Remittances are a vital lifeline for migrants’ families around the world and an important source of revenue for many low- and middle-income countries, especially in times of crisis. As more people turn to digital financial technologies for these money transfers, this shift holds the potential to shake up the rigid remittance industry and boost development benefits. But it also brings new challenges, as this report explores.
With more people moving abroad for work and events such as the 2022 World Cup in Qatar highlighting the risks migrant workers can face, questions about how international recruitment occurs have received increased scrutiny. This policy brief explores the notable progress that has been made in establishing fair and ethical recruitment standards, and identifies key areas for future attention by governments, employers, and recruiters.
El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras have long histories of emigration, but are seeing increasing transit and return migration as well. This report explores the stories told within these three countries about migration in all its forms, how these narratives intersect with (and at times, contradict) each other, and how they influence policy decisions and public opinion.
Migrant workers can pay a range of costs when they are recruited and relocate for jobs abroad, accruing significant debt. While many countries, international organizations, and other stakeholders have sought to reduce or eliminate recruitment costs, the pandemic has exacerbated and added to these expenses. This policy brief explores how the costs migrant workers face have changed, and what these developments mean for efforts to promote fair and ethical recruitment.
Multilateral development banks (MDBs) have emerged as major players in responding to climate change, investing in sustainable infrastructure and climate resilience. But while many MDBs have shown interest in projects with positive impacts for climate migrants and host communities, they sometimes struggle to maximize these effects. This report examines MDBs’ role in responding to climate-related migration and displacement to date and opportunities to scale up their work.
The Los Angeles Agreement on Migration and Protection signed by leaders from 20 countries across the Western Hemisphere at the 2022 Summit of the Americas marks a significant step forward in creating a common language and a coherent set of ideas for more cooperatively managing migration movements across a region that has seen very significant mobility in recent years, as this commentary explains.
Looking for some of the most often-sought information on global migration? This statistics-rich article draws on the most current data sources to offer a primer on international migration, highlighting its types, the size of the migrant population and growth over time, and major sending and receiving countries and regions. Beyond looking at labor and humanitarian migrants and international students, the article examines remittances and more.
MPI experts discuss outcomes from the UN Summit for Refugees and Migrants, the Leaders Summit on Refugees, and related private-sector meetings and how these efforts may gain momentum to change international responses to the complex threats refugees and migrants face.
This report by MPI and the Asian Development Bank lays out a realistic roadmap toward freer movement among skilled professionals within the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), encouraging cooperation among ASEAN Member States in recognizing foreign qualifications and making government investments in training and educations systems that prepare workers in accordance with common standards.
This report analyzes the evolution of Chinese emigration from the 1970s, when market-oriented reforms began reducing barriers to movement beyond the country's borders, to the present day. High-skilled and high-value emigration is rising fast. Despite liberalized exit controls, low-skilled labor migration is stagnant as a result of complicated and expensive recruitment procedures.
While skilled migration brings widely acknowledged economic benefits for destination countries and migrants, its impact on countries of origin has been the subject of more debate. Despite a growing consensus that origin countries can benefit from emigration and the circulation of skills, enabling this potential to be fully exploited remains a challenge. This report examines initiatives that develop skills and human capital.
The Special Representative on International Migration for the UN Secretary-General, Peter Sutherland, and the former UN Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees, T. Alexander Aleinikoff, preview upcoming high-level humanitarian protection and migration summits in 2016, focusing on likely agendas and what tangible results might occur.
This briefing in Bangkok launches the MPI-IOM Issue in Brief, Shortage amid Surplus: Emigration and Human Capital Development in the Philippines, which reviews the impacts of the Philippines' successful labor export policy on skills development and human capital growth within the country. While Filipino migrant workers contribute significantly to the national economy with the remittances they send home (over US $27 billion in 2014), this reliance on exporting labor raises an important question: Has the nation’s focus on preparing workers to leave compromised human capital development at home?
The Philippines has the most sophisticated labor-exporting model in the world, with 1.8 million temporary workers deployed in 2014 alone. This issue in brief reviews the impacts of the Philippines’ successful labor export policy on skills development and human capital growth within the country.
A discussion on how governments and societies can retain their most valuable workers, turn emigration challenges into opportunities, and capture more of the potential benefits of emigration.
The Los Angeles Declaration Could Represent a Big Step for Real Migration Cooperation across the Americas
The Los Angeles Agreement on Migration and Protection signed by leaders from 20 countries across the Western Hemisphere at the 2022 Summit of the Americas marks a significant step forward in creating a common language and a coherent set of ideas for more cooperatively managing migration movements across a region that has seen very significant mobility in recent years, as this commentary explains.
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