Until recently, international migration was rarely associated with outcomes like improved gender equality, lower fertility rates, or increased entrepreneurship in the countries migrants left behind. Instead, migration was viewed as the necessary but unfortunate response to economic crises, environmental collapse or political turmoil in the home country.
However, a growing body of literature, including a new book released yesterday, argues that instead of seeing migration as a "development failure," policymakers should treat it as a powerful policy tool for improving economic, environmental, social and political conditions in both rich and poor countries.
United Nations Population Division, 2007
Migration's Effects on Home Countries
International Migration, Economic Development, and Policy, edited by economists Caglar Ozden and Maurice Schiff, examines the substantial benefits that migrant remittances (i.e. earnings that migrants send back to the families they leave behind) provide in 12 Latin American and Caribbean nations.
The gains in these home countries include:
Migration Policy Institute, 2007
According to the report, the positive impacts of migration even continue after migrants return home. New "channels of social and cultural attitudes" are brought back and introduced to family and friends, leading to improvements in areas like family planning, and helping to spur institutional development. Repatriated workers also enjoy marked economic advantages over non-migrants. In Egypt, for example, returnees earn an average of 40 pecent more than those who have never left.
These and other impressive results have led a number of experts to call for greater recognition of migration's role in development. The United Nations Population Fund's 2006 annual report, for example, focused on leveraging the benefits of female migration. And a handful of development economists, such as Harvard's Lant Pritchett, have even begun to agitate for new international programs designed to send millions of temporary guest workers currently residing in underdeveloped countries to points across the globe (read the New York Times Sunday Magazine interview with Pritchett here).
Migration's Costs
Despite the enthusiasm for migration, however, the social upheavals associated with migration are still very real and very serious. A case in point is "Brain Drain," a term used to describe the exodus of skilled workers from developing countries. Brain Drain erodes poor countries' pools of human capital and further hinders their efforts to develop. In some African countries 60 percent of their skilled citizens now live abroad; in the Caribbean this number can reach 80 percent.
Another negative impact of migration is felt by the migrants themselves, who often face numerous hardships during the course of their journeys. This is particularly true of undocumented and female migrants, who endure harsh working and living conditions, and enjoy few rights or protections in their new home.
Call for Policy Coordination
The growing perception of migration as an underutilized development tool and the continuing risks faced by migrants reflect the need for more coherent and coordinated national, regional, and international migration policies.
As the UNFPA notes, "the magnitude and complexity of international migration makes it an important force in development and a high-priority issue for both developing and developed countries." If constructed carefully, with migrants' unique needs in mind, these new policies could both maximize migration's potential benefits and minimize its current negative effects.
Related Links:
International Organization for Migration
International Migration and Development - Report of the UN Secretary General
UNHCR - The United Nations Refugee Agency
EarthTrends
