Impacts of Temporary Migration on Development in Origin Countries

Temporary migration is widespread globally. While the literature has traditionally focused onthe impacts of permanent migration on destination countries, evidence on the effects of temporary migration on origincountries has grown over the past decade. This paper highlights that the economic development impacts, especiallyon low- and middle-income origin countries are complex, dynamic, context-specific and multi-channeled. The paperidentifies five main pathways: (i) labor supply, (ii) human capital, (iii) financial capital and entrepreneurship, (iv)aggregate welfare and poverty, and (v) institutions and social norms. Several factors shape these pathways and theireventual impacts. These include initial economic conditions at home, the scale and double selectivity of emigration andreturn migration, and employment and human capital accumulation opportunities experienced by migrants whilethey are overseas, among others. Meaningful policy interventions to increase the development impacts oftemporary migration require proper analysis, which, in turn, depends on high quality data on workers’ employmenttrajectories. This is currently the biggest research challenge to overcome to study the development impacts oftemporary migration.