Re-thinking free global movement of workforce

The establishment of strong national frontiers and the need for passports and visas emerged after the World War-I. Before that, people could move all over the world almost freely in search of a better livelihood and for accessing resources according to their own choice. They could choose their own profession matching their qualifications and skills. In the period that followed, various discriminations and income gaps have been mounting all over the globe. One of the reasons may be attributed to stringent control over migration. This has made aspiring migrants extremely desperate to move to countries of their choice across the oceans, forests and deserts endangering their lives.
The typical concept of colonialism is gone; but corporate colonialism as an off-shoot of capitalism has engulfed the whole world in the all-embracing shape and form of globalisation. As a result, labour market has spread all over the world. Multinational companies have been establishing their production plants throughout the world and at the same time attracting all the brains and skilled labour forces to their corporate workplaces.
According to the International Labour Organisation, as of 2014 there were an estimated 232 million international migrants in the world (defined as persons outside their country of origin for 12 months or more) and approximately half of them were estimated to be economically active (i.e., being employed or seeking employment). This organisation also found that 48 per cent of all international migrants are women, who are increasingly migrating for work.
Almost at the same time, in 2013 the United Nations estimated that there were 231,522,215 immigrants in the world (apx. 3.25 per cent of the global population). While the number of immigrants increases along with the world population, the proportion of immigrants as part of the world population has remained relatively consistent since 1990.
Desperate migration is a global problem at present. It is a matter of grave concern for the governments and policy makers. Income gap, corporate colonialism, religious fanaticism, greediness, civil war, severe political unrest etc., are responsible for such a situation. As a result, huge number of people, not just the underprivileged, are getting increasingly desperate to go to developed countries or to a safer zone for a better livelihood and peaceful existence.
This tendency used to be more prevalent among the poverty stricken people of Africa who brave all kinds of risks to reach Europe crossing the Mediterranean. In Southeast Asia, this type of illegal immigration has increased in the last few years. The discovery of mass graves in the jungle of Thailand and thousands of people afloat on the seas to land up in Malaysia and other countries revealed the perilous nature of the trend.
Due to rapid and reckless urbanisation, the area of cultivable land is reducing substantially in many countries. If this trend continues, global food security will come under a severe threat by the year 2030 when world population would be 8.3 billion. To avert the impending crisis, thousands of acres of barren land in Asia, Africa, Australia and America must come under cultivation. Consequently, hundreds of thousands of agro labour will have to be engaged for the purpose. This can offer a huge opportunity for migrant workers from countries like ours.
In a recent research work, the Centre for American Progress reveals that between 2010 and 2030, around 58.60 million workers in the USA will go for retirement. Around 92 per cent of the vacancies are expected to be filled in by the local workers and the rest by migrant workers providing jobs to around 7.3 million people.
Give the reality, there will be need to open up frontiers and remove restrictions for free movement of labour for sustaining the progress that human civilisation has made over the centuries. It is time that restrictions for temporary migration of labour were removed for the betterment of humanity at large.  
While orbiting earth, John Hedfield, the Canadian astronaut saw from the International Space Station the city of London, after a few minutes he would see Paris, then Rome and similarly many other cities and landmarks of the earth. Watching the whole earth from thousands of miles away, it never seemed to him that the world is divided and separated by strong fence and the free movement of people is strictly controlled. He then also realised that the world is really a global village that should not be divided or separated by any strong frontier restriction. It was really a matter of regret for him to think why we have separated people dividing this whole world? Why all the people of this beautiful planet can not move freely all over the places?
The writer is with a private commercial bank.
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