Pakistan in need of diaspora engagement
The study of global migration governance has brought about a paradigm shift
The writer is a civil servant involved in policymaking on the Migration Management and Anti-Human Trafficking in Pakistan and a certified Migration Management professional from the United Nations University-MERIT. He can be approached at khokharinbox@hotmail.com
Before the 2000s, the policymakers would use terms like ‘exploiting’, ‘tapping’, ‘governing’ or ‘leveraging’ while referring to overseas population or diaspora in one’s homeland. The policymakers were primarily concerned with extracting finances from the diaspora in the form of remittances. In the recent decades, that has changed dramatically.
The study of global migration governance has brought about a paradigm shift in the terminology being used and policies carried out by countries vis-à-vis diaspora. Moreover, transnational migration has gained much of the attraction because of the increasing role of diaspora in the development of the countries of origin.
India topping the list of countries receiving financial remittances, has since long been a supplier of skilled labour to many developed countries, including the US, the UK, Japan, South Korea and the GCC. In supply of skilled labour to these countries and receipt of foreign remittances, India ($69 billion) is ahead of China ($64 billion) as well.
Moreover, Japan, besides being itself so rich in software and hardware technology, has started being so dependent on Indian supply of highly skilled IT professionals that it has recently decided to relax visa and residency requirements for them.
Atal Bihari Vajpayee, addressing the Indian diaspora, at the first Indian diaspora conference in January 2003 announced the policy of diaspora engagement and said: “We invite you not only to share our vision of India in the new millennium but also help us shape its contours. We do not want only your investment. We also want your ideas. We do not want your riches, we want the richness of your experience.”
Through ‘Know India Programme’, India has launched a three-week online orientation programme for overseas Indians. It aims at introducing Indians to their family roots, learning about Indian culture and the progress made by India in different sectors like education, communication, information technology, sports and culture. The programme has inspired thousands of overseas Indians and their first, second and third generations to visit India every year and find out opportunities for return migration and investment.
Another such example of diaspora engagement is from the Republic of Ghana. Under Migration for Development in Africa health project initiative, a number of Ghanaian doctors living in the Netherlands, the UK, Germany and other EU countries visited Ghana for temporary assignments ranging from two weeks to three months for contributing to the capacity building of local health institutions in Ghana. They not only imparted the necessary skills to the local Ghanaian graduates but also offered them short-term internships in the EU institutions. The demand-driven diaspora engagement policy has revolutionised Ghana’s health institutions by engaging hundreds of Ghanaian overseas doctors who have regularly been visiting Ghana and contributing to the betterment of the country’s health sector.
The Indian and Chinese experiences show that their success has been made possible not by channelling special programmes but by decades-long consistent policies of engaging diasporas and considering them mutual stakeholders in the development plan of their home countries.
For Pakistan, Finance Minister Asad Umar has indicated that he would come up with a new policy on overseas Pakistanis.
It is pertinent to state that Pakistan will have to adopt a multi-dimensional strategy. On the one hand, the government needs to promote demand-driven skilled migration: engaging with countries like Japan through bilateral agreements in the field of labour supply and incentivising IT firms in Pakistan to make use of the employment opportunities offered by the Japanese IT market. This will reduce the burden of domestic unemployment.
On the other hand, Pakistan will have to adopt Ghana-style approach in developing the capacity of different local sectors like health, education, communication, IT and sports. The government will have to engage overseas Pakistanis in short-term assignments for capacity building in these sectors. For this purpose, Pakistan might also consider approaching some wealthy members of the diaspora or the organisations like the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the International Organisation on Migration (IOM) which have been offering sponsorship on reintegration and capacity-building projects.
In addition, Pakistan has to make progress on raising the volume of remittances for investment in productive enterprises like shares, bonds or fixed deposits. This would need raising awareness, promoting financial literacy and mobile banking, which is still significantly low in relation to the needs.
It is easier for some overseas Pakistanis to pay a few dollars every year as part of charity and philanthropy, but engaging them to invest through remittances and bringing a fraction of their capital for savings in Pakistani banks would require a lot of effort and putting in place a conducive economic, political and legal environment at home.
Imran Khan, on his first appearances after taking oath into his new office, made direct and indirect appeals to overseas Pakistanis for contributing to the development of Pakistan by sending remittances through formal channels and saving it in Pakistani banks.
What he needs to work on is that in order to attract remittances through formal channels and discouraging the use of informal Hundi culture, we need to reduce the cost of transfer of remittances through formal channels and provide some incentives to overseas Pakistanis for saving remittances in Pakistani banks.
Moreover, we need to develop profiles of the diaspora population and generate better information on their skills. Hitherto disregarded, the existing data gaps need to be bridged. For this the ILO, IOM, UN data base and ADB can be approached to generate data without any cost.
Last but not the least, Pakistan is in dire need of developing the capacity of its institutions to effectively interact with diaspora communities, organisations and Home Town Associations through web portals, conferences, workshops and seminars. In this regard, the role of our missions abroad, including community welfare attachés, needs to be activated on a primary basis.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 29th, 2018.
The study of global migration governance has brought about a paradigm shift in the terminology being used and policies carried out by countries vis-à-vis diaspora. Moreover, transnational migration has gained much of the attraction because of the increasing role of diaspora in the development of the countries of origin.
India topping the list of countries receiving financial remittances, has since long been a supplier of skilled labour to many developed countries, including the US, the UK, Japan, South Korea and the GCC. In supply of skilled labour to these countries and receipt of foreign remittances, India ($69 billion) is ahead of China ($64 billion) as well.
Moreover, Japan, besides being itself so rich in software and hardware technology, has started being so dependent on Indian supply of highly skilled IT professionals that it has recently decided to relax visa and residency requirements for them.
Atal Bihari Vajpayee, addressing the Indian diaspora, at the first Indian diaspora conference in January 2003 announced the policy of diaspora engagement and said: “We invite you not only to share our vision of India in the new millennium but also help us shape its contours. We do not want only your investment. We also want your ideas. We do not want your riches, we want the richness of your experience.”
Through ‘Know India Programme’, India has launched a three-week online orientation programme for overseas Indians. It aims at introducing Indians to their family roots, learning about Indian culture and the progress made by India in different sectors like education, communication, information technology, sports and culture. The programme has inspired thousands of overseas Indians and their first, second and third generations to visit India every year and find out opportunities for return migration and investment.
Another such example of diaspora engagement is from the Republic of Ghana. Under Migration for Development in Africa health project initiative, a number of Ghanaian doctors living in the Netherlands, the UK, Germany and other EU countries visited Ghana for temporary assignments ranging from two weeks to three months for contributing to the capacity building of local health institutions in Ghana. They not only imparted the necessary skills to the local Ghanaian graduates but also offered them short-term internships in the EU institutions. The demand-driven diaspora engagement policy has revolutionised Ghana’s health institutions by engaging hundreds of Ghanaian overseas doctors who have regularly been visiting Ghana and contributing to the betterment of the country’s health sector.
The Indian and Chinese experiences show that their success has been made possible not by channelling special programmes but by decades-long consistent policies of engaging diasporas and considering them mutual stakeholders in the development plan of their home countries.
For Pakistan, Finance Minister Asad Umar has indicated that he would come up with a new policy on overseas Pakistanis.
It is pertinent to state that Pakistan will have to adopt a multi-dimensional strategy. On the one hand, the government needs to promote demand-driven skilled migration: engaging with countries like Japan through bilateral agreements in the field of labour supply and incentivising IT firms in Pakistan to make use of the employment opportunities offered by the Japanese IT market. This will reduce the burden of domestic unemployment.
On the other hand, Pakistan will have to adopt Ghana-style approach in developing the capacity of different local sectors like health, education, communication, IT and sports. The government will have to engage overseas Pakistanis in short-term assignments for capacity building in these sectors. For this purpose, Pakistan might also consider approaching some wealthy members of the diaspora or the organisations like the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the International Organisation on Migration (IOM) which have been offering sponsorship on reintegration and capacity-building projects.
In addition, Pakistan has to make progress on raising the volume of remittances for investment in productive enterprises like shares, bonds or fixed deposits. This would need raising awareness, promoting financial literacy and mobile banking, which is still significantly low in relation to the needs.
It is easier for some overseas Pakistanis to pay a few dollars every year as part of charity and philanthropy, but engaging them to invest through remittances and bringing a fraction of their capital for savings in Pakistani banks would require a lot of effort and putting in place a conducive economic, political and legal environment at home.
Imran Khan, on his first appearances after taking oath into his new office, made direct and indirect appeals to overseas Pakistanis for contributing to the development of Pakistan by sending remittances through formal channels and saving it in Pakistani banks.
What he needs to work on is that in order to attract remittances through formal channels and discouraging the use of informal Hundi culture, we need to reduce the cost of transfer of remittances through formal channels and provide some incentives to overseas Pakistanis for saving remittances in Pakistani banks.
Moreover, we need to develop profiles of the diaspora population and generate better information on their skills. Hitherto disregarded, the existing data gaps need to be bridged. For this the ILO, IOM, UN data base and ADB can be approached to generate data without any cost.
Last but not the least, Pakistan is in dire need of developing the capacity of its institutions to effectively interact with diaspora communities, organisations and Home Town Associations through web portals, conferences, workshops and seminars. In this regard, the role of our missions abroad, including community welfare attachés, needs to be activated on a primary basis.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 29th, 2018.