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A blog about migration, remittances, and development

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This blog is hosted by Dilip Ratha, lead economist at the World Bank. Its goal is to leverage migration and remittances for development.  
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March 2009

Live online discussion on April 8

Submitted by Dilip Ratha on Mon, 03/30/2009 - 07:42

After releasing the latest remittance flow forecast for developing countries this week, finding that remittances will fall more sharply in 2009 than originally projected, I am going to take part in a live online discussion on April 8, 2009 at 10:00 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time. 

If you have questions about the remittances forecast or other topics related to migration, remittances and development, feel free to submit them in advance or follow the conversation here. 

Call for papers: International Conference on Diaspora for Development, July 13-14, 2009

Submitted by Sonia Plaza on Thu, 03/26/2009 - 12:18

The Migration and Remittances team of the Development Economics and Prospects Group (DEPG) of the World Bank is organizing an International Conference on Diaspora and Development on July 13-14, 2009 in Washington D.C. 

The diaspora of developing countries can be a potent force for development for their countries of origin, through remittances, but more importantly, also through promotion of trade, investments, knowledge and technology transfers. The conference aims to consolidate research and evidence on these issues with a view to formulating policies in both sending and receiving countries.

The program committee invites economists (and non-economists as well) and policy makers to submit proposals for papers on related themes. Topics will include but are not limited to:

  • Demographic trends that will influence the destination and composition of the diasporas from developing countries.
  • Diaspora's economic and non-economic contributions to development through trade, investment, transfer of technology, skill transfer, institution building. (Ideally, we would like to cover topics other than remittances and brain drain on which much has already been written.)
  • Policies that deepen the diaspora's contribution to the development of the country of origin. For example, do diaspora bonds actually help mobilize financing for development? Does dual citizenship deepen the diaspora's ties to the country of origin?

Papers with a focus on Africa are especially welcome. Also papers dealing with developed countries are welcome if they draw lessons for developing countries.

Remittances expected to fall by 5 to 8 percent in 2009

Submitted by Dilip Ratha on Mon, 03/23/2009 - 12:09

With Sanket

We have revised our forecasts for remittance flows to developing countries in the light of a downward revision to the World Bank’s global economic outlook (see our latest Migration and Development Brief 9). We now expect a sharper decline of 5 to 8 percent in 2009 (see figure 1 and table 1 below) compared to our earlier projections.

This decline in nominal dollar terms is small relative to the projected fall in private capital flows or official aid to developing countries. However, considering that officially recorded remittances registered double-digit annual growth in the past few years to reach an estimated $305 billion in 2008, an outright fall in the level of remittance flows as projected now will cause hardships in many poor countries.

South-South remittances from Russia, South Africa, Malaysia and India are especially vulnerable to the rolling economic crisis. Also the outlook remains uncertain for remittance flows from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. Both low-income and middle-income countries are expected to see a similar decline – about 5 percent – in remittance inflows in 2009. Although newspapers are reporting a large number of migrants returning home, new migration flows are still positive, implying that the stock of existing migrants continues to increase. The persistence of the migrant stock will contribute to the persistence (or resilience) of remittance flows in the face of the crisis. Box 1 below outlines the reasons for expecting remittances to remain resilient during the crisis.

Who should manage immigration?: Local vs. federal level policy-making

Submitted by Neil Ruiz on Tue, 03/03/2009 - 14:05

The failure of the federal government to reform US immigration policy during the past administration has left immigration policy-making to local municipalities.  A recent report by Audrey Singer, et al. of the Brookings Institution on "Immigrants, Politics, and Local Responses to Suburban Washington" illustrates how local officials in Prince William County, VA  responded to the growth of immigrants in their county over the past decade by creating "restrictionist" policies. 

Being a county that witnessed the tripling of their Hispanic population from 2000 to 2006, many long-time residents pressured the county government to crack down on "illegal" immigration by creating legislation without a public hearing to: (1) order the police to check the residency status of lawbreakers and (2) allow the county government to deny business licenses and certain social services to unauthorized immigrants.  Many long-term residents and county officials believe that they lack the infrastructure to support the new immigrant population, while many new immigrants of Prince William County feel that they are being discriminated against.

As the US enters into a deeper recession and if Congress and President Obama choses to delay immigration reform, we may see more local governments adopt "restrictionist" immigration policies.  Should the federal government allow local officials to create immigration policy?