant workers around the world is providing vital data for national and international policy makers.

The study’s data will prove useful as the United Nations and its member nations work on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The agenda was adopted by world leaders in September 2015 at an historic UN Summit.

This means that over the next 15 years, countries will mobilise efforts to end all forms of poverty, fight inequalities and tackle climate change, while ensuring that no one is left behind.

The UN’s workplace agency the International Labour Organisation (ILO) says the study provides a framework for policy development.

“Decision makers will now have real data on which to base their policies,” said ILO Director-General Guy Ryder in a news release.

He said the analysis will help countries deliver on the 2030 Agenda’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly targets within Goal 8 on protecting all workers, including migrant workers, and Goal 10 on the implementation of well-managed migration policies.

The report found that there are currently 232 million international migrants, of which 206.6 million are 15 years old and up.

Of the working-age migrant population, 72.7 per cent, or 150 million, are migrant workers. Of those, 83.7 million are men and 66.6 million women.

Labour migration is a phenomenon that affects almost every nation but almost half, or 48.5 per cent, of migrant workers are concentrated in two broad regions: Northern America, and Northern, Southern and Western Europe.

The Arab States have the highest proportion of migrant workers as a share of all workers with 35.6 per cent.

The study also examined the distribution of the migrant workforce in broad industry groupings.

It found the vast majority of migrant workers are in the services sectors, with 106.8 million workers accounting for 71.1 per cent of the total, followed by manufacturing and construction, with 26.7 million, or 17.8 per cent, and by agriculture with 16.7 million, or 11.1 per cent.

Among all migrant workers, 7.7 per cent are domestic workers.

“This estimate study shows that the vast majority of migrants migrate in search of better job opportunities,” the ILO said.

The report also highlights the significant global numbers of migrant domestic workers and the marked gender disparities in this sector.

Domestic work is one of the least regulated sectors of the economy and, as such, is of particular concern, the ILO said.

It said that due to the concentration of migrant women workers and relatively low visibility of the workforce in this sector multiple forms of discrimination often intersect.

Of the estimated 67.1 million domestic workers in the world, 11.5 million, or 17.2 per cent are international migrants.

About 73.4 per cent, or around 8.5 million, of all migrant domestic workers are women.

South-Eastern Asia and the Pacific host the largest share, with 24 per cent of the global number of female migrant domestic workers, followed by Northern, Southern and Western Europe, with 22.1 per cent of the total, and the Arab States with 19 per cent.

Laurie Nowell
AMES Australia