CERC Spinelli Lecture Series: 'Shaping Immigration Policy and Numbers: Some international reflections'

Tuesday 11 March, 1:00-2:00pm
at Room 212, Level 2, 234 Queensberry Street, The University of Melbourne

presented by

Richard Pearson

(Visiting Professor at the University of Sussex’s Centre for Migration Research and at the Centre for Labour Market Studies at the University of Leicester and Research Director at the Employability Forum.)

This seminar is presented in conjunction with the School of Political Science, Criminology and Sociology

Abstract

Migration is a hot political topic throughout the developed and developing world. Most developed countries are actively seeking to attract, or indeed poach skilled workers to support economics objectives while also meeting their humanitarian responsibilities by taking refugees into the country. They also face an every growing demand for entry by the less skilled and less fortunate who are seeking to improve their life’s prospects. This has resulted in rising pressures from illegal migration and illegal working, and public anxiety about the impact of immigration. At the same time some developing countries have been complaining that they are losing their skilled workforce to the detriment of their own economies and health services. This is putting pressure on developed countries to develop robust immigration policies which encourage the ‘right sort’ of immigration, while minimising the social and political pressures in the host country, and any adverse impact on the source countries.

In this interactive seminar, participants will help develop the case for immigration and address the issues relating to numbers, quotas and subsequent integration of migrants in to the community, and the impact on ‘losing’ countries.

Biography

Richard has over has over 30 years research and consultancy experience relating to the labour market and international mobility. He has worked for the EC, OECD, government departments and major corporations. He was Director of the independent Institute for Employment Studies (IES), the UK’s leading independent centre for employment research and consultancy form 1992-2004 and is now an independent consultant. He is also Research Director at the Employability Forum, which supports and monitors the integration of refugees in to employment; a Visiting Professor at the Centre for Migration Research at the University of Sussex, and at the Centre for Labour Market Studies at the University of Leicester, and also a member of the Senior Salaries Review Body (SSRB) which sets the salaries of senior public sector figures and parliament in the UK. He has published widely and spoken at numerous conferences and corporate events, and for 10 years he wrote a monthly column for Nature, the international scientific journal.

Link to Prof Pearson's 2007 CERC seminar