International Migration and Remittances for Development

Migration and growth have always been an interesting relation in the literature on the economics of migration. There is, however, no consensus on the link between migration, remittance and economic growth. The link between migration and remittance is less contested as countries which have high immigration are found to be among countries that give or pay relatively high remittance. While countries with relatively high emigration are among countries that receive high remittance. This line of argument in support of the above is that as people relocate from one country to another, they still maintain the home country connections which might motivate them to send back some remittances upon getting income or kind. The aforementioned link might work on the contrary with refugee-connected relocation. The migration economics literature does, however, not agree on the link between remittance and economic growth, with some studies finding a positive relationship, some finding no relationship and others finding a negative relationship. The findings are, however, country regional specific largely depending on various characteristics like the skills set of migrants, the gender distribution of the migrants, age dynamics among the migrants and the push and pull factors behind migration. This chapter provides the evolution of migration beginning with the slave trade period to the current migration trends largely driven by economic push and pull factors in addition to wars and national and tribal conflicts. The migration trends are later matched to the remittance trends. The chapter then connects remittance to economic development using the GDP per capita as an indicator of economic development. The above analysis is done at the regional level with a total of nine regions. The regions are Africa Eastern and Southern (AFE), Africa Western and Central (AFW); Middle East and North Africa (MNA); Arab World (ARB); Central Europe and the Baltics (CEB); East Asia and Pacific (EAP); Europe and Central Asia (ECA); Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) and North America (NAC).