The Institute for Labor Studies (ILS) has started in May 2015 the administration of an evaluation survey of Filipino migrant worker returnees from Qatar.

The survey is being conducted as part of the World Bank-led Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development (KNOMAD) program to determine the migration costs of low-skilled labor migrants.

WB KNOMAD’s Thematic Working Group (TWG) on low-skilled labor migration, co-chaired by Manolo Abella of COMPAS (University of Oxford) and Manuela Tomei of the International Labour Organization (ILO), launched a project in 2014 to collect migration cost data that are comparable across migrant-sending countries.

The project involved a data collection strategy using face-to-face interview with migrant workers in several destination countries such as Korea, Kuwait, and Spain. It aims to identify policies to reduce the migration costs of low-skilled labor migrants, as well as mechanisms to facilitate cross-border movements of low-skilled labor.

Building up on lessons learned from the pilot surveys, the project intends to expand the data collection in 2015 to cover migrant worker returnees from Qatar in different home countries including Ethiopia, India, Nepal and the Philippines. The interviews are being administered through the Survey Solutions – the Computer Assisted Personalized Interviewing (CAPI), a system that reduces errors in survey and improves the quality of data capturing and analysis.

What will the project achieve?

Analysis from the data collection will contribute to setting a global target for the reduction of migration costs. The target will complement ILO’s ongoing efforts to improve recruitment services, including the monitoring of recruitment costs, in Asia.

Results from the 2014 pilot surveys revealed that destination countries with effective implementation of bilateral labor agreements generate migration costs less or equal to one-month salary in the destination countries like Spain and Korea. On the other hand, the surveys in Kuwait indicated that worker-paid costs were far higher – nine-month wages on average, and visa costs appear to be a key factor.

ILS will administer the 2015 survey in the Philippines, tabulate the data, and submit results to World Bank. ILS will produce an analytical report that it hopes will support policy and program development processes of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).

The ILS administers the survey in partnership with Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) and Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA).

The Institute for Labor Studies is the policy research and advocacy arm of the Department of Labor and Employment002E For more information on this story, please contact Reinerio A. Alba of the Advocacy and Publications Division, Institute for Labor Studies at telephone nos. 5273490/257-3447.