New Perspectives on International Migration and Development

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Joseph E. Stiglitz, Jeronimo Cortina, and Enrique Ochoa-Reza

The “age of mobility” is here to stay. Never before in human history have so many people been on the move. Today around 214 million people, or approximately 3 percent of the world’s population, live outside their country of birth. Women and girls account for half of international migrants, and 16 percent are under the age of 20 (UN/DESA 2011). South–south migration is now as frequent as south–north migration has been in the past, and while 97 percent of the world’s population does not move, migration is a global phenomenon that touches millions of lives, including many of those who haven’t themselves migrated.

International migration permeates our daily lives. Migration is a key part of globalization, the closer integration of the countries of the world.

In many ways, its impacts are greater than any other aspect of globalization, e.g., the movement of goods, ser vices, or capital. It has affected ideas, cultures, even countries’ sense of identity. Like other parts of globalization, it has been the center of controversy, but even more so: in many countries, debates about migration have become central to politics.

International migration as a transnational and global process has reshaped the meaning of national borders.

Ironically, while migration may have the most profound effects on both receiving and sending countries, it has remained the part of globalization least subject to international regulation. In recent years, though, a number of international forums have been created to understand the migration process better— and to shape the process so that it yields greater benefits to both the recipient and sending countries. These include the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD),1 the Global Migration Group (GMG),2 and a wide number of regional consultative processes (RCPs) on migration.3 Together, they are proof that migration has

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gained a strong foothold in the international debate and that the dialogue is moving forward.

This book focuses on one particular aspect of migration: its impact on development. We seek to understand the various channels through which migration affects developing countries from which the migrant leaves and what can be done by both the recipient and sending countries to increase the positive impacts on development.

The book grew out of a series of dialogues (the first held in New York City, the second in Mexico City) sponsored by the MacArthur Foundation on migration and development that approached the developmental impacts from a broad perspective, crossing disciplinary lines.

At the time of the first meeting (in April 2008), there was enormous enthusiasm in some circles about the possible positive effects of migration on developing countries. Migration was far more controversial in the recipient countries. But in the ensuing years, controversies have arisen over whether, overall, migration is positive even for development. This book helps us understand the ambiguous perspectives and we hope will lead to policies that will enhance the positive developmental impacts.

B E Y O N D R E M I T TA N C E S

Traditionally, discussions on development and migration focused on remittances. These were celebrated as providing new sources of funding— larger in many cases than foreign direct investment, short-term portfolio flows, or foreign aid. The central question was how to channel the funds toward “productive investments” that would promote development, ensuring the stability of the flow (especially relevant in recent years, with major downturns in some of the recipient countries) and that the flow of remittances is sustained (a worry that, as migrants get integrated into the communities to which they have moved, remittances will drop). The challenge was that money went to individuals, who might be more focused on, say, obtaining good housing than investing money in projects that would promote development.

There is no doubt that remittances have some strong positive benefits, such as stopping further impoverishment, improving families’ living standards, and increasing children’s access to health and education. But remittances also may create negative externalities, such as economic dependence and an overvalued country’s exchange rate, which make other areas of the economy uncompetitive.

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A narrow economic analysis of the effects of migration attempts to weigh the positive and negative effects against each other and to ask whether (or how) one can maximize the positive effects and minimize the negative. For instance, can exchange rate intervention ensure that the exchange rate will not be overvalued, and if so, are there adverse ancillary effects?

Economists even more narrowly focused have been aware that there are several other channels through which migration affects development. An earlier literature focused, for instance, on the brain drain. But what happened in some Eastern European countries after the fall of the Berlin Wall was seemingly far more devastating: a hollowing out of their economies and societies, with large fractions of talented young people leaving the country. Implicit in this literature was an understanding that there are benefits to society of, say, a talented individual remaining in the country that go beyond the wage he receives. At the very least, there is his contribution to public revenues. Indeed the existence of these externalities is part of the rationale for public support for education and provides the basis of the criticism of some emerging markets that out-migration of highly educated individuals to developed countries represents a “theft” of intellectual property.

This book argues, however, for taking a broader perspective on development, what it means and what gives rise to it. There are political and broader societal and cultural aspects of development. Migration affects politics and the role of the state in ways that can be either positive or negative for development (see Levitt and Lamba-Nieves and de la Garza in this volume). Migration may lower unemployment and thus reduce the political pressure for economic reforms that would lead to a better-performing economy.

As chapter 3 points out, as important as monetary remittances are cultural remittances: migrations affect the ideas, values, and perceptions of those who migrate, and when they return home (or even in their contacts with those who remain at home) this can have profound impacts on the communities from which they emigrated, impacts that cannot adequately be summarized in terms like an “increase in human capital.”

The real issue here is thus not whether migration creates positive or negative externalities through remittances—we know it does both—but whether our definition of development is inclusive enough to provide a comprehensive and meaningful evaluation of migration’s developmental impacts (Cortina et al. 2005).

Development is about enhancing individuals’ well-being through the advancement of their human rights and life satisfaction. Taking this

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broader perspective leads to a more nuanced and complex view of the impact of migration on development. The effects of migration are contextdependent: it can speed up development in countries ready to grow—if the macroeconomic and institutional fundamentals are in place— or help sustain underdevelopment. The impacts are neither automatic nor linear and are mediated by culture and by the transnational interactions that arise between migrants and their families back home.

GOAL OF THE BOOK

This volume highlights the complex nature of the developmental implications of migration. Our intention here is to contribute to the migrationdevelopment dialogue by broadening the debate and by providing new perspectives that address the challenges and harness the opportunities associated with migration and development. Our analysis strongly suggests that policies in both the sending and the recipient countries help shape the developmental impact.

The chapters in this volume bring provocative perspectives to topics that have not yet played a leading role in the debate. Historical and contemporary topics such as the causal linkages between migration and development transitions (going beyond remittances), the impact of female migration on development and children left behind, the impact of government policies, and the role of culture in shaping development goals and paths have remained elusive in the international dialogue.

We hope this book will make clear that development in the context of international migration needs to be conceptualized from a holistic and dynamic perspective, one that incorporates not only economic constructs but also the role of the state and its noneconomic policies and of culture.

This broader understanding has to be based on an analysis not only of how money and people move across borders but also of how ideas and culture do, and as they do, how these affect individuals and the communities and countries from which and to which they migrate.

A ROAD MAP OF THE BOOK

This book is intended for a very diverse set of audiences: government and elected officials in charge of designing and implementing migration and development policies; civil society and practitioners interested in ensuring

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that migration has the most positive impacts that it can on the migrants, the communities that they leave behind, and those to which they move; and scholars interested in understanding better the complex relationship between migration and development and deriving better policy prescriptions on the basis of these new perspectives.

This volume is divided into three parts. Each part has a short introduction underscoring the main linkages between each chapter. The four chapters in part 1 are devoted to “big” questions exploring the causal links between demographic and development transitions, the role of the state in shaping migration, and how migration shapes politics and the state, culture, and human rights in the migration-development debate. Part 2 consists of two chapters that focus on migration, children, women, and development. These chapters explore how families and local communities are reconfigured as a response to migration and the developmental implications of destination countries’ migration policies on the developmental prospects of migrant-sending countries.

The volume closes with part 3 focusing on migration’s developmental impacts on various migration corridors. Migration is a global phenomenon, but the nature of migration and its developmental impacts differ markedly from place to place. The five chapters in this part deal with different geographical areas and topics, illustrate the nuanced and complex nature of the migration-development nexus, and emphasize the contextdependent nature of migration’s developmental impacts.

The contributions to this volume demonstrate the rich and global nature of international migration. Migration can speed economic development and reduce poverty, but the effects on development go beyond GDP and incomes more narrowly defined. Ideally, migration benefits migrants, the countries of origin, and the countries of destination; making it easier for migrants to send remittances home is an example. But in some cases, there may be difficult trade-offs.

The central message of this book is that migration can have a positive effect on development, though it won’t be the “silver bullet” that some had hoped for. But designing policies that maximize the developmental impacts (broadly construed), or even ensuring that the benefits are positive, will not be easy. The relationship between migration and development is complex and will be understood only once we recognize that its impacts go beyond economic indicators and are affected by policies, culture, economics, and politics in both the recipient country and the sending country.

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REFERENCES

Cortina, J., Rodolfo de la Garza, and Enrique Ochoa-Reza. 2005. “Remesas: Limites al optimismo.” Foreign Aff airs en Español 5 (July– September): 27–36.

Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD). 2011. “Background and Objectives.” Geneva, Switzerland: GFMD. Accessed at http://gfmd.org/en/process /background.

Global Migration Group (GMG). 2011. “What is the GMG?” New York: United Nations. Accessed at http://www.globalmigrationgroup.org/en/what-is-the-gmg.

International Orga nization for Migration (IOM) 2011. “Regional Consultative Processes on Migration” Geneva, Switzerland: GFMD. Accessed at http://www.iom .int/cms/rcp.

United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (UN/DESA). 2011. “Trends in International Migrant Stock: Migrants by Age and Sex.” United Nations database, POP/DB/MIG/Stock/Rev. 2010.