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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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Migration

Labor Mobility and Circular Migration: What are the challenges of the Stockholm Program?

Submitted by Sonia Plaza on Mon, 11/02/2009 - 19:35

I recently gave a presentation and participated in a conference organized by the Swedish Presidency of the European Union(EU) on “Labor Migration and its Development Potential in the Age of Mobility"on October 15-16. The conference focused on two main themes: a) Labor immigration, and b) Circular migration and its development potential.

Speakers and participants discussed the importance of improving labor mobility in Europe given demographic changes. New players such as China and India are competing for global talent. The EU should become an attractive market for immigrants if it wants to remain competitive in the coming decades.  Within this context mutual recognition of skills and accreditation becomes key for developing countries. (See my previous post)

First round of seasonal workers finishes in Australia

Submitted by Tomas Martin Ernst on Fri, 10/30/2009 - 16:59

I've just returned from country Australia evaluating the impact of one of the World Bank's (WB) recent development programs in the region. A WB initiative on the ground in Australia? What is the relationship between country Australia and the Bank's mandate of a world free of poverty?

Photo © Tomas Ernst/World Bank

Following several year's of research and advocacy, the Australian government opened its borders this year to the short-term supply of labour from the Pacific Islands (PIs). Evidence from New Zealand showed that when temporary labour mobility programs are well managed - with the appropriate level of monitoring to prevent worker exploitation and with the right incentives to minimize overstaying - the scheme is win-win for growers and PI workers. Growers enjoy a steady, reliable source of labour and PI workers receive income at least 4-5 times the GDP/capita of their home country.

My colleague Nathan and I travelled to Griffith, New South Wales where six ni-Vanuatu workers were preparing to head home following a six-month assignment picking, pruning and packing fruit. All workers reported a significantly improved financial position, with the majority sending regular remittances to their family members and local villages. In terms of skills acquisition, the training workers received on farms in Australia will benefit them when they return home to agriculture dependant economies of the South Pacific.

US banks’ actions to close small money transfer companies’ accounts may reduce legitimate options for sending money home

Submitted by Jacqueline Irving on Tue, 10/27/2009 - 19:11

US-based migrants may find it much harder to opt for formal channels in sending money to needy family members overseas because of an increasing tendency on the part of a number of US banks to close down the accounts held by small, niche money transfer companies—including many that are in full compliance with licensing, auditing, customer reporting and other regulatory requirements of US state and national authorities.

Shanta's Podcast on African Migration

Submitted by Sanket Mohapatra on Mon, 10/26/2009 - 17:31

For those of you like me who have not heard Shanta Devarajan on 'Mobilizing the African Diaspora', it is worth having the patience to sit through George Collinet's initial introduction. George starts with "Remittances again? You just had a podcast on remittances" (referring to Dilip's interview)!
 
Shanta talks about the impact of the crisis and also about the diaspora conference where he chaired a session on brain drain, and where Michael Clemens compared the remittances of Nigerian doctors to the cost of their education and found that the former exceeds the latter. 

Does migration also cause climate change?

Submitted by Dilip Ratha on Thu, 10/15/2009 - 17:24

Climate change has historically pushed people to migrate. There is widespread belief - fear? - that rising sea levels will force millions of people to migrate out of Bangladesh and Vietnam. If that happens, these migrants will spill into neighboring countries many of which are unlikely to be ready to take on migrants. Many will also sooner or later spread into far away countries in Australia, Asia, Europe and North America.

What concerns me more is that this simplistic viewpoint has very little factual analytical backing. Data on migration trends over time are bad. Data on climate change as they relate to migration are even worse. What is worse, migration experts are not necessarily talking to the experts on climate change.

Home Again

Submitted by Dilip Ratha on Mon, 10/05/2009 - 17:20

   Photo © Dilip Ratha/ World Bank

I was in Sindhekela (India) last August. "Home again," as Jason DeParle put it after our last trip to Sindhekela together. It was hot and humid. There were more mosquitoes than I have ever seen. But with the monsoon came a season of festivity. For the first time in decades I was home for Ganesh Puja and Nuakhai.

Ganesh Puja offers homage to the Hindu God of wisdom, so wise that He has the head of an elephant. When I visited my school, I noticed that unlike other years, the students did not install the statue of Ganesh inside a classroom. A few days earlier, an old beam supporting the roof had come crashing down while a class was in progress. Miraculously no one was hurt - thanks to Lord Ganesh! But they did not take another chance, and installed the statue on the veranda. 

Second International Migration and Development Conference

Submitted by Çağlar Özden on Mon, 09/28/2009 - 15:53

The World Bank, jointly with Agence Française de Développement (AFD), organized the Second International Migration and Development Conference on September 10-11th. The organizing committee consisted of Caglar Ozden and Maurice Schiff of the World Bank and Hillel Rapaport of Bar Ilan University (currently visiting Harvard University). This was a follow-up of the conference in Lille, France in June 2008, after which AFD agreed to sponsor a conference every year. The next conference is scheduled to be held at the Paris School of Economics in June 2010, hosted by Francois Bourguignon, former Chief Economist of the World Bank.

The conference program included the latest papers by the leading academics and researchers addressing a wide range of issues on the development and the migration nexus. Among the topics were migration and institutions, illegal migration, link between poverty and migration, human capital formation and migration, self-selection, migrant networks and social externalities. A total of 38 papers including two keynote addresses via parallel sessions were presented.  

Business as Usual in Guatemala

Submitted by Sanket Mohapatra on Tue, 09/15/2009 - 11:13

Santa Catalina Arch, Antigua, Guatemala. Photo © Sanket Mohapatra/World Bank

I recently made a presentation on the impact of the financial crisis and our outlook for remittances in 2009-10 at a conference on improving central bank measurement and procedures on remittances organized by CEMLA and the Banco de Guatemala on September 8-10. My colleague Jacqueline Irving presented on a global survey of central banks.The sessions and interactions with the participants made me aware that central bankers are not just interested in measuring remittances accurately, but are thinking about a range of issues that affect both remittances and migration—ranging from how exchange rate movements can create incentives to send remittances for investment motives, to intra-regional and bilateral migration flows.
 

Can migrant remittances build resilience to natural disasters?

Submitted by Sanket Mohapatra on Thu, 08/27/2009 - 17:42
   Photo © iStockphoto.com

Floods, earthquakes and hurricanes cause significant loss of life and destruction of property in many countries. The incidence of such disasters has increased in recent years. There is a growing consensus, however, that being better prepared against natural disasters can be equally or more effective than immediate aid and relief.

Several studies have shown that migrants send additional remittances after severe shocks. However, there is little evidence of whether and how they help households prepare for natural disasters (see paper for more details). In a recent paper for a forthcoming World Bank-UN assessment of the economics of disaster risk reduction, we analyze cross-country macroeconomic data as well as a number of household surveys to examine the "ex-post" response of remittances to natural disasters and their contribution to "ex-ante" preparedness.