Pacific Islands Forum
The Devil’s In The Details
Forum Leaders Talk Labor Mobility
"Pretty satisfactory" is Greg Urwin's assessment of the Pacific Islands Forum leaders meeting in Papua New Guinea in October. As the Forum's Secretary-General, Urwin is understandably measured and by temperament understated, as he will be responsible for driving implementation of the now-endorsed Pacific Plan. "My main impression was we had pretty substantial outcomes that will involve a great deal of work," Urwin says.
The Papua New Guinea meeting was distinguished by its speed and relative lack of tension. "I've got the sense that there is a lot more buy-in in the sense of ownership from the leaders, it (the Pacific Plan) has started to make sense to a lot of people," Urwin says.
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Pacific Islands Forum leaders at the PNG meeting. PNG Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare, seated far right, hosted and chaired the Pacific Islands Forum. (Photo: Samantha Magick) |
The one area of contention arose as expected, around the issue of a regional labor scheme.
Before the Forum, incoming chair Sir Michael Somare indicated it was high on his agenda. "Australia is considering bringing in Chinese as fruit pickers but I have raised with Australia while in Canberra that it takes many months for Chinese people to learn to speak English whereas our people from PNG and the Pacific, speak, read and write in English," Sir Michael said.
Proposals to allow Pacific Islanders to work short term contracts in Australia and New Zealand have garnered some support in these countries. However, Australian Prime Minister John Howard was standing firm before the Madang leaders' retreat, saying "we have had some long-standing reservations about the concept. We apply an open, non-discriminatory immigration policy and people from the Pacific Island area come in increasing numbers. We have always had a preference for permanent settlement or permanent migration."
New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark pointed out that while her country has long had access for Pacific Island migrants--including unskilled workers-- "our foremost concern would be that people do go home at the end of the permit. We have had a scheme in the past with Tuvalu…where workers simply didn't go home. And we still have an illegal population from that time. Illegal populations live under the threshold of what is acceptable in a first-world society."
During the course of the Forum meeting, Howard reiterated his opposition to what he dubbed an "imaginary relief guest worker program" and proposed instead an Australian Pacific Islands Technical College as a means of training the region's people for the workforce.
In the end the Pacific Island Forum resolution stated only that the Forum "will continue to consider the issue of labor mobility in the context of member countries immigration policies."
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A
performer at the Port Moresby meeting. (Photo:
Samantha Magick)
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Some island leaders spoke of their disappointment over this outcome. Fiji Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase told Pacnews, "we as a group have been pushing for it. To me the most disappointing thing about this Forum is Australia's reluctance to start such a scheme.
Greg Urwin though believes the labor mobilization proposal is far from sunk. "I didn't read it that way at all. The extent to which the issue is being discussed now, it's my belief that it will stay there (on the agenda). I'm not surprised it's happening at a reasonably measured pace. There's a real complexity of issues that need to be thrashed out."
Urwin believes Australian worries over unskilled labor programs are "genuine." "We can't set up a scheme that would be an invitation to exploit people, that would be worse than useless," he says.
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Forum
Secretary-General Greg Urwin. (Photo:
S. Magick)
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He also points out to a number of internal issues, such as whether larger island countries like Fiji would be prepared to accept workers from other Pacific Island countries.
The issue of labor mobility spilled over into discussions with Forum Dialogue Partners, such was its dominance at the meeting, and its international applicability.
Taiwan--though not officially a dialogue partner but certainly a strong presence on the peripheries of the Forum--announced that it was willing to open its labor market to Pacific Island countries, provided bilateral negotiations on the arrangements of the labor mobility were concluded.
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Taiwan's
Yeong Cho Chen. |
Taiwan has imported 400,000 workers from South East Asia and Foreign Affairs Secretary General Yeong Cho Chen says they are already holding discussions with Tuvalu about getting more Tuvaluan seamen to work on Taiwan's fishing and freight vessels, and would like to extend it to Kiribati.
The discussion about labor mobility comes as the Pacific Island region and international finance agencies such as the World Bank and Asian Development Bank examine the impact of remittances on a regional level.
Earlier this year Forum officials heard that estimates of the size of remittances flows to the Pacific vary widely. One suggested figure is US$100 million (net) to the Pacific as a whole, according to Forum Secretariat papers, which also say better data are urgently required.
In Fiji, citizens working overseas are estimated to have sent home over FJD$450million (US$262 million), more than the country makes from its healthy tourism sector. Reserve Bank of Fiji Governor Savenaca Narube says personal remittances had increased to FJD$300m (US$174 million) last year compared to FJD$50m (US$29 million) in 1999, but that there is estimated to be over FJD$150m (US$87.3 million) in unrecorded remittances as well.
In Tonga, private receipts through remittances have almost doubled in the last four years to P$184 million (US$91.9 million) last year.
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Children
play before performing in the Pacific Islands Forum opening ceremony
at Sir John Guise Stadium, Papua New Guinea. The future of Pacific
youth was a strong theme in the opening celebrations.
(Photo: Samantha Magick)
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Academics and journalists Peter Mares and Nic Maclellan, who are collaborating on a study on remittances for the "Pacific Labor and Australian Horticulture" project funded through the Australian Research Council Industry Linkage Scheme, have written, "without increased remittance income, the island states' trade deficits will balloon from their already high levels, increasing their dependence on Australian aid.
"(A) crucial element of any such scheme is that overseas workers should go home at the end of the season with the expectation of returning to Australia the following year. Canada's long-running seasonal agricultural workers program shows that the promise of future employment dramatically reduces the risk of overstaying; foreign workers have little incentive to disappear into the community if they know a job awaits them next season. …It enables growers to retain the skills acquired by their offshore labor force. It encourages workers to repatriate money and skills gained in Australia and to invest them in enterprises at home. And it ameliorates the social costs of labor migration by limiting the separation of workers from their families and communities."
It's clear that despite a sense of disappointment amongst some of the region's leaders, labor mobility is an issue that is not going to go away, and that in fact it will be thrown into greater relief as negotiations continue for an Economic Partnership Agreement with the European Union, and begin under the Pacific Agreement on Closer Economic Relations with Australia and New Zealand..
Greg Urwin knows that is true of wider issues around the Pacific Plan. "I think the hard stuff is coming up... by the next Forum we'll have to demonstrate some of these things have been achieved."
He identifies "not incredibly glamorous issues" such as audit and statistical functions as possibilities in terms of these achievements. "I'm (also) very interested in vocational training. I think that's got to get off the ground," he adds.
"The devil's in the details," he says with a wry grin. Urwin and his staff have no shortage of those details to attend to between now and the Pacific Islands Forum Leaders' meeting in Tonga next year.
For more stories from the Pacific Islands Forum and on remittances to the Pacific, visit www.pacificmagazine.net
