This paper reviews the relationship between international migration and human development.
First, it reviews what we know about the factors that drive migration from developing to
developed countries. Second, it reviews existing knowledge about the impact of international
migration and remittances on the economic and human development of migrants’ source
countries. These first two sections of the paper are accompanied by an assessment of the gaps in
our knowledge that need to be filled with further research.
The last section of the paper outlines policies that could help raise the development impact of
migration and remittances. First, governments should extend absentee voting rights to overseas
citizens. In addition, facilitating migrants’ access to and use of financial services could bring
substantial benefits. Furthermore, governments can profitably devote self-discovery and
enterprise promotion efforts to small-scale activities. Finally, there could be substantial benefits
from encouraging overseas citizens to retire at home while taking advantage of accumulated
retirement benefits from their migration host countries.