Page 415 - Contributed Paper Session (CPS) - Volume 4

CPS2476 Tite Habiyakare et al.
The 20th ICLS Guidelines concerning statistics of international labour
migration define therefore migrant workers as international migrants and
non-resident foreign persons who are in the country’s labour force. However,
the concept excludes: (i) foreign military and diplomatic personnel, (ii)
international travellers on tourism whose main purpose is not to work, and (iii)
non-resident staff of call centres and those providing services from a foreign
location.
Return migrant worker: the term comprises “all current residents of the
country who were previously international migrant workers in another
country” (ILO, 2018), irrespective of their citizenship, birth place, current labour
force status, or whether they were residents in the foreign country of work.
This paper identifies a return migrant worker as any usual resident who lived
in another country in the past, or who travelled abroad at any time in the past,
even if for a short period, for the purpose of working or looking for work. In
practice return migrant workers are proposed as the main target population
when running recruitment costs surveys in a migration sending country, or
country of origin, while for the country of destination the proposed target
population is that of usual resident migrant workers.
Recruitment costs and components: in the ILO General principles and
operational guidelines for fair recruitment and definition of recruitment fees
and related costs, the concept of recruitment fees or related costs refers to
“any fees or costs incurred in the recruitment process in order for workers to
secure employment or placement, regardless of the manner, timing or
location” (ILO, 2019), as long as those costs are borne (directly or indirectly)
by the migrant worker.
The current Guidelines for statistics for SDG indicator 10.7.1 presents
details of some 14 recruitment costs items that should be included in the
calculation of the indicator, i.e.: (1) Recruiter/job broker charges; (2) Visa costs;
(3) Inland transportation expenses; (4) International transportation; (5)
Passport fees; (6) Medical fees; (7) Insurance fee; (8) Security clearance fee; (9)
Pre-departure briefing; (10) Language training; (11) Skills assessment fee; (12)
Contract approval fee; (13) Welfare fund fee; and (14) Interest payment on
debt incurred to cover recruitment costs.
For the pilot test in Lao PDR and for this paper, recruitment costs were
grouped into three main items:
(a) travel costs to and back from the destination country,
(b) recruitment agencies or brokers’ fees and related costs, including
costs paid to friends and relatives, and
(c) other costs including preparations costs for work abroad, passport,
visa, insurance and any medical costs.
Monthly income: the concept refers to the actual income earned as a
wage/salary, as defined in the Resolution concerning an integrated system of

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