Alliance for Responsible Trade

Canada's Part in the Global Integration of Labour Markets
At the September 2006, United Nations High-Level Dialogue on
International Migration and Development, the International Organization
for Migration (IOM) made a proposal for a set of measures to integrate
labour markets around the world, and ultimately make them yet more
flexible.
The ‘International Migration and Development Initiative' emerged from
discussions between the IOM- an inter-governmental organization
established in 1951- the private sector, the World Bank, and some
governments. Moving beyond the weakening of collective agreements,
and of unions in general, witnessed over the past twenty-five years, the
IMDI argues:
Evidence shows that existing gaps between the supply and demand
for labour are set to increase in coming years, with aging and
declining populations in much of the industrialised world, and
growing populations in much of the developing world.
A hands-on approach is therefore needed to facilitate the mobility
of labour, which until now has not benefitted from the same level
of liberalization as capital and goods. A new approach, one which
aims to facilitate the matching of labour demand and supply,
should address the needs of all types of economic migrants, the
skilled and less skilled, in sectors from health care to hotels,
restaurants and construction, IT and education on both a
temporary and permanent basis.1

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