if migration policies of the majority of nation states are in guide, labour will continue to be an immobile factor of production. An estimated 80 million people, or approximately 1.5%-2% of the global labour force, currently work in countries outside those of their citizenship. A full 5% of these moreover, are concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East.
             Still, there many ways in which the more integrated activities of firms may be increasing the cross-border deployment of labour. But even in the absence of greater labour mobility, economic integration "internationalizes" the labour market, and the notion of a "global labour market" has both micro and macro dimensions. Major international firms, for example, frame their human resource development policies from the viewpoint of a global internal labour market. Moreover, and this forms the growing salience of labour relative to other factors of production, and the more broadly dispersed availability of high-quality labour have given rise to a more cosmopolitan perspective on the siting of firms' value-adding activities in their worldwide operations.
             On the macro side, the internalization of labour markets is concerned with the greater exposure to risk of a high-cost labour force relative to a lower-cost one. This is the negative face of the increasing relocation or redistribution of jobs in a global economy and particularly in a climate of high unemployment in developed countries, it has given rise to concerns over the "delocalization" of jobs – rather than of people.
             Although most governments in industrial nations will resist movements of people for social and political reasons' employers in the developed world are likely to find ways around governments barriers. The combination of slow work force growth, fewer women left to enter the work force, earlier retirements, and a shrinking share of high schoo...