Key deliverable of jointly organized two-day symposium in 2019 by Social and Economic Councils of Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten
WILLEMSTAD, Curacao – On June 11, 2021, the Social and Economic Council (SER) of Curaçao, with due regard to the provisions of Article 2, third paragraph, of the National Ordinance regulating the establishment, organization, composition and authority of a Social and Economic Council for Curaçao (A.B. 2010, no. 87, appendix p, as amended by P.B. 2017, no. 70) adopted an exploration entitled: ‘The contribution of migrant populations to the socio-economic development of Curaçao.’
This study is the second in a series of studies in the series ‘Migration and Socio-economic Development Curaçao’ and is based on a study conducted by the SER Curaçao into the contribution that migrants make to the socio-economic development of the island.
The first foresight ‘The Future of the AOV’ was published in March 2020. In this first foresight study, the financial sustainability of the General Old Age Insurance (hereafter: the AOV) was analyzed using different future migration scenarios. A key finding of the projections made in the study is that legal immigration acts as an inhibiting factor with respect to the increasingly unsustainable financial situation of the AOV system. The projections also show that taking measures aimed at making the pension system more future-proof can no longer be postponed.
The present study, starting from a historical perspective and looking at the various migrant populations on Curaçao, lays the foundation for policy starting points on the theme of migration and socio-economic development. The third study in the series follows on from this and deals in a broader sense with the contribution of immigration to the economic development of Curaçao and offers leads for further policy development in the area of migration, labor market and education.
Socio-economic issues related to migration have had the attention of the SER for quite some time. In May 2019, SER Aruba, SER Curaçao and SER Sint Maarten jointly organized a two-day symposium “Migration and Socioeconomic Development, Policy Challenges and Options” in Willemstad, Curaçao. The symposium highlighted the many sides of migration, and labor migration in particular. The symposium provided valuable insights, knowledge and networks that are important for further policy development in the field of labor migration.
Central to this is the insight that labour migration policy must be considered in conjunction with the policy fields of labour market and education, and population policy. Integrality, consistency and effectiveness of policy are essential starting points in this context.
Within such an integrated policy framework, the challenges and opportunities of (labour) migration should be weighed as much as possible against the background of the need and capacity of Curaçao society.
With this technical exploration, the SER wants to make a follow-up contribution to the discussion on policy options concerning migration and socio-economic development. The extent to which different migrant populations contribute to the socio-economic development of Curaçao is analyzed. This analysis is largely based on data from the last census of the Central Bureau of Statistics Curaçao (CBS) in 2011, supplemented with data from the period 2014-2018.
The publication of this Outlook was originally planned shortly after the publication of the first Outlook in March 2020. However, throughout the year 2020, the SER of Curaçao received an exceptionally high number of requests for advice from both the government and parliament. In addition, due to the situation resulting from the Covid-19 crisis, a large number of requests for advice from the government had an urgent character. For these reasons, the publication of this report and the other reports has been postponed.
The report (SER-Verkenning: ‘De bijdrage van migrantenpopulaties aan de sociaaleconomische ontwikkeling van Curaçao’) is availbale on the website of SER: www.ser.cw
