Perspectivas de los países de origen

Como en todo tipo de movilidad humana, los factores que propician la migración de los jóvenes tienen múltiples facetas y están normalmente conectados entre sí. Esto dificulta la determinación de las distintas causas por separado. Sin embargo, una combinación de cambios tecnológicos recientes, diversos factores demográficos y las limitadas oportunidades de empleo están motivando a un número creciente de jóvenes a migrar al extranjero (Wickramasekara, 2013). De hecho, estimaciones recientes de la Organización Internacional del Trabajo (OIT) indican que, a nivel mundial, la participación de los jóvenes en la fuerza laboral ha venido disminuyendo desde 1999 (OIT, 2020). Los jóvenes tienen también más probabilidades de estar subempleados o de tener empleos precarios (véase la sección Factores económicos).

La promoción de la empleabilidad de los jóvenes en los países de origen, a nivel nacional y local, puede contribuir a reducir el deseo de los jóvenes de migrar. Muchos jóvenes que no logran encontrar un trabajo decente en su país de origen se sienten obligados a proseguir su búsqueda en el extranjero, aun cuando ello suponga partir por medios irregulares. Sin embargo, darles un empleo no es una condición suficiente para prevenir la migración de los jóvenes. En la decisión de migrar influyen también muchos otros factores socioeconómicos, como la inclusión, el acceso a la atención de salud y la educación, la calidad del empleo y el nivel de la remuneración.

Policy Approaches
Perspectives from origin countries
  • Prohibit child labour and promote decent work for adolescents and youths by strengthening national labour legislation, in line with international labour standards. For instance, enhance the function of labour inspection, and encourage formalizing employment and/or regulating informal work.
  • Improve educational systems and counselling for adolescents (that is, career guidance) during high school and throughout their university studies. These measures can impact aspirations, knowledge and eventual decisions to either migrate or find work in origin countries.
  • Equip students, through the national educational system, with the skills needed today and in the future. Vocational education and training programmes for youth should be geared towards specific employment sectors based on labour market needs.
  • Equip youths with more digital skills so that they are more adaptive and resilient to changes in the labour market.
Good Practice
Rethinking mechanisms and policies to promote local employment
  • In Bosnia and Herzegovina, 16 information, counselling and training centres were established to provide crucial job seeking services to young people aged 15 to 30. This included information on the labour market, education and training opportunities and regular migration. In addition, the service took place via Facebook, where trainings included modules on core employability and life skills, writing a curriculum vitae, preparation for job interviews, information technology and learning a foreign language. Additional services included group and individual employment counselling services and individual employment planning. Six of the centres were included as Public Employment Services and covered by public funds. At the time of writing, the remaining ten centres remained private but were expected to be taken over by the local employment offices in 2013 (International Labour Organization [ILO] Youth Employment and Migration).
  • In Burkina Faso, the unemployment rate is six per cent, but underemployment is also a major concern. There is also a high rate of youth migration, primarily irregular, from the Centre-Est region. To address this, the Ministry of Youth and Professional Development of Burkina Faso initiated a project that aimed to boost local job opportunities for youth. An initial labour market study was conducted in the Centre-Est region to determine the labour demand and available opportunities. Following that, targeted trainings for skills development were created and administered to selected youth (IOM, 2018).
To Go Further
  • International Labour Organization (ILO), Global employment trends for youth 2020: Technology and the future of jobs, 2020: 48.
    This publication contains information on the desire to migrate among young people and its implications for the labour market. It presents an analysis of Gallup's Potential Net Migration Index based on expressed desire on a scale ranging from -100 per cent to infinity (meaning that all 15 to 29 year-olds wish to leave the country).   
  • ILO Academy on Youth Employment.
    The annual two-week Academy is designed to enhance the capacity of decision makers and social partners to develop comprehensive strategies for tackling the multifaceted dimensions of the youth employment challenge.
  • What Works in Youth Employment.
    This     initiative aims to improve labour market outcomes of youth through evidence-based policies and programmes. This is achieved through an iterative cycle of (i) capacity development, (ii) impact research and (iii) policy influence.

Diaspora mentorship programmes and entrepreneurship development

Young people often have the qualities needed to be a successful entrepreneur, such as creativity, inspiration and resilience (United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs [UN DESA], 2020). For this reason, entrepreneurship can be a promising alternative livelihood strategy for young people. Those who start businesses and employ other potential migrants or returnees positively increase the number of jobs available in origin countries, while motivating other youth to do the same. Such efforts demonstrate that countries of origin can offer a future for the youth population, reducing the desire to migrate, including through irregular migration (see Labour migration and mobility).

However, young people tend to have limited professional experience, knowledge, training and financial resources. In this regard, partnerships between policymakers, the private sector and the youth population can produce effective and innovative solutions (UN DESA, 2020). Many global corporations are increasingly more willing to support young people in their entrepreneurship ventures, but institutional support is needed to provide an enabling environment for young entrepreneurs, such as access to start-up funds and technology.

Further, governments can set up an effective framework for diaspora engagement, where diaspora members serve as role models and mentors for youth in origin countries and provide financial start-up support and investment for entrepreneurship initiatives (see Diaspora engagement). Diaspora members who are often targeted in these types of interventions typically include professors, teachers or other professionals already engaging with youth. Business owners and professionals working in start-up or business incubation spaces can also provide invaluable information and advice, as well as potentially sponsoring young entrepreneurs on the rise. Diaspora mentorship programmes for youth can additionally help them make well-informed migratory decisions and livelihood choices. Such programmes can arrange for conversations through online platforms as well as in person, during facilitated temporary return (IOM Diaspora Roadmap, 2012).

Good Practice
Initiatives for Enterprise Development Project

Niger is currently implementing the Initiatives for the Enterprise Development (IDEE) project to provide integrated support to 40 microenterprises and start-ups with the aim of boosting youth employability and the local economy. The integrated support provides microcredit and equipment loans, tailored technical trainings and small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) incubator backing. IDEE gives 360 young laureates with an entrepreneurial idea the chance to finalize bankable business plans. IDEE also promotes an information campaign promoting local economic opportunities as alternatives to migration.

Fuente

IOM Niger.

Perspectivas de los países de destino

Los jóvenes migrantes tienen más probabilidades de estar trabajando que los jóvenes que no han migrado, incluso si el motivo por el que entraron inicialmente en el país de destino no fue el empleo. Esto significa que la migración juvenil —como la migración en general— puede impulsar el crecimiento y la productividad en los países de destino. Sin embargo, no todas las políticas migratorias consideran la edad un factor importante. Como consecuencia de ello, la mayoría de los países no tienen medidas específicas para distintos grupos de edad a las que se puedan acoger los jóvenes, a pesar de que los flujos migratorios incluyen a muchos jóvenes en busca de empleo y de medios de sustento.

Los gobiernos pueden atender a las necesidades de los jóvenes directamente en el marco de sus políticas migratorias. En concreto, pueden garantizar el respeto de los derechos de los migrantes jóvenes, y reducir las restricciones que les impiden el acceso a una migración segura, ordenada y regular y a un empleo decente. Por ejemplo, muchos trabajadores migrantes jóvenes pueden haber superado la edad para cursar la enseñanza secundaria (o superior) ordinaria, o carecer de las cualificaciones necesarias para acceder a una formación profesional. Cuando tienen títulos de estudio pero estos no son reconocidos, caen en la descualificación, pudiendo conseguir solo empleos que no se corresponden con su nivel de estudios (Organización Internacional del Trabajo (OIT), 2013).

Policy Approaches
Developing inclusive youth employment strategies
  • Collect data on the presence of youth migrants in the country, along with their working conditions and other characteristics, including demographics, skills and qualifications.
  • Take account of the gender make-up of young migrants as well as their specific needs and potential.
  • Develop mechanisms to assess and recognize educational, technical and vocational qualifications, as well as job experience acquired abroad. This could include, in part, harmonizing employment and training qualifications at regional and international levels.
  • Encourage close coordination between the ministry or institution working with youth and the services in charge of child protection and rights.
  • Include consideration of young migrants in the national education and transition-to-work programmes.
To Go Further
Los jóvenes y la migración de zonas rurales a zonas urbanas

Los jóvenes tienen más probabilidades que los migrantes mayores de migrar de una zona rural a una urbana. Según el Análisis de la Migración Nacional realizado en Gambia en 2013 por la Oficina Nacional de Estadística, la propensión a la migración interna alcanzaba sus valores máximos en el grupo de 15 a 29 años de edad (Oficina de Estadística de Gambia, 2013). Estudios realizados en Burkina Faso, Ghana, Nigeria y el Senegal arrojaron resultados parecidos (Banco Mundial, 2011).

La falta de oportunidades y de trabajos decentes en las comunidades de origen es uno de los factores principales, aunque no el único, que influyen en las decisiones de los jóvenes de migrar (véase Los jóvenes en el contexto de la migración en el presente capítulo). Numerosos factores han contribuido a las malas condiciones de trabajo, la falta de empleos decentes, la degradación del medio ambiente y los fenómenos meteorológicos extremos en las comunidades rurales. Entre ellos figuran las políticas de desarrollo rural ineficaces y la modernización del sector agrícola. En muchos países, la atención se ha centrado en el desarrollo económico de los centros urbanos, y las periferias y las zonas rurales han quedado atrás (Min-Harris, 2009).

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Fuente

IOM/Amanda Nero, 2016.

As a result, youth see the agricultural sector as a last resort for employment and move to urban areas (Millennium Development Goals Achievement Fund [MDG-F], 2013; Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations [FAO], 2016). They are more likely to establish themselves as entrepreneurs, mainly in the informal sector, though it seems that the longer they stay at their destination, the more likely they are to establish themselves in the formal sector as an entrepreneur (GBOS, 2013). Targeted policies and actions to reduce the credit constraints that migrants first face upon arrival in a new destination area could go a long way in promoting formal employment among youth migrants (Partnership for Economic Policy [PEP], 2015).

While rural–urban migration can offer a way out of poverty to some rural youth, it can also represent the first step toward international migration. Such migration can be irregular, which exposes youth to situations of greater vulnerability. For governments that want to revamp the agricultural sector in their countries and at the same time protect youth at origin communities, there are viable policy options. It is important to modernize and revitalize agricultural sectors in countries where agriculture is one of the main drivers of the economy (FAO, 2016), which would make agriculture a more appealing career path for youth. As well, governments can empower youth in rural areas, providing them with skills, knowledge and technology that could help them find a viable future at home, should they wish to remain. This calls for rural youth to have access to vocational training and education (FAO, 2016).

To Go Further
  • The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Junior Famer Field and Life School (JFFLS).
    This programme aims to empower youth in rural areas, combining support for vocational educational training opportunities with employment promotion.
Good Practice
Rural–urban migration in the Gambia

In the Gambia, rural–urban migration is a concerning phenomenon that has lately attracted the attention of the Government. Most of these internal migrants are in the 15–29 age group. The issue of rural–urban youth migration thus occupies a special chapter of the National Migration Policy in 2018, which aimed to:

  • Closely coordinate the strategies on internal migration with a land-use policy;
  • Provide basic services – such as education, health care and adequate housing – to rural dwellers, so as to increase the attractiveness of rural environments and tackle factors that drive migration;
  • Enhance agricultural productivity and youth participation in agriculture through the low-cost provision of agricultural equipment, as well as through the provision of energy and irrigation systems in areas experiencing high migration pressure.
Mensajes clave
  • En los países de origen, la promoción de la empleabilidad de los jóvenes y de su acceso a trabajos decentes a través del fomento de la iniciativa empresarial, la colaboración con las diásporas y la realización de programas de desarrollo de competencias puede contribuir de manera importante a reducir la migración irregular de los jóvenes.
  • En los países de destino, sería provechoso que los gobiernos reconocieron a los migrantes jóvenes como agentes de productividad y desarrollo y velaran por que se los integre en las políticas de empleo juvenil.
  • Los jóvenes afectados directamente por la migración conocen las realidades y los retos de esa experiencia. Por consiguiente, deberían ser participantes clave en los procesos de elaboración de políticas relacionados con el empleo, la migración y el empoderamiento de los jóvenes.
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