Maligned migrants make the world go round

Each year, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) releases its World Migration Report. Most of these reports are anodyne, pointing to a secular rise in migration during the period of neoliberalism.

As states in the poorer parts of the world found themselves under assault from the Washington Consensus (cuts, privatization, and austerity), and as employment became more and more precarious, larger and larger numbers of people took to the road to find a way to sustain their families.

That is why the IOM published its first World Migration Report in 2000, when it wrote that “it is estimated that there are more migrants in the world than ever before.” It was between 1985 and 1990, the IOM calculated, that the rate of growth of world migration (2.59%) outstripped the rate of growth of the world population (1.7%).

The neoliberal attack on government expenditure in poorer countries was a key driver of international migration. Even by 1990, it had become clear that the migrants had become an essential force in providing foreign exchange to their countries through increasing remittance payments to their families.

By 2015, remittances – mostly by the international working class – outstripped the volume of official development assistance (ODA) by three times and foreign direct investment (FDI). ODA is the aid money provided by states, whereas FDI is the investment money provided by private companies.

For some countries, such as Mexico and the Philippines, remittance payments from working-class migrants prevented state bankruptcy.

This year’s report notes that there are “roughly 281 million people worldwide” who are on the move. This is 3.6% of the global population. It is triple the 84 million people on the move in 1970