Mass Migration / Immigration a 21st Century Capital Disease.

RMT mulls migration curbs

WORKERS, MAR 2013 ISSUE

In a significant move, the RMT (the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers) has opened up discussion with an article in its magazine, RMT News, about how a Resident Labour Market Test could stop what the union calls “social dumping” – bringing in cheap labour from abroad to undercut British pay and conditions.

“The response of much of the ‘Left’, of most trade unions and the Labour Party, calling for equal conditions for migrant workers, is inadequate for many reasons but mainly that it is simply not working,” says the article. It adds that a Resident Market Labour Test would require renegotiating freedom of movement with the EU “on the grounds that it is overwhelmingly one-way and that the current situation is illegitimate” – and says that without renegotiation “the only way out is to leave the EU”.

Worldwide supplies of labour tip the scales away from workers towards capital. The EU aims to ensnare ever more, ever poorer, countries – Croatia (18 per cent unemployment), Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia, countries across North Africa, and Turkey. Faced with this, the government’s Points Based System (PBS) actually brings in workers from outside the EU. Despite the government’s supposed cap, there are no limits on key PBS categories, such as transferees within the same corporation and foreign students (a major labour entry pathway with no exit monitoring).

Only one category of the PBS has a Resident Labour Market Test, as a result of the Lindsey Oil Refinery workers’ fine victory. Jobs must be advertised in specified places for a specified period before an employer can apply for a Tier 2 General Migrant visa. This should be required for all British jobs.

In the EU/India Free Trade Agreement, India’s sole demand is for so-called worker entry access. It would let any Indian firm supply temporary workers to any British industry. Again, the PBS sets no limits. Britain’s capitalists will get the “gain”, through investment opportunities in India, and British workers will get the pain, through lost jobs.

Evidence that new legislation, trumpeted by the European Union, has proved ineffective against social dumping, came last year with the dumping of RMT maritime members as Condor Ferries replaced British ratings with Ukrainian workers. Massive scope remains for shipping companies to pay lower wages to seafarers from non-EU countries. Condor Ferries employs Ukrainian seafarers on as little as £2.35 per hour (£28.19 a day for a 12-hour shift) to work three months on and one month off unpaid on routes between Portsmouth, Weymouth and Poole and the Channel Islands, inclusive of overtime, additional pay and captive time. They have no entitlement to leave or a pension. Other ferry operators work for only one or two months at a time, with the same period of rest off the vessel.
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RMT welcomes long-awaited introduction of Maritime Labour Convention

RMT media office

19 Aug (2 days ago)

Maritime union RMT has welcomed the long-awaited coming into force of the Maritime Labour Convention 2006 (MLC) tomorrow - August 20. The union believes that this new legislation has the potential to make a genuine difference to the lives of seafarers.


Among the advantages that the MLC offers are:

• The potential to stop blacklisting and charging for jobs by some manning agents;

• The recognition of all crew - including hospitality crew on international cruise ships - as seafarers, who will now all get the same protections;

• Enhanced checks by port state control, including of pay problems such as double book-keeping; and

• The establishment of welfare facilities in ports, and of on-ship safety committees.


RMT general secretary Bob Crow said that blacklisting and social dumping had blighted the maritime sector for decades and the convention created the possibility to finally turn the tide in favour of seafarers as long as it is rigorously enforced and policed.

"This new legislation must be used to challenge the right of shipowners to exploit workers in their endless pursuit of profit regardless of the human cost it brings," he said.

International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) president Paddy Crumlin commented: "The MLC represents a significant leap forward in the global trade union campaign to improve the labour rights and labour standards of seafarers. It is a true watershed in international shipping, which adds the pillar of workers' rights to existing standards of safety, security and crew standards."

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Free movement of labour is one of the cornerstones of the European Union. And it's a dagger aimed at the labour movement's heart. Come and discuss.

"Free movement of labour: modern day slavery"

Tuesday 12 November, 7.30pm

Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL

Public meeting organised by the CPBML.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/from-eastern-europe-to-the-east-end-what-is-life-really-like-in-britain-for-our-immigrant-neighbours-8940482.html


From Eastern Europe to the East End: What is life really like in Britain for our immigrant neighbours?


A useful descriptive linked above:

A longer version of this article is published in the November issue of Standpoint magazine:

 standpointmag.co.uk/node/5252

January 23, 2005

Medical Schools Rake in Profits – but Health System is in Crisis




There are dire signs that if the exodus of Filipino health professionals continue over the next three years, the Philippine health care system will be in crisis.



By Charles Raiñer C. Marquez

Contributed to Bulatlat.com



In the past two years, there have been half-a-million students enrolled in about 30 medical schools, 140 nursing schools, 113 midwifery schools and 17 dentistry schools in the Philippines. Every year, around 10 percent or 50,000 of these health students eventually graduate as medical doctors, nurses, dentists and other health-related professionals.


Despite the big number of health professionals produced every year, why is the country’s health system sick?


Latest statistics show that seven out of every 10 Filipinos die without even seeing a doctor. Nearly 75 percent of the population lives below poverty line, most of them in the rural areas. These are the people who have no access to the most basic health and medical care services. Very few of the health professionals produced every year opt to serve the people in the rural areas. Most of them prefer to work in private hospitals or in the cities. A big number eventually work in other countries.

There are dire signs that if the exodus of Filipino health professionals continue over the next three years, the Philippine health care system will be in crisis.


Commercialization, deterioration

Concerned health organizations and other observers believe that part of the reason for the current state of the health system is the increased commercialization of health science amid the deterioration in the quality of health education.

One of the most lucrative businesses today is health science education. Here, only the rich can afford sending their children schools that offer medical, nursing, dentistry, physical therapy and other health sciences courses.

In fact in 2003, six private higher education institutions (HEI) that offered health science courses were listed in the Philippines’ top 1,000 corporations. These HEIs recorded a combined profit of around P537 million. (Please see Table I below this article.) Most of them are owned by Filipino-Chinese taipans.

Among the six schools, the Centro Escolar University (CEU), ranked No.198 and had the biggest equity (assets minus liabilities) amounting to P1.941billion (US$ 34,669,250). The CEU ranked No. 1 among HEIs in 1999 and 2000. The Manila Central University (MCU) in Caloocan City, Metro Manila registered the biggest increase in profit by more than 8,000 percent from 2001.

Another consistent member of the Top 1,000 corporations in the country is the University of the East (UE), which is now owned by Lucio Tan, has campuses in Manila and Caloocan. It ranked 517th in 2003, rising from 867th in 2000 and 935th in 1999. Far Eastern University (FEU) also remained in the list of top earning corporations.

With the high cost of health education, private colleges and universities are priming up to cater to the large number health sciences students for profit. Every year, they accept big numbers of students.

College tuition for a course in medicine ranges from P55,000 to P85,000 for a semester in Metro Manila. Clerkship would entail another P100,000. State universities that are supposedly subsidized like the University of the Philippines (UP) and Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Manila (PLM), charge P15,000 to P18,000. Nursing and Physical Therapy courses cost at least P25,000 every semester.

In addition, textbooks cost a student around P10,000 – P25,000 per year. Burdening students further are miscellaneous fees, amounting from P5,000 – P15,000. And then there are expenses for medical diagnostic sets and other gadgets.

The high costs of health education greatly influence the values of health sciences students: They now have to set their eyes on working abroad or in big hospitals and companies who offer lucrative income rather than go to the communities where they are most needed.

School owners together with the state Commission on Higher Education (CHED) justify the high cost of health education claiming that it guarantees quality education. Yet their claims are refuted by surveys and studies.

In its Oct. 2002 report, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) warned about the decline of tertiary education in the Philippines in contrast to its reputation during the 1970s as one of the leading education centers of Asia.

Two years earlier, an Asiaweek survey of 77 best universities ranked the University of the Philippines, the country’s premier state university, No. 48. Only three private schools made it to the list. De La Salle University was ranked 71st, Ateneo de Manila University, 72nd, and the University of Santo Tomas, 74th. None of the top-earning schools made it to the list.

The decline in the quality of health education took its toll on the performance of health sciences graduates in board or licensure exams. From 1997-2001, only 25 percent of graduates passed the board examinations for physical therapy and 52 percent for nursing. The highest average passing percentage in licensure exams is in medicine – only 66 percent. (Please see Table 2 below.)

Further compounding the decline in the quality of health education – for that matter, in the whole educational system – is that every year huge chunks of the education budget are sliced in favor of debt payment to the IMF-WB. Debt payment represents at least 40 percent of the national budget. Defense expenditures are prioritized over education, health and other basic services. Furthermore, government bureaucrats are siphoning off the rest of the public fund through graft and corruption. Around P100 million is looted from the public fund by government officials every day, reports show.

Apparently, foreign monopoly capitalists also benefit from the health education system. The current dependence on “technology” inculcated by the western-oriented curriculum benefits the multinational corporations (MNCs) – it is they who produce medical equipment, textbooks, diagnostic sets, and other foreign technology. Under the GATT/WTO and intellectual property rights, cheaper textbooks reprinted in newsprint are no longer allowed.

The Philippine health education remains western-oriented. Most textbooks and knowledge imparted among the health science students are foreign. Because of this, textbooks with Filipino authors are often ridiculed or labeled. Consequently, students are required to pay more attention to diseases and diagnostic procedures that are scarcely found in the Philippines. Instead of studying tuberculosis, malaria, and scabies which are very prevalent in the country especially in the rural villages, there is much emphasis on foreign diseases like Good pasture’s syndrome, Lyme disease, cystic fibrosis or Infectious mononucleosis that are also rarely found in the country. Students are trained on a curative and hospital-based health system – instead of a preventive and community-based one.

Health students are trained for the world workforce market, especially for the United States and other industrialized countries. This adversely affects Philippines health services given the insufficient number of health professionals left in the country. Bulatlat.com

- See more at: bulatlat.com/main/2005/01/23/medical-schools-rake-in-profits-%e2%80%93-but-health-system-is-in-crisis/#sthash.hmTwSrq4.dpuf
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THE ABOVE ARTICLE WRITTEN IN 2005 SHEDS LIGHT. Small wonder that the lady who works in the eatery took her daughter, aged 9 years, to the hospital was sent away without even an aspirin. Transpired she had been bitten by a rabid dog. Mercifully on such a small body the toxins reached the brain quickly and death was within 24 hours. On another note...value of the pound sterling dropped by a third against the Peso, as with other currencies. Catastrophic for people relying on remittance. British trade unionists and UN have long fought against robbing developing countries of trained medical workers. Private hospitals and agencies are allowed to recruit however, in UK. Downturn in recruitment overseas spells disaster for those graduating last year and this. 30,000 each year. Winners and losers? Take a look. Mass migration requires a sober look at all the facts. What is good for us as a class...wherever in the world we might be.

Ashamed to tell you--can't even recall the child's name. If I recall or someone reminds me, I shall post it. She deserves a name at the very least....

Useful, if biased, study of migration, 18 Nov 2013


This Will Podmore review is from: The Age of Migration: International Population Movements in the Modern World (Paperback)


This is the fourth edition of this standard text on international migration and its effects. Stephen Castles is Professor of Migration and Refugee Studies at the International Migration Studies Institute at the University of Oxford, and Mark Miller is the Emma Smith Morris Professor of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Delaware.

The authors often find it hard to match their support for mass migration with the evidence. For instance, they write on page 11, "Governmental policies can prevent or reduce international migration." But on page 305 they conclude, "Neither restrictive measures nor development strategies can stop international migration."

Again, they write on page 233, "economists remain divided over the costs and benefits of migration." Nine pages later, they conclude, "Economic migration is vital for advanced economies."

Migration is basically a key way for employers to exploit cheap labour. As the authors note, "Migration thus makes it possible to maintain labour market flexibility ...." Adding to the supply of labour cuts its costs.

Further, migration is a privatised `solution' to problems in the countries from which migrants come. Their remittances go to individual households, not, for example, to health services, so they are a form of privatised `aid'.

Immigration asset-strips poorer countries, taking their younger, more educated and skilled people. Migration undermines the home countries' development, and increases their dependency.

Since the EU issued its Code of Practice for the Active Recruitment of Healthcare Professionals in 2001, medical migration has surged. Many African and Caribbean countries have more of their home-trained doctors working in the OECD countries than at home. 90 per cent of Jamaica's nurses and 90 per cent of Haiti's nurses work in OECD countries. A third of Britain's doctors are foreign-trained. This brain drain widens world health inequality.

The authors all too often take a one-sided view of migration. They assess as `rosy' the effects of the influx into Britain of 447,000 East Europeans in 2004. Opening our doors in January to all Bulgarians and Romanians would create an even greater oversupply of labour power than we have already. They would be competing for scarce jobs with indigenous British people, black and white. Jobs will become even harder to find and employers will find it even easier to cut wages.

Why are we opening our doors? Is it because Parliament decided to do so? No. Or that we the people decided so in a referendum? No. It is because the EU ordered us to do so. The 1997 Treaty of Amsterdam laid down that only the EU had competences in the areas of migration and asylum.

So we need a cap on new entrants. Countries have the right to regulate entry and we can indeed prevent or reduce migration. We should decide, not the EU.

The authors approve of multiculturalism. But multiculturalism undermines the mutual regard and cooperation that a society needs. Our British working class culture rightly rejects immoral practices like so-called `honour' killing, the obscenity of female genital mutilation, discrimination against women and gays. We reject all religious fundamentalism. These are not matters of race (a nonsense term anyway), or of genes, or of phobias. They are matters of decent social behaviour.