Columbia International Affairs Online: Policy Briefs

CIAO DATE: 10/2013

How to Reduce Migrant Worker Recruitment Costs

Philip Martin

August 2013

Danish Institute for International Studies

Abstract

Recruitment ideally matches workers with jobs, but the process is often complicated by asymmetric information. Commercial recruiters match workers with jobs across borders, sometimes making huge profits. Even if international conventions call for employers to pay all of the recruitment costs, migrants often end up with the economic burden. In a new Policy Brief economist Philip Martin takes issue with the global labour recruitment industry and suggests ways to better understand the international relation between employers and workers. The Policy Brief forms part of a series from the DIIS-based research network “The Migration Industry and New Markets for Migration Control”. The network explores the roles various migration industry actors play in contemporary migration flows.