Workers’ remittances not a long-term boon

DESPITE the hype about globalisation, the international labour movement remains tightly controlled. It is widely considered free trade’s last frontier. No country or multilateral organisation can bring the barriers down, a problem which lends itself to illegal migration.  

Still, there are more than a dozen countries that dream of a totally liberalised international labour sector. The goal, not least, is to send their workers abroad by the hundreds of thousands; as is the practice of Indonesia and the Philippines.