Migrationsreduktion durch Entwicklungszusammenarbeit? Eine ökonomische Analyse am Beispiel Afrikas

The so-called “migration hump” describes the inverted U-shaped relationship between development and migration. In relatively poor countries, development leads to increasing migration, as the budget constraint of potential migrants loosens. By contrast, in relatively rich countries, this relationship is reversed because the incentive to migrate is negligibly small. We discuss the implications of this empirical finding for development cooperation with African countries and conclude that further development would rather increase than reduce migration. As a consequence, the capture of development policy by a restrictive migration policy is not expedient, as they follow different normative rationales, and hampers the effectiveness of development policy.