Helping Migrants to Stay at Home

Abstract

The relatively new but growing phenomenon of international migration pressure is documented and explained by reference to the widening income and trade gap between middle-income emigration and high-income immigration countries as well as by reference to the crucial role of networks. The three main international instruments for helping emigration countries to generate employment and income faster than in the past are then reviewed—trade expansion, foreign direct investment, and official development assistance. Trade is shown to have bypassed most emigration countries; growing protectionism does not augur well for the future. Foreign direct investment, similarly, has mostly taken the form of an exchange between rich countries or of inflows into Pacific Rim countries. Official development assistance is increasingly looked at as an option to be exploited for the purpose of reducing migration pressure. There are problems, of course, and little besides lip-service to date. An International Labour Office initiative to have emigration countries, immigration countries, and multilateral organizations collaborate is a promising approach to mobilizing increasingly scarce aid funds.