Migration: A Global Issue in Need of a Global Solution
IMF Blog, November 11, 2015
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- Authors: Christine Lagarde
- Published: November 11, 2015
Humanitarian priorities and immediate needs
- Immediate priority: help refugees with better access to shelter, health care and quality education.
- Countries neighboring conflict zones have stretched capacity to absorb people to the limit and require more financial resources to support additional public services.
- Example: With the IMF’s support, Jordan has been able to adjust its fiscal targets to help meet this need.
- Countries that have welcomed large flows of refugees are commended; advanced countries should consider how they might increase their scope for admitting more refugees.
- Conclusion: no country can manage the refugee issue on their own — global cooperation is needed.
Migration’s economic implications
- Total number of migrants has risen significantly in recent years, now accounting for over 3 percent of the global population.
- Once migrants resettle and find stability, migration can—with the right policies—have an overall positive economic impact for migrants, their host country, and their country of origin.
- Migrants can boost a country’s labor force, encourage investment and boost growth.
- Preliminary IMF calculations show a modest positive impact on growth from migrants in EU countries.
- Migration can help address challenges from aging populations in a number of advanced countries:
- Over the medium term, migrants could help reduce pressures on pension and health spending.
- In the near term, the net budgetary impact tends to be relatively small.
Brain drain and remittances
- Countries experiencing outflows can lose their youngest and brightest, with important implications for growth.
- Example: Caribbean countries lost over 50 percent of their high-skilled labor between 1965 and 2000.
- Remittances are an important source of income and can lead to higher education and health spending.
- In 2014, remittance flows to developing countries amounted to $436 billion, more than half of total net foreign direct investment and well over three times as much as official development assistance.
- Lowering transaction costs of remittances would increase benefits:
- Estimates suggest that reducing remittance costs to one percent of the amount transferred could release savings of $30 billion per year, more than the entire bilateral aid budget to sub-Saharan Africa.
- Support the G-20’s commitment to reduce remittance transaction costs.
Policies to better integrate migrants
- Key challenge: facilitate smooth integration of newcomers (economic migrants and refugees), weighing short-term logistical, fiscal, and political hardships against medium- to long-term benefits.
- Elements of well-designed integration policy:
- Strengthen labor markets’ ability to absorb migrants — enable immediate ability to seek work and provide better job matching services.
- Enhance access to education and training — provide affordable education, language and job training.
- Improve skill recognition — adopt simple, affordable and transparent procedures to recognize foreign qualifications.
- Support migrant entrepreneurs — reduce barriers to start-ups and provide support with legal advice, counseling and training.
- Example: Sweden’s introduction program for refugees provides employment preparation and language training for up to 24 months, together with financial benefits; program is beginning to help the latest inflow of refugees to find jobs, though full success will take time.
A global call and IMF role
- Migration pressures are likely to increase in coming decades due to demographic forces, globalization, and environmental degradation.
- Cross-border challenges demand cross-border solutions: promote fair burden-sharing, facilitate remittance flows, protect labor rights, and promote a safe and secure working environment for migrants.
- The IMF will contribute through financing and capacity building.
- IMF analysis on this issue will feed into policy advice to countries in Africa, Europe and the Middle East dealing with massive population movements over the next few months.
- Conclusion: Migration is a global issue; collective action is required.
Source: Christine Lagarde, “Migration: A Global Issue in Need of a Global Solution,” November 11, 2015.
Content in this bundle
- 移民：全球问题，需要全球解决方案; iMFdirect博客; 2015年11月11日
- 移住：グローバルな解決策が必要なグローバルな問題; クリスティーヌ・ラガルド、IMF専務理事, iMFdirect ブログ 2015年11月11日掲載
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