Migration has huge potential to enhance development but also poses some serious challenges in both developing and developed countries. By allowing workers to move to where they are most valued, migration allows an increase in aggregate world income and output. The impact of migration on sending and receiving countries has been under-researched in the past, due mainly to data unavailability and political sensitivities. But international migration and development is now a key area for World Bank research, including work on the brain drain, temporary mobility, the links with foreign direct investment, and the role of remittances. International migration has significant economic, social, and cultural implications in both sending and destination countries. For example, migrants’ remittances to developing countries exceeded $160 billion in 2004, far surpassing development aid and representing the largest source of foreign exchange for some countries. And this official figure is believed to capture only part of the actual funds that migrants send home. The Knowledge for Change Program has been central to the rapid mobilization of the effort on migration, the first phase of which culminated with the publication of International Migration, Remittances, and the Brain Drain in October 2005. Among the main findings of the research program are the following: Migration has a positive impact on households in the sending country. Migration, through remittances and other channels, reduces poverty and increases investment in both physical and human capital. There is positive effect on education, health and entrepreneurship. Results from Pakistan indicate that the improvements in the health and education outcomes of girls are higher than those for boys in migrant households. There are large differences in migration levels of the highly educated people (i.e. brain drain) across regions and countries. Small and isolated countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Central America and the Caribbean already suffer from low levels of human capital. They also seem to be the most affected from the migration of the highly educated portions of their labor force, especially to developed countries in North America and Europe. Many educated migrants from developing countries can only find unskilled jobs in developed country labor markets, leading to significant brain waste. This outcome is especially prevalent among migrants from Latin America in the US and North Africa in the EU. A large part of the brain waste can be explained by the actual human capital levels of migrants even though they might have university degrees obtained in their home countries. This has important implications in terms of education and migration policies of the sending countries. Host country policies have significant effects on migration patterns and outcomes. In migration policy, the devil seems to be in the details. Seemingly identical migration policies can have significantly varying effects in different contexts or different time periods. Analysis of New Zealand, Switzerland and Norway migration programs highlight these issues. Carefully designed policies can enhance seemingly opposing interests of host and source countries. Developing countries tend to gain more from the migration of the unskilled workers whereas there is strong political preference for skilled migration among the destination developed countries. Appropriately designed and jointly enforced temporary migration policies, such as under the Mode IV of GATS, can lead to economically superior outcomes for both sending and receiving countries. Return migration is more prevalent and returnees earn significantly more than comparable workers who have never worked abroad. Detailed time-series evidence from Norway indicates the extent of return and circular migration which are closely related to economic and political conditions in the home country. Studies based on labor market surveys in Egypt indicate and returning migrants earn significantly higher salaries when compared to similar workers who never migrated and the differential is higher for the unskilled, indicating the labor market values the experiences gained abroad. OUTPUTS OF THE RESEARCH PROGRAM Edited Volumes Academic Papers Over 60 working papers of which many have been published in leading academic journals. All working papers are on the Migration Website.
Survey Instruments - specifically designed surveys for individual purposes - Pacific Islands - New Zealand Corridor survey for the special lottery program of New Zealand
- Ghana Migration survey as a special module to Ghana 2006/7 LSMS
- Brazil - Japan Corridor Survey that tests different survey methodologies to analyze the migration patterns of ethnic Japanese from Brazil
- Kerala/India-Persian Gulf survey in collaboration for Center for Development Studies as repeat survey of 1997 and 2003 survey
Data Sets - Brain Drain Dataset - Bilateral migration data for 1990-2000 for three educational levels from all countries to each OECD country
- Global database on bilateral migration stocks 2000/01 between 190+ countries
- Medical Brain Drain - Annual bilateral migration data of physicians from 190+ countries to each OECD country over the last 15 years
- All data generated by surveys listed above
CURRENT AND FUTURE WORK PROGRAM Trade, FDI, and migration International trade, foreign direct investment, and labor migration can be substitutes since lower trade and capital barriers increase trade, reduce wage differentials, and reduce the incentives to migrate. On the other hand, migrant networks might provide valuable informational benefits and encourage trade and FDI, and thus turn these economic flows into complements. Research is examining these effects, along with the behavior of networks of migrant diasporas, their families, and communities in the home country, and how these affect trade, FDI, tourism, and other activities beneficial to the home country. GATS mode IV and temporary labor migration The temporary movement of persons for delivery of services under Mode IV of the General Agreement on Trade in Services has made most progress for business visits and transfers of senior staff within multinational corporations. Developing countries are now seeking greater openness by OECD countries towards independent professionals and less skilled workers. For their part, developed countries are concerned that migrants will overstay and create social and economic burdens. Research is exploring measures that might help to guarantee the return of temporary migrants, and ways in which developing countries can benefit from increased services exports and the return migration of skilled labor. Brain drain Industrialized countries have always had special programs for selective immigration of people with higher education or scarce skills. It is said that there are more Malawian doctors working in Manchester, England than in Malawi. However, while the resulting brain drain is among developing countries’ principal concerns about migration, it is little understood. Having created the most extensive database on skilled migration (with the help of the KCP), World Bank studies now seek to explain trends in the brain drain, its variations among countries and regions, its costs and benefits for developing countries (e.g., the loss of local entrepreneurial talent versus the benefits of a diaspora), and its policy implications. Social dimensions Households use migrant remittances to invest in education or meet health expenses, but anecdotal evidence suggests that benefits and costs may be distributed to members according to their age and gender. Researchers are assessing how opportunities for migration and receipts of migrant remittances affect investments in education (looking at enrollment rates, quality, and affordability) and health (looking at the affordability of health care, the health of populations, and the impact of communicable diseases from return migrants). They are also examining how government policies affecting remittances and return migration could increase both the demand for and supply of resources related to building up human capital. Among the former policies, research focuses on the costs of remitting funds (including transfer channels and fees), and on how remittances are affected by the recipient country’s macroeconomic policies and conditions. DISSEMINATION AND IMPACT The International Migration and Development Research Program generated significant interest both within the policy community and the academic circles. The edited volumes and their findings were covered by over eighty leading newspapers around the world including New York Times, Financial Times, Chicago Tribune, the Economist, Miami Herald, Le Monde, many news agencies such as the Reuters, AP, UPI, AFP and others in many developing countries such as Brazil, China, Mexico, India. The datasets have become the main sources used in the academic literature and the policy analysis on migration. For example, brain drain database was downloaded by 4,500 unique users and the medical brain drain database was downloaded by 1,125 users. Published and working papers have been cited over 300 times in other academic publications during the last two years. The Program website was visited by over 32,000 unique visitors, there were 100,000 page views and 15,000 file downloads. More importantly, 35% of this web traffic originated from developing countries. This indicates that the Research Program is fulfilling one of its most important goals of helping academics and policymakers in developing countries.
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