Context
The Livelihoods and Social Change: QSEM Round 5 Report has identified steady increases in migration as a livelihood practice in Myanmar. Migration is now perceived as an economic opportunity that helps build capital to diversify a household’s livelihood strategy. Villagers, predominantly young men and women, appear to be seizing the expanding work opportunities in urban centres and avoiding climate related problems at home. If migration is managed and supported correctly, it can provide a significant opportunity for people to ‘step out’ of agriculture-based employment and into jobs that are more productive where they can earn higher wages.
LIFT's Approach
Why LIFT Supports Safe Migration
Recognising that internal and international migration are both important factors in rural development of the country, the LIFT Fund Board allocated USD 18 million in 2015 for a new migration programme. Landlessness, climate change, and low incomes, combined with economic opportunities in countries bordering Myanmar have increased outmigration and there are now four million Myanmar migrants in Thailand remitting around $960 each per year.[1] For some in Rakhine state, migration offers an escape from persecution. Migration is increasingly important in supporting young people to seek employment as Myanmar’s economy creates new jobs in manufacturing and services.
Migration also has risks – such as exploitation, physical harm, high broker fees, low earnings, poor remittance channels, and a lack of social support and social safety nets in destination sites. LIFT support aims to leverage the benefits of labour migration and mitigate the negatives. As the main migrants, this programme will have an explicit focus on youth and women. In some cases, women become the sole farmers in a household because of male outmigration and are an increasing source of cheap labour locally.
In 2015, LIFT developed partnerships with two new bodies, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the International Labour Organization (ILO), who will build an evidence base in support of policies on labour migration (details below). IOM also provides technical support to LIFT’s implementing partners to incorporate migration into their projects.
Through a call for proposals in early 2016, LIFT sought additional partnerships to implement specific migration-related activities on migration issues awareness, skills development, financial literacy and services, and innovative job matching services.
Knowledge on Labour Migration and Remittances for Policy Makers and Development Planners
Understanding the motivations, patterns and dynamics of existing migration practices is critical in order to assist balanced and inclusive development in Myanmar. In 2015, together with the World Bank, LIFT launched the research study A Country on the Move: Domestic Migration in Two Regions of Myanmar. The study found that men are significantly more likely to migrate than women across both regions and landless households are more likely to have family members migrating than the rest of the population, reflecting a lack of year-round employment opportunities for these households locally. In fact, the certainty and regularity of urban jobs is a significant incentive to migrate. The study also found that social networks play a pre-eminent role in influencing decisions about migration, especially for risk management. More detailed results for the two regions studied, Magway and the Ayeyarwady, will be available by the end of 2016.
For 2016-2018, LIFT will support the Migrating out of Poverty Consortium comprised of IOM, the University of Sussex and the Metta Foundation, to provide in-depth and representative research on migration patterns, trends and forecasts, and their implications to development. IOM and the University of Sussex will survey more than 3,200 households across Myanmar. The qualitative research will capture intra-household dynamics of migration decision making, resource allocation (including remittances), gender division of labour, recruitment processes and the social impacts of migration. Key migration stakeholders—from the government, civil society organisations, the private sector and the development community—will be involved in the consultative process. An analysis on the laws, systems and stakeholders that affect migration in Myanmar will also be done.
Improved Policies on Labour Migration
LIFT is supporting efforts to improve policies for international and national migrants. ILO is LIFT’s primary partner in this area. The aim is to better protect international migrants with international employment standards, particularly related to recruitment processes, complaints mechanisms and a newly designed welfare system. ILO will work with the Migration Division of the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security on the Law Relating to Overseas Employment, which requires supplementary rules and regulations. Technical input will be provided for the National Plan of Action on Labour Migration and the Parliamentarian Group on Migration.
Equally important is to increase awareness and urgency among key stakeholders to formulate protective regulations. A particular focus is domestic workers, with the aim to ratify Convention 189 on Decent Work for Domestic Workers and the development of respective policies. Returning migrants also warrant attention. A favourable environment with access to documentation and employment information can support successful re-integration.
