Liberalised immigration policy to benefit India, US

New Delhi, Apr 14: Haunted by the prospects of a huge aging population, Assocham today argued that relaxation in the movement of labour from developing countries into the United States was in its larger interests and asked the most powerful democracy in the world to bring immigration on the table at the WTO negotiations, as and when they get started.

It suggested that immigration be brought not under Mode 4 provisions, but the multilateral agenda of the WTO. This would infact mean that liberalisation of movement of natural persons would go even further than the existing provisions.

In a study, the Chamber said the US was losing its cost-competitiveness and faces the prospects of acute human resource crunch due to its large greying population. It was time that the US Government took this call and relaxed laws relating to its restrictive immigration regime. In this context, it quoted Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez as having described a freer immigration policy as an "opportunity rather than a threat".

Assocham asked the US Government to put itself in the shoes of the developing countries and thus not press for unilateral market access for its goods. Instead, it should seek significant changes in the WTO agreements, which go much beyond the existing mandate of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS).

At the moment, the industrialised countries are not even willing to implement the Mode 4 provision relating to free movement of natural persons in their quest for employment and immigration.

"While Mode 4 is not encouraged for fears of loss of employment and imaginery problems created by immigration, the rich countries like the US are not far from a situation where they would be compelled to amend their domestic laws allowing quality people from overseas for meeting their economic needs," the study says.

Assocham, infact, described the shortage of skills in the US market as almost precarious situation. It regretted that the US has repeatedly closed its doors to the migrant population on the pretext of protecting its natives from economic, social and cultural invasion. "Be it the illiteracy test, Quota Act, National Origins Act or Welfare Reform Bill, the barriers have been either raised or modified time and again to prevent the flow of people from other parts of the world," the study added.

But today the US is faced by the backlash emnating from its protective policies. With the rising demand for the technically skilled professionals, the industrialised nations, particularly the US, are compelled to introduce migration reforms.

Even though the Doha Mandate aims at liberalisation of international trade in services, movement of human capital, better known as 'migration', has been missing from the WTO Agreements, the study says.

GATS has different modes of providing services. The movement of natural persons is covered under the mode 4. Members' commitments under this mode refer to temporary admission of foreign nationals or foreign permanent residents as services providers in their territory. No forward movement has been achieved under the WTO mandate in the areas of services.

The study entitled, 'Migration between India and US', says that India is among the largest provider of the skilled labour to the American economy.

The marginal impact of the loss of jobs for the American natives can be met by focussing on education and re-training.

UNI