Mexico: Exodus of migrants falls by more than half

Migration from Mexico, mainly to the United States, has fallen dramatically as fewer Mexicans leave their country to look for work abroad amid a global economic downturn, the government said Thursday.

The net outflow of Mexicans – both legal and illegal – declined by over 50 percent in the 12 months ending in August 2008, compared the same period a year earlier, said the Eduardo Sojo, president of the board of Mexico’s National Statistics, Geography and Information Institute.

The number of returning Mexicans was roughly the same over the two periods, declining slightly to 450,000 by late 2008, from 478,000 in the 2007 period. But the number leaving Mexico fell sharply to 654,000 from 933,000.

Asian Joblessness to Balloon

Asia is likely to have 7.2 million more jobless people in 2009 than last year due to fallout from the global economic crisis, the International Labor Organization said.

It forecast the ranks of unemployed workers would likely balloon to 97 million in 2009 in Asia, the world economy’s star performer in recent years but where a third of the population still live on a little more than $1 a day.

“As global demand for workers contracts, the flow of migrant workers from developing Asia will moderate in 2009,” the ILO report said. “For labor-sending countries, this will exacerbate the challenge of mitigating job losses and generating new employment domestically.”

Source: The Wall Street Journal

20,000 Indian workers to be flown out of UAE

Tens of thousands of Indian construction workers are being flown out of the United Arab Emirates by their employers on bulk-booked flights in March, it was reported on Sunday.

According to figures gleaned by the Indian Consulate in Dubai from Indian airlines, a total of 20,000 workers from several construction firms are leaving next month.

They are either being sent back home on long leave, or are being redeployed to work on projects in other Gulf countries, such as Qatar, according to a report in UAE daily Emirates Business.

Source: ArabianBusiness.com