International Studies Compendium Project

Extract

Comment on this article   This entry reviews the impacts of international migration on the economic development of migrant-sending countries and the effects of development on migration from poorer to richer countries. Economic development, measured by average per capita economic output or income, is generally associated with reduced out-migration. However, there is an uncertain link between more out-migration from and remittances to labor-sending countries and faster economic development as measured by per capita incomes, and an equally unclear relationship between policies meant to accelerate development, such as freer trade and investment, and the outflow of migrants (Papade-metriou and Martin 1991; Skeldon 1997 ; Lucas 2005 ). International migration, crossing national borders and staying abroad a year or more, involved 191 million people in 2005, 3 percent of the global population (UN Population Division 2006). About two-thirds of international migrants have left developing countries, and half of these developing country migrants moved to industrial countries; the other half moved to other developing countries. Economic development is the process that allows poorer countries to become richer, and is most often measured by average per capita national income, recognizing that such measures are a crude basis for comparisons. In 2005, developing countries were classified by ... log in or subscribe to read full text