As populations age, competition for employees increases in wealthy and middle-income nations.
A recent World Bank analysis found that due to the exceptional rate of population ageing, many nations are becoming more dependent on immigration to reach their potential for long-term growth.
This development is noted as a rare opportunity to improve mobility for economies and people in the World Development Report 2023: Migrants, Refugees, and Societies. The global rivalry for workers and expertise is getting more intense as wealthy countries and an increasing number of middle-income countries—traditionally among the main sources of migration—face declining populations. Meanwhile, the majority of low-income nations are anticipated to see significant population growth, placing pressure on them to increase the number of jobs available to 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.”
The proportion of working-age individuals will significantly decline in several nations over the ensuing decades. With a population of 47 million, Spain is expected to have a more than one-third decline by 2100, with the proportion of people over 65 rising from 20% to 39%. Due to their populations' stagnant growth, nations including Mexico, Thailand, Tunisia, and Turkey may soon require more international workers.
Beyond this demographic transition, the factors influencing migration are also evolving, increasing the diversity and complexity of cross-border migration. Today, both origin and destination nations vary in terms of income, with various nations, including Mexico, Nigeria, and the United Kingdom, sending and receiving immigrants. Over the past ten years, the number of refugees has virtually tripled. Migration could increase as a result of climate change.
The current methods not only fall short of maximising the potential development benefits of migration, but they also significantly worsen the misery of those migrating under duress. Presently, 184 million people—or 2.5% of the world's population—live outside of their country of origin, including 37 million refugees. 43 percent of the population lives in developing nations.
The need of improving migration management is stressed by the paper. Policymakers should strive to safeguard refugees and lessen the necessity for displaced movements while improving the match between the capabilities of migrants and the need in destination cultures. For policymakers, the paper offers a framework for doing this.
over the previous ten years, virtually tripled. Migration could increase as a result of climate change.
“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.”
Origin nations should explicitly include labour migration in their development plans. They should lower remittance fees, promote knowledge transfers from their diaspora, develop highly sought-after skills so that citizens can migrate and find better employment, lessen the negative effects of "brain drain," safeguard their citizens while they are abroad, and assist them when they return.
Where the skills migrants bring are in high demand, destination countries should promote migration, assist their integration, and address societal repercussions that cause concern among their inhabitants. Refugees should be allowed to travel, find employment, and use local services wherever they are available.
To transform migration into a powerful driver for development, international cooperation is necessary. The ability of migrants to match their abilities to the demands of host cultures can be improved through bilateral collaboration. In order to solve troubled migration and split the expense of sheltering refugees, multilateral initiatives are required. Developing nations, the commercial sector, other stakeholders, as well as migrants and refugees themselves, must all have their voices heard in the migration discussion.