Seasonal labor mobility in the pacific: Past impacts, future prospects

Date

2021

Authors

Gibson, John
Bailey, Rochelle-lee

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Asian Development Bank

Abstract

The Pacific islands have weak economic growth and limited structural change compared to the rest of developing Asia. Remoteness and low economic density are two causes. To mitigate these constraints, bilateral arrangements with Australia and New Zealand let Pacific workers seasonally migrate to access higher-paying, more dynamic labor markets. Managed circular schemes are designed to benefit employers in labor-intensive sectors like horticulture, Pacific workers with limited employment opportunities in their own countries, and the communities providing workers. Several studies show large, positive impacts, but more general development impacts have been harder to find. Likewise, clear quantitative evidence of positive impacts in host countries has been hard to obtain. In this paper, we review the main seasonal labor mobility schemes in the Pacific and provide new evidence on community-level and aggregate impacts.

Description

Keywords

development impacts, labor mobility, Pacific economies, seasonal migration

Citation

Source

Asian Development Review: Studies of Asian and Pacific Economic Issues

Type

Journal article

Book Title

Entity type

Access Statement

Open Access

License Rights

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 International (CC BY 3.0) license

Restricted until

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