Evidence on Policies to Increase the Development Impacts of International Migration

International migration offers individuals and their families the potential to experience immediate and large gains in their incomes and offers a number of other positive benefits to the sending communities and countries. However, there are also concerns about the potential costs of migration, inclu...

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Main Authors:	McKenzie, David, Yang, Dean
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	en_US
Published:	Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank 2017
Subjects:	migration policy remittances return migration impact evaluation
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25998

id	okr-10986-25998
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-259982021-04-23T14:04:33Z Evidence on Policies to Increase the Development Impacts of International Migration McKenzie, David Yang, Dean migration policy remittances return migration impact evaluation International migration offers individuals and their families the potential to experience immediate and large gains in their incomes and offers a number of other positive benefits to the sending communities and countries. However, there are also concerns about the potential costs of migration, including concerns about trafficking and human rights, a desire for remittances to be used more effectively, and concerns about a loss of externalities from skilled workers. As a result, there is increasing interest in policies that can enhance the development benefits of international migration and mitigate these potential costs. We provide a critical review of recent research on the effectiveness of these policies at three stages of the migration process: pre-departure, during migration, and directed towards possible return. The existing evidence base suggests some areas of policy success: bilateral migration agreements for countries whose workers have few other migration options, developing new savings and remittance products that allow migrants more control over how their money is used, and efforts to provide financial education to migrants and their families. Suggestive evidence, together with theory, offers support for a number of other policies, such as lowering the cost of remittances, reducing passport costs, offering dual citizenship, and removing exit barriers to migration. Research offers reasons to be cautious about some policies, including policies enforcing strong rights for migrants, such as high minimum wages. Nevertheless, we find the evidence base to be weak for many policies, with no reliable research on the impact of most return migration programs or whether countries should attempt to induce communal remitting through matching funds. 2017-02-02T21:04:50Z 2017-02-02T21:04:50Z 2015-08 Journal Article World Bank Research Observer 1564-6971 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25998 en_US CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo World Bank Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank Publications & Research :: Journal Article Publications & Research
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	en_US
topic	migration policy remittances return migration impact evaluation
spellingShingle	migration policy remittances return migration impact evaluation McKenzie, David Yang, Dean Evidence on Policies to Increase the Development Impacts of International Migration
description	International migration offers individuals and their families the potential to experience immediate and large gains in their incomes and offers a number of other positive benefits to the sending communities and countries. However, there are also concerns about the potential costs of migration, including concerns about trafficking and human rights, a desire for remittances to be used more effectively, and concerns about a loss of externalities from skilled workers. As a result, there is increasing interest in policies that can enhance the development benefits of international migration and mitigate these potential costs. We provide a critical review of recent research on the effectiveness of these policies at three stages of the migration process: pre-departure, during migration, and directed towards possible return. The existing evidence base suggests some areas of policy success: bilateral migration agreements for countries whose workers have few other migration options, developing new savings and remittance products that allow migrants more control over how their money is used, and efforts to provide financial education to migrants and their families. Suggestive evidence, together with theory, offers support for a number of other policies, such as lowering the cost of remittances, reducing passport costs, offering dual citizenship, and removing exit barriers to migration. Research offers reasons to be cautious about some policies, including policies enforcing strong rights for migrants, such as high minimum wages. Nevertheless, we find the evidence base to be weak for many policies, with no reliable research on the impact of most return migration programs or whether countries should attempt to induce communal remitting through matching funds.
format	Journal Article
author	McKenzie, David Yang, Dean
author_facet	McKenzie, David Yang, Dean
author_sort	McKenzie, David
title	Evidence on Policies to Increase the Development Impacts of International Migration
title_short	Evidence on Policies to Increase the Development Impacts of International Migration
title_full	Evidence on Policies to Increase the Development Impacts of International Migration
title_fullStr	Evidence on Policies to Increase the Development Impacts of International Migration
title_full_unstemmed	Evidence on Policies to Increase the Development Impacts of International Migration
title_sort	evidence on policies to increase the development impacts of international migration
publisher	Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank
publishDate	2017
url	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25998
_version_	1764460689526620160

Evidence on Policies to Increase the Development Impacts of International Migration

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