World Migration Report 2008

Managing Labour Mobility in the Evolving Global Economy

The task of formulating workable approaches to the management of international migration remains a formidable challenge for the community, one that will require both time and effort over the coming years. In what terms are we to develop comprehensive migration management strategies that will help us achieve coherence of action? What organizing principles should be adopted? Is there, in conceptual terms, a point of leverage to move the debate forward?

The World Migration Report 2008 tackles the nature of migration directly and seeks to identify policy options that might contribute to the development of broad and coherent strategies to better match demand for migrant workers with supply in safe, humane and orderly ways.

Part A of the Report explores the nature and magnitude of the need for such strategies through the observation and analysis of a wide range of contemporary migratory patterns linked to economic purposes while Part B discusses the contours of possible policy responses.

• International labour mobility in the evolving global labour market
• Highly skilled migration
• Low and semi-skilled workers abroad
• Student mobility, internationalization of higher education and skilled migration
• Tourism and short-term business travel
• Family migration
• Internal migration
• Irregular migration
• Enhancing the knowledge base
• Human resource development and foreign employment policies in countries of origin
• Formulation and management of foreign employment policies in countries of destination
• Managing the labour migration and development equation
• Achieving the outcomes from global, regional and bilateral cooperation