• ILO study on SL’s response to overseas labour migration notes need for measures based on research

With the recent increase in the number of people leaving Sri Lanka mainly for employment, labour migration has emerged as a social and economic concern. On the one hand, it has direct positive and negative impacts on society and the economy, and on the other, it is a matter that has a lot to do with the country’s diplomatic relationships.

It goes without saying that labour migration, especially the increase in migration and cases of illegal migration, requires the authorities’ attention and prompt action. While the authorities have taken short-term measures to analyse the situation, medium to long-term measures are necessary because labour migration-related concerns are unlikely to diminish anytime soon. Judicious, concrete, and medium and long-term measures depend on the available data and information and analysis on labour migration, and therefore, research and studies on the matter play a crucial role in Sri Lanka’s strategies to deal with labour migration-related concerns.

In this context, an extensive desk review issued last week titled “Labour Migration Research on Sri Lanka: What Do We Know? What Don’t We Know?”, which was authored by Madushika Lansakara and commissioned by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) country office for Sri Lanka and the Maldives at the request of the Ministry of Labour and Foreign Employment, analysed the findings and conclusions of the researches that have been conducted on the state of labour migration in Sri Lanka. It identified a number of steps that the country could take in order to improve such research-related initiatives, especially given the manner in which the state of labour migration has changed recently.

Existing research on SL’s labour migration situation 

The desk review focused on labour migration-related research and publications produced in the past five years, i.e. since 2016, by a number of local and international entities. Among these entities are agencies coming under the Government of Sri Lanka, such as the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) and the Ministry of Labour and Foreign Employment, think tanks such as the Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka, the Centre for Poverty Analysis, the Centre for Women’s Research, the university-based academia, international non-governmental organisations (INGOs)/NGOs and community-based organisations, studies, the ILO’s regional and global publications, the United Nations (UN) Country Team in Sri Lanka, projects such as the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and UN Women, and the Swiss Agency for Development and Co-operation’s (SDC) Safe Labour Migration Project-based research products. In total, 59 research and publications were analysed, and they pertained to labour migration-related governance, foreign employment recruitment, skills and migration, gender and migration, the remittances of migrant workers, the return and reintegration of migrant workers, and climate change and migration.  

The report noted that a large proportion of the existing research on labour migration related to Sri Lanka is produced by international organisations such as the ILO and the IOM, regarding which it highlighted that a vast majority of these studies are focused on recommendations for policy formulation and implementation and that the studies are often aligned with the Global Compact for Migration and the relevant targets of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. 

The report noted that information on labour migration is scattered across different databases and among diverse stakeholders and that in that context, the desk review attempted to analyse such dispersed information and curate them, thereby identifying knowledge-related gaps to enable evidence-based policymaking. “Knowledge-related products on labour migration are produced and published by various individuals and institutions, both nationally and globally. Due to a lack of co-ordination among researchers and limited access to published research, similar knowledge-related products are commissioned rather than addressing knowledge-related gaps. Thus, there exists an increasing need to create a central location to curate such knowledge-related products and to make them available to a wider audience.”

It further added that the core objective of the desk review is to provide an in-depth analysis of the existing research in the field of labour migration related to Sri Lanka and to extract findings, recommendations and research-related gaps relevant to the current and future trends in labour migration. The desk review pointed out several significant gaps in the existing research on labour migration related to Sri Lanka, and that based on that, three priority areas for further research have been identified, namely, labour market supply and demand, skills recognition leading to better wages and improved wellbeing, and skills and reintegration assessment.

With regard to the present situation, the report explained that it is evident that the current political and economic crisis in Sri Lanka significantly impacts the foreign employment industry, and that anecdotal evidence suggests that the number of aspiring and prospective migrant workers is increasing daily, as can be witnessed through the influx of applicants for new passports.

It highlighted several impacts observed with regard to foreign employment in relation to the current crisis: “There is an increased demand for foreign employment opportunities, and this increases daily because of increased and proposed job redundancies, the Sri Lankan rupee’s depreciation, and the soaring cost of living. There is a concern that out of sheer desperation, aspiring and prospective migrants may seek irregular pathways for migration. There is a need to identify vulnerable groups who are more likely to seek irregular channels and identify mitigation strategies to direct them towards safe and regular pathways for migration. New categories of migrant workers are emerging, particularly in the highly skilled and professional categories, including public sector officials who are at risk of being made redundant as a result of the ongoing crisis. A recent online poll by the SLBFE inquiring about the number of public sector officials interested in foreign employment opportunities led to the crash of the website with an overwhelming 28,000 respondents to the survey. 

“Typically addressing the needs and challenges of low-skilled migrant workers, the SLBFE will need to strategise on how best to address the needs of aspiring ‘professional’ migrant workers and the scope of the services to be provided. Related to this new category of migrant workers, additional labour market analyses and skills mapping for professionals and the public workforce for foreign job placements will be required.”

Conducting the required studies, research and assessments for the above-mentioned concerns were highlighted as extremely important and urgent in the current context in order to facilitate the safe and orderly migration of aspiring Sri Lankan migrant workers.

Gaps, strengths, and future steps

The desk review concluded that a large proportion of the research, particularly on skills, recruitment, and labour mobility are focused on female domestic workers and male construction workers primarily in Arab nations. If Sri Lanka hopes to diversify their labour markets and tap into new employment sectors, it added that any future labour market analyses and skills mapping would need to explore alternative employment sectors for both male and female migrant workers.

In addition, it paid attention to the diversification of migrant corridors, regarding which the report read: “A majority of the existing research on labour migration related to Sri Lanka revolves around the Sri Lanka–Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC)/Arab States migration corridor. Only a handful of studies (mostly those conducted by academics unaffiliated with the SLBFE or the Ministries of Labour and Foreign Employment, and Foreign Affairs or implementing agencies) explore migration-related experiences in South Korea and Israel. If Sri Lanka hopes to expand the employment opportunities available to aspiring migrant workers, then, further research must be carried out in East Asia such as South Korea and Japan, and also in Europe such as Poland and Romania.”

With regard to the disaggregation of migration-related data, the report said that as a general rule, it is recommended that all future research be disaggregated according to the gender of the migrant workers, the skills-related category of the migrant worker (professional or low level of skill), and the country or region of destination.

In addition, the report identified several topics as high-interest topic areas for conducting immediate research. Among them are the labour market supply and demand in the GCC and beyond in the post-Covid-19 context and the current economic crisis, including skills mapping and matching for the public workforce and professionals (new aspiring migrants), whether skills (investment and recognition) lead to better wages and improved wellbeing, and to what extent; and with regard to skills and reintegration, an assessment of the process of technical and vocational education and training and the recognition of prior learning (RPL). It further recommended that these research projects be disaggregated by gender and skill category. 

In addition to the above-mentioned high-interest research topics, the report named several other topics which it said are also considered very important and relevant to the labour migration context in Sri Lanka. They are the impact of labour migration and reintegration activities, services and programmes conducted to date via the Ministry of Labour and Foreign Employment; the SLBFE and implementing partner organisations; comparative analyses of recruitment practices such as government to government ones, through friends and family, agents and self-migration; and understanding gaps and obstacles in financial planning such as why migrants are unable to escape poverty. Gender-disaggregated data on remittances when conducting these research projects were recommended. 

“Maintaining an updated database of labour migration-related research, including ongoing or yet-to-be-published research and publications is also important,” the report concluded, adding that during the consultations, the participants were informed of a number of ongoing research and publications conducted by SDC implementing partners and other agencies. These include the Gender Assessment of Skills Development Opportunities for Women Migrant Workers from Sri Lanka conducted by UN Women, the Report on Mainstreaming Migration conducted by the IOM, the Regional Mapping of Reintegration Practices conducted by the ILO and the IOM, the Skills, Aspirations and Reintegration Challenges of Return Migrant Workers planned in SDC-funded skills and resilient migrant workers project conducted by the International Executive Service Corps YouLead, the Poland and Romania Market Scan conducted by ILO Sri Lanka, the BBC documentary on migrant workers in the Silicon Valley and in Kuwait, and Comparative Studies on Male Versus Female Recruitment for Qatar.

The report read: “Further to the above-mentioned topics, there may be a number of other ongoing publications and research that may be noteworthy to the ongoing policy discourse. It is strongly recommended that the SLBFE and the ILO maintain a regularly updated database of labour migration-related research to capture these new and upcoming research topics and findings. In order to maintain the database, consider following up with the researchers and publishing organisations identified in this report on a regular basis (minimum of six months) to receive updated research. In addition, a scan of academic research could be conducted through web-based platforms such as Google Scholar and Research Gate.” 

Linking the SLBFE research unit and planned Knowledge Hub to the relevant academic departments of the Universities of Colombo and Kelaniya was another proposal, regarding which it was explained: “The collaboration could be mutually beneficial to both parties, in which the academic researchers and students can be directly involved in the policy discourse and could benefit from ideas for more relevant research topics. Simultaneously, the SLBFE Research Unit and a proposed Knowledge Hub could significantly benefit from advice and guidance on peer-based review and professionalise the research conducted so that it could be disseminated to a wider audience. The academic researchers identified through this report could be utilised to form an expert group for the Knowledge Hub, thereby providing expertise on knowledge management, quality assurance, and information dissemination.”