External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar on Wednesday said that workforce mobility has become an essential factor in the international economy, stressing that legal pathways create wide benefits while illegal movement fuels criminal and political agenda.
Speaking at India’s World Annual Conclave 2025, he said globalisation is often discussed through trade, but the movement of workers and the conditions around it are equally significant.
“In a globalised world… we tend to really focus on trade… But we often neglect work and the mobility associated with work… When mobility is legal and formal, it has a whole lot of beneficial impacts… But when it is not, it is actually almost a magnet for all kinds of bad business,” he said.
Jaishankar added that illegal mobility draws in trafficking networks and groups with political and separatist motives.
“Look at trafficking and all the associated crimes; it leads people with agendas of various kinds, political agendas, separatist agendas, and they all join up to the illegal mobility side of it,” he noted.
Three forces driving mobility, says EAM
Dr Jaishankar outlined three reasons why mobility is rising worldwide:
- Demography: countries where labour demand exceeds available people.
- Competitiveness and talent: host societies attracting skills they need.
- Social attitudes towards work: situations where domestic workers may not want certain types of jobs, pay or conditions.
“The fact is, today, mobility is an increasingly important factor in the international economy,” he said.
How governments should respond, according to Jaishankar
The minister said the “market for mobility” creates three responsibilities for governments:
- Enabling mobility by improving skills and providing facilities to support those who may work abroad.
- Creating formal arrangements through governments, companies and enterprises.
- Equipping workers travelling overseas with confidence and assurance to operate in global workplaces.
“In a sense, it begins with creating a global workforce, preparing it at home, and then ensuring that when the workforce is deployed in the workplace, it is done so as efficiently and securely as possible,” he said.