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Economic migration 'to combat aging population'
Interior Minister Patrick Dewael came out in support again of economic migration at an international conference on immigration in Brussels Wednesday. The Liberal VLD minister said the aging population will lead to a shortage of workers in Europe, a problem which could be solved by controlled migration. Dewael said decisions must be made on which country needs which workers and economic migrants would have to undergo specific training and education prior to immigrating. He said a controlled system of migration would have benefits for both Europe and developing nations over a given timeframe, news service VRT reported on Wednesday. "I think that if you do it in an organised manner, you will also see people return to those lands. You are seeing that at the moment, for example, with India," Dewael said. "Secondly, there is a transfer of resources from those people to their countries of origin, which also benefits the economy." Dewael was speaking at a two-day international conference on immigration in Brussels. The conference is jointly sponsored by Belgium, the World Bank, the European Commission and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM). It seeks to "create synergies between migration and development". It will also discuss the contribution of migrants to the development of their home countries, investments, trade opportunities and the transfer of competencies and knowledge. Posted by: lotp 2006-03-15 |
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