The Benefits Of Migration

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For internal migration which is mostly the rural-urban drift, most rural dwellers move for economic or security reasons. For instance in the case of Nigeria, with the onset of the terrorist attacks in the north most of the people there have moved to the south for security. Others move to the cities because they believe there are more opportunities and entrepreneurs (mostly micro-entrepreneurs) move to gain a greater market for their businesses. (Todaro and Smith 2011) In the area of international migrations from Africa, the most common trend is the migration of young professionals and students to developed countries for better working conditions. IOM (International Organisation for Migration) states that there are more African scientists…show more content…
Development is about human well-being and migration improves the lives of migrants especially those migrating to the north. (IOM 2013) Through migration people are able to make more money by gaining higher wages than they are able to make home. They are also able to enjoy better working conditions than they had back at home. Some of the money earned by migrants is sent home through remittances “Decision to migrate can be seen as an ‘investment’ or the main way for households to mitigate risks by diversifying their livelihoods” (Ellis & Harris 2006 cited in von Drehle and Kristimaki…show more content…
Studies by various writers such as Clemens 2011, Rodrik 2002, Ratha 2011 and Black et. al 2006 have proved that migration has several desirable effects on international development. Migration is good for growth and poverty reduction because it can stimulate productive restructuring, productivity-enhancing investment and skill accumulation in sending countries , as well as increasing employment and income opportunities for migrants, or the flow of remittances. (Katseli and Xenogiani 2006) It can therefore be concluded that migration is not a brake upon development, it rather contributes to it, however several policies have to be put in place to better manage migrations. Also cost of money transfers to Africa has to be reduced so migrants will be encouraged to send more money home as currently Africa is the most expensive region to transfer money to from OECD countries. Also government must put in place measures to encourage the investment of remittances as these remittances do not really have significant impacts on the economic growth of the sending countries as the amount of remittances received is even more than ODAs. Furthermore, there is the need for more accurate data on migrations, remittances and its impact since existent data is either inconsistent or completely unavailable. Empirical

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