What are the characteristics of international labor mobility?

The international movement of labor force is a complex problem. Economists and historians believe that international migration has existed since ancient times, and the international labor resource flow characterized by labor export has a history of 200 to 300 years. After the Second World War, this kind of flow has made new development, not only in an unprecedented scale, but also in various forms. At present, there are three forms of international labor mobility: the first is pure labor export. These workers left the motherland in an organized or spontaneous manner and went to overseas countries or regions to make a living and provide their own services. There are both manual workers and various professionals. In some third world countries, such as Egypt and Pakistan, this form of labor mobility has formed a large scale, which has had a significant impact on their economies. The second is foreign project contracting, that is, organized and organized export of labor services abroad. In the past two decades, this form of labor mobility has developed rapidly, and many countries have set up specialized labor service companies, and their management has gradually become standardized. In China alone, there are more than 100 organizations that export foreign labor services in the form of labor services, and some achievements have been made. The third form is overseas immigration. These immigrants not only work abroad, but also formally settle there and become permanent residents. Although most developed countries have made strict restrictions on accepting immigrants at present, the labor force flowing in this way has increased in recent years.

With the development of science and technology and the expansion of international trade, the scale of international labor flow is constantly expanding, forming several major labor exporting countries (regions) and importing countries (regions). At present, the main international labor markets are Western Europe, North America, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America. According to statistics, since 1980s, more than 6 million foreign workers have entered the United States (excluding illegal immigrants). In the early 1980s, more than 6 million foreign workers went to the Middle East. Although the Gulf War severely damaged the labor market in this region, with the process of post-war economic recovery and development, the demand for foreign workers began to increase again, and returning to the Gulf became the focus of labor exporting countries. In the mid-1980s, there were more than 5 million foreign workers in Western Europe. According to experts' estimation, there were about 20 million foreign workers in the world in the 1980s, and the same number of family members accompanied them in international mobility.

Among overseas workers, there are ordinary workers, skilled and semi-skilled workers and a group of high-tech talents. Economists estimate that about half of them are skilled and semi-skilled workers. In recent years, the demand for technical talents in the international labor market has gradually increased. As a labor outflow country, the international labor resource flow can be divided into two situations, one is that professionals flow abroad, and the other is that unskilled labor flows abroad. For professionals, their mobility is always welcomed by immigrant countries, but it may be a loss for immigrant countries. For unskilled laborers, exporting countries hope that they can master new skills abroad and create foreign exchange income for their own countries. Although most countries do not welcome the inflow of unskilled labor, there is actually a huge international labor market to absorb it.

For the free flow of international labor resources, even the most thorough western liberal economists are completely opposed to protecting their own interests from infringement. Even if the border is opened to a limited extent, it is impossible for western scholars to discuss the issue of appropriately allowing the labor force from developing countries to flow to developed countries. From this perspective, any western liberalism theory is limited and based on its own economic interests. Almost all governments have imposed strict restrictions on international migration. In this sense, the so-called global economic integration advocated by developed countries is a kind of one-sided globalization that needs to be greatly discounted. Namely: the free flow of capital and the non-free flow of labor.