• On developed countries

On developed countries

This paper examines the specific aspects of the design of migrant temporary worker schemes in the UK, and how this affects their impact on development.

Four policy areas are identified: governance of recruitment, legislation and enforcement of workers’ rights, facilitation of financial flows (remittances), and return and reintegration programmes.

The paper argues that at present the schemes are designed with little explicit consideration of any impact beyond the UK, and therefore suggests a number of proposals to enhance the scheme's benefits both for individual migrants and their countries of origin. These include:

• to enable workers to access the labour market directly, the UK could leave recruitment of workers to private agencies, but insist on vigorous regulation with tough sanctions on those agencies that break the rules
• employers effectively control migrants’ residence status which provides a powerful disincentive to workers seeking redress from employer malpractice. A system is needed that allows challenges to such malpractice by an independent body
• enabling measures to enhance remittances might include opening up the banking sector to poorer migrants, or promoting competition to bring down transfer charges
• the design process of temporary worker schemes in the UK lack participation by temporary workers themselves, or anyone from developing countries. Such participation could contribute to the openness and transparency of schemes.

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