University of Sydney: Human Trafficking Criminal wwww.ielts.agency 18
capitalist economies. Most of these test-takers are therefore classifiable as ‘economic migrants’.
The United Nations (2017c) recognizes that migrants are a vulnerable demographic that are not
always afforded the same rights and protections that a host government bestows on its citizens.
It is highly likely that the vast bulk of IELTS’s fee-paying clients are citizens of ‘developing
economies’ or ‘economies in transition’ as defined by the United Nations (United Nations, 2016,
p. 160). IELTS (2017i, NP) reports aggregate “country of origin” test data for citizens of 40 selected
nations for test-takers during 2015. These nations are:
Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, China (People's Republic of), Colombia, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia Iran, Islamic Republic of, Iraq, Italy,
Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Republic of Kuwait, Malaysia, Mexico, Nepal, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan Philippines, Qatar, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Spain,
Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Uzbekistan, Vietnam.Current data for performance by country for 2016 has not yet been published by IELTS.
1.5 Business model
Members of the IELTS consortium share the multimillion dollar profits and financial surpluses
earned from IELTS exams and the sale of IELTS’s services and merchandise. Table 3 summarizes
the legal structure of the three entities that comprise the IELTS syndicate.