Asia and Europe are the two main regions of origin of migratory flows. However, more than two-thirds of the movements are within the regions themselves. In Europe the main flows are from Eastern Europe to the countries of the European Union (EU). In Asia the flows are towards Japan, Hong Kong (China), Republic of Korea, Singapore and to a number of the Gulf States. Latin America and Africa are also at the origin of a significant volume of migratory flows.

Available data (Table 1) confirms that migratory flows occur mainly between low-income and high-income countries. In 2000, some 130 million migrants (70 per cent) came from low-income or lower middle-income countries, while those same countries accommodated only 40 per cent of all migrants. By contrast, high-income countries received some 93 million migrants (50 per cent) but were the source of only 19 per cent of all migrants. Closer examination of the figures shows that the migratory flows are not only one-way: over the same period nearly 67 million migrants from low-income or lower middle-income countries lived in countries in the same income bracket.

The attraction exerted by high-income countries on migrants – due in particular to the greater economic opportunities that they can offer – is accompanied by a demographic transition marked by a rapid ageing of the populations in those countries, which in turn is a factor likely to increase the demand for foreign manpower and thereby increase international migration.

In view of such trends there is an urgent need to identify the social security needs of migrant populations, mainly those in the sectors of construction, manufacturing, hotels and restaurants, health care, education, domestic work and agriculture in the host countries. In those sectors, where working conditions are particularly flexible, many migrant workers, especially the low-skilled, who can be the victims of abuse and exploited. Women, who are leaving their home countries alone in increasing numbers, today account for almost half of all international migrants and face specific problems with regard to their protection.

Moreover, as the obstacles to manpower mobility between countries are increasing, irregular migration and human trafficking are growing, endangering the human rights and labour rights of migrant workers (ILO, 2006).

In view of the difficulty attached to their atypical occupational profiles, migrant workers must be covered by specific provisions in social security to ensure their access to social security programmes in host countries. Separated by distance from their communities of origin and from their traditional support networks, newly arriving migrants are in a vulnerable situation. There are many barriers, and in many cases these involve access to formal social security systems in the host country being deferred by several months or even years. At the same time, the contributions paid by migrant workers in their countries of origin or in the country where they were previously working may be devalued dramatically or simply not recognized.

More specifically, host and origin countries taken together, only 20 per cent of all migrants are covered by bilateral agreements. Nearly 55 per cent may, on returning to their home country, enjoy access to benefits from the home or host country, but this is not a coordinated process and generally means loss of benefits by temporary migrants. In addition, 5 per cent of migrants have no access to any system for the transfer of benefits from the host country, even when they are working there legally. Finally, it is estimated that 20 per cent of migrants (both legal and without papers) work in the informal sector, with only limited possibilities of transferring social security benefits from the host to their home country on their return (Holzmann and coll., 2005).

To these difficulties may be added the consequences of the financial crisis: in a context of generally rising unemployment migrant workers are frequently the first to be laid off, alongside ethnic minorities, young people, older workers and those with low skills. In addition, the fall in incomes in migrants’ host countries may also result in increased demand for cheaper goods and services, leading in turn to clandestine economic activity offering greater opportunities to irregular migrants. Migrants who lose their jobs may hence find themselves in an increasingly precarious situation.

For labour-exporting countries, such as India, Pakistan, the Philippines, Ecuador, El Salvador, and in parts of Eastern Europe, the consequences of the economic crisis can be measured by the return of thousands of migrant workers (ILO, 2009). As a result of the increased demand for services in the form of unemployment benefits, accommodation, and social assistance caused by this reverse flow, social security institutions in those countries have to commit to dynamic and innovative measures to promote both employment and social protection.

There is an urgent need to understand the specific needs of migrant workers in order to cope with the challenge of this continuing flow of migrants. To respond to this issue, the ISSA has decided to discuss this problem both at its forthcoming International Policy and Research Conference on Social Security, to be held in Luxembourg from 29 September to 1 October 2010, and addresses it through its future Strategy on the Extension of Coverage, making migrant workers a priority group.

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