Managed Labor Migration in Afghanistan : Exploring Employment and Growth Opportunities for Afghanistan
Afghanistan’s economic prospects are dim and its growth options limited. This puts pressure on the labor market, with 400,000 new entrants joining the labor force annually. As in the past, this will likely lead to mostly illegal emigration with lim...
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2018
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/746891516915310370/Managed-labor-migration-in-Afghanistan-exploring-employment-and-growth-opportunities-for-Afghanistan http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29275 |
| Summary: | Afghanistan’s economic prospects are dim
and its growth options limited. This puts pressure on the
labor market, with 400,000 new entrants joining the labor
force annually. As in the past, this will likely lead to
mostly illegal emigration with limited employment prospects
and wages in neighboring countries (Pakistan, Iran) and
beyond. This is unfortunate given Afghanistan’s geographic
proximity to the world’s third largest migration destination
region behind North America and Europe: the countries of the
Gulf Coordination Council (GCC). For some time now, various
Asian countries have used managed labor migration as a means
to secure temporary and legal jobs for their surplus labor,
garnering higher wages and opportunities to transfer income
back to their families, save for future investments, and
gain work experience and higher skills. Managed labor
migration based on well-designed bilateral labor agreements
that reflect the objectives of both the labor-sending and
labor-receiving country could open opportunities for
Afghanistan in GCC countries and even in higher wage labor
markets, provided that adequate labor-sending systems are in
place. This paper explores the use of managed labor
migration as an instrument for employment for the Afghan
labor force and for economic growth. It investigates the
supply of and demand side for managed migration flows,
estimates the impact on the volume of remittances sent back,
and examines the possible impact of formal labor migration
opportunities on skills formation of migrants and of the
labor force remaining home. These quantitative profiles of
remittances and skills are explored with a
country-calibrated computable general equilibrium model to
estimate the impact on output, economic growth, and other
relevant economic outcomes; they may trigger policy action
to make managed labor migration a reality in Afghanistan. |
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