Working abroad – the patterns of migration flows and remittances

across countries

Anne Harrison, Tolani Britton and Annika Swanson

Round Table on Sustainable Development

• Ministerial level meetings directed to finding means to implement goals agreed internationally to further sustainable development globally

• Focus on the impacts of OECD countries on countries in the rest of the world

Sustainable development

• Economic development which respects the contribution of the environment and the fact that economies ultimately function for the benefit of people

International agreements

• Plan of implementation from WSSD

• MDGs

• Monterrey consensus on investment and development

• Doha development agreement

Sustaining whose development?

• Presented to a meeting of the Round Table in November 2003

• Presented none data sets• Five use data concerning international

flows– Services– FDI– Debt– Remittances

Migrants and remittances

• Part of the social aspect of sustainable development

• Highly topical, not fully understood, not always well represented

• Can an examination of the data help understanding and representation?

• Doha mode 4

Country coverage

• All 30 OECD countries

• 27 large non-OECD countries

• 85% of population, 97% of GDP

• Plus 17 regional “other” groups covering the remaining 160-170 countries

Goal

• Take IMF data on remittances and estimate the match between country of origin and destination

• Initially work with data for 2000 only

First task – pattern of migrants

• Have information on number of migrants in each country, no comprehensive information on number of nationals abroad and the countries where are

• Set about building a matrix of migrants for the world for 2000

Problems

• Nationality, citizenship, place of birth

• Refugees

• Length of stay

• Worker or family member

• Links to home country

• Skill level

• Year data available

Results

Millions From OECD

ROW Total

To OECD 22.2

16.2

34.1

24.9

56.3

41.1

ROW 2.5

1.8

77.9

57.0

80.4

58.8

Total 24.7

18.0

112.0

81.9

136.7

100.0

Nationals abroad (mn)

• Russia 10.2• Mexico 7.9• India 7.2• Ukraine 4.7• Philippines 4.1• UK 3.4• Bangladesh 3.3

• Italy 3.0• Turkey 2.8• Indonesia 2.4• Nigeria 2.1• Portugal 1.7• Thailand 1.6• Germany 1.5

Remittances

• Add workers’ remittances and compensation of employees

• Credits 41.8 + 60.7 = 102.5

• Debits 45.2 + 54.9 = 100.1

• Philippines

• Ignore migrants transfers

Remittances per migrant

• Annex table 6

• Outflow per migrant (col 4)broadly consistent across countries

• Estimate missing countries – Nigeria, Qatar, UAE, Malaysia, Singapore, Canada

Border workers

• Credits• France 7.9• Belgium/Lux 3.7• Germany 3.4• Italy 1.5

• Total 19.4

• Debits• International orgs 6.5• Switzerland 5.6• Germany 4.2• Belgium/Lux 2.9 • Italy 2.0

• Total 24.1

Receipts per national abroad

• Annex table 6 col 6, col 9

• Again reasonably consistent across countries at similar levels of development and with IMF data

Geographical groupings

Africa 11.7 10.4

Asia 37.6 43.4

Europe 18.9 19.6

Latin America and Carribean 19.3 16.2

North America 2.4 1.6

Oceania 0.8 0.3

Total 90.7 91.5

Border workers in Europe 19.4 21.4

Total 110.1 115.7

Impact on GDP

• Annex table 6 cols 7 and 10

• Largest impact Sudan 106.8

• Philippines 105.9

• Bangladesh 104.0

Perception

• Remittances come from OECD countries

Data

Int orgs 6.5 France 3.8

USA 26.8 Malaysia 3.8

Saudi Arabia 15.4 Belgium/Lux 3.3

Other western Asia

14.1 Japan 2.5

Germany 7.4 Italy 2.0

Switzerland 7.3 Spain 1.7

Perception

• Most remittances go to the third world

Data

India 9.2 Germany 3.4

France 7.9 Portugal 3.4

Mexico 7.6 Egypt 2.9

Turkey 4.6 USA 2.4

Spain 3.8 Morocco 2.2

Belgium/Lux 3.7 Bangladesh 2.0

Results

Millions To OECD ROW Total

From OECD

38.9

35.1

29.3

26.4

68.2

61.4

ROW 0.7

0.6

42.0

37.9

42.7

38.5

Total 39.6

35.7

71.3

64.2

110.9

100.0