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A number of countries in the region are exporting a significant proportion of their workforces. This can have a major impact on the local labour market — with the potential, for example, of a 'brain drain' of skilled workers. Countries can look to ILO for support to see how migration policy fits best with employment policy.
Countries of origin need to be aware of the impact of emigration on their own labour markets. While in many cases migration can help ease unemployment it can also distort the local labour supply. Indeed the large-scale emigration of highly skilled workers through migration may lead to a brain drain which can discourage investment and thus reduce growth.
Countries will want to develop employment policies that maximize the opportunities for people to work at home. But where there is a high demand from abroad for particular skills or professions, governments may also want to train more people to take these opportunities. To do this,
governments need to collect and disseminate good labour market information — on the demand for each major skills category — and embark on programmes that promote employment across all levels of skill.
What the ILO can offer
The ILO can offer countries in the region expertise across a wide range of employment issues for both national and international employment. Our Employment Analysis Research Unit, for example, can assist countries in carrying out detailed labour market analysis — so that Ministries of Labour and others can assess national labour needs and the potential for supplying international labour markets.
The ILO can also help countries create employment alternatives at home — so that workers do not feel obliged to go abroad in search of decent work. One option is the 'Local Economic Development' approach: in Nepal, for example, the ILO has a new project 'Employment Creation and Peace Building' based on Local Economic Development in the Ramechhap and Dhanusha Districts.
In addition, the ILO's Skills and Employability Department helps workers become more employable either at home or abroad through training, skills development and education.
Recent technical cooperation activities from the regional office in Bangkok have included: advice on best practice for placing workers in foreign jobs for Bangladesh; recommendations for amendments to the Emigration Act in India; and reviews of legislation on labour migration in Viet Nam, Indonesia, Mongolia, and China.
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