Competition for workers rising as populations age in rich and middle-income countries
WASHINGTON
— Populations across the globe
are aging at an unprecedented pace, making many countries increasingly reliant
on migration to realize their long-term growth potential, according to a new
report from the World Bank.
The World Development Report 2023: Migrants, Refugees, and
Societies,
identifies this trend as a unique opportunity to make migration work better for
economies and people. Wealthy countries as well as a growing number of
middle-income countries—traditionally among the main sources of migrants—face diminishing
populations, intensifying the global competition for workers and talent. Meanwhile,
most low-income countries are expected to see rapid population growth, putting
them under pressure to create more jobs for 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.”
Beyond this demographic shift,
the forces driving migration are also changing, making cross-border movements
more diverse and complex. Today, destination and origin countries span all
income levels, with many countries such as Mexico, Nigeria, and the U.K. both
sending and receiving migrants. The number of refugees nearly tripled over the
last decade. Climate change threatens to fuel more migration. So far, most climate-driven
movements were within countries, but about 40% of the world’s population—3.5
billion people—lives in places highly exposed to climate impacts.
Current approaches not only
fail to maximize the potential development gains of migration, they also cause great
suffering for people moving in distress. About 2.5% of the world’s
population—184 million people, including 37 million refugees—now live outside
their country of nationality. The largest share—43%—lives in developing countries.
The report underscores the urgency
of managing migration better. The goal of policymakers should be to strengthen
the match of migrants’ skills with the demand in destination societies, while protecting
refugees and reducing the need for distressed movements. The report provides a
framework for policymakers on how to do this.
“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
countries should make labor migration an explicit part of their development
strategy. They should lower remittance costs, facilitate knowledge transfers
from their diaspora, build skills that are in high demand globally so
that citizens can get better jobs if they migrate, mitigate the adverse effects
of “brain drain,” protect their nationals while abroad, and support them upon
return.
Destination
countries should encourage migration where the skills migrants bring are in
high demand, facilitate their inclusion, and address social impacts that raise
concerns among their citizens. They should let refugees move, get jobs, and
access national services wherever they are available.
International cooperation is
essential to make migration a strong force for development. Bilateral
cooperation can strengthen the match of migrants’ skills with the needs of
destination societies. Multilateral efforts are needed to share the costs of
refugee-hosting and to address distressed migration. Voices that are
underrepresented in the migration debate must be heard: this includes
developing countries, the private sector and other stakeholders, and migrants
and refugees themselves.
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