By Clara Nwachukwu
Origin and destination countries have important roles to play in managing migration issues for the benefit of all, the World Bank has said.
Better migrant management has become particularly important seeing as about 2.5% of the world’s population—184 million people, including 37 million refugees—now live outside their country of nationality. The largest share—43%—lives in developing countries, the Bank said in its latest report released yesterday in Washington DC.
The World Development Report 2023: Migrants, Refugees, and Societies, identifies this trend as a unique opportunity to make migration work better for economies and people.
It added that “This is key to achieving the development mandate of the World Bank Group (WBG) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations (UN).”
It also insists that there is no stopping migration as: “Mobility is an integral part of the development process. It is a mechanism for reallocating labor across economic sectors and geographical areas. It enables adaptation to shocks, stresses, and imbalances.”
The report however admits that “Cross-border mobility inevitably comes with economic and social consequences for those who move, their communities of origin, and their destinations.”
Even worse, “The number of refugees nearly tripled over the last decade. Climate change threatens to fuel more migration. So far, most climate-driven movements were within countries, but about 40% of the world’s population—3.5 billion people—lives in places highly exposed to climate impacts,” it said.
The WDR 2023 therefore focuses on three main themes: drivers of mobility and the role of development; impacts and policy responses; and the need for collective action to strengthen the nexus between international protection and development.
Mobility is an integral part of the development process. It is a mechanism for reallocating labor across economic sectors and geographical areas. It enables adaptation to shocks, stresses, and imbalances.
Managing migration better
The WDR argues that current approaches not only fail to maximize the potential development gains of migration, they also cause great suffering for people moving in distress.
While recognizing that situations are very diverse and that there can be no “one-size-fit-all” approach, it will seek to identify policy options for each group of stakeholders — migrants’ origin and destination countries, refugee-hosting countries, the international community, development actors, as well as the private sector and civil society — to deliver a system of “better mobility” in a transforming world.
The report underscores the urgency of managing migration better. The goal of policymakers should be to strengthen the match of migrants’ skills with the demand in destination societies, while protecting refugees and reducing the need for distressed movements.
The report provides a framework for policymakers on how to do this.
“This World Development Report proposes a simple but powerful framework to aid the making of migration and refugee policy,” said Indermit Gill, Chief Economist of the World Bank Group and Senior Vice President for Development Economics.
“It tells us when such policies can be made unilaterally by destination countries, when they are better made plurilaterally by destination, transit and origin countries, and when they must be considered a multilateral responsibility.”
Populations across the globe are aging at an unprecedented pace, making many countries increasingly reliant on migration to realize their long-term growth potential.
Shared responsibility
The WDR urged origin countries to make labor migration an explicit part of their development strategy.
“They should lower remittance costs, facilitate knowledge transfers from their diaspora, build skills that are in high demand globally so that citizens can get better jobs if they migrate, mitigate the adverse effects of ‘brain drain,’ protect their nationals while abroad, and support them upon return.
Equally, destination countries are to “encourage migration where the skills migrants bring are in high demand, facilitate their inclusion, and address social impacts that raise concerns among their citizens.
“They should let refugees move, get jobs, and access national services wherever they are available.”
For a seamless process, the report says “International cooperation is essential to make migration a strong force for development.”
It further notes that “Bilateral cooperation can strengthen the match of migrants’ skills with the needs of destination societies.”
Accordingly, it reiterates that “Multilateral efforts are needed to share the costs of refugee-hosting and to address distressed migration.”
“Voices that are underrepresented in the migration debate must be heard: this includes developing countries, the private sector and other stakeholders, and migrants and refugees themselves,” it adds.
Global scenarios
The report says wealthy countries as well as a growing number of middle-income countries—traditionally among the main sources of migrants—face diminishing populations, intensifying the global competition for workers and talent.
Meanwhile, most low-income countries are expected to see rapid population growth, putting them under pressure to create more jobs for young people.
“Migration can be a powerful force for prosperity and development,” said World Bank Senior Managing Director, Axel van Trotsenburg. “When it is managed properly, it provides benefits for all people — in origin and destination societies.”
In the coming decades, the share of working-age adults will drop sharply in many countries.
Spain, with a population of 47 million, is projected to shrink by more than one third by 2100, with those above age 65 increasing from 20% to 39% of the population.
Countries like Mexico, Thailand, Tunisia and Türkiye may soon need more foreign workers because their population is no longer growing.
Beyond this demographic shift, the forces driving migration are also changing, making cross-border movements more diverse and complex.
Today, destination and origin countries span all income levels, with many countries such as Mexico, Nigeria, and the U.K. both sending and receiving migrants.
