120% gain in income for Indians going abroad to work, says WDR

Source: The post is based on the article “120% gain in income for Indians going abroad to work, says WDR” published in TOI on 27th April 2023

What is the News?

The World Bank has published the World Development Report 2023: Migrants, Refugees & Societies.

What are the key findings of the report?

Migrants: ​​There are currently 184 million migrants globally, which is 2.3% of the population, including 37 million refugees.

– It said there are four types of migrants: 1) economic migrants with strong skill match (Indian IT professionals in the US or construction workers in GCC nations), 2) refugees with skills in demand at destination (Syrian entrepreneur refugees in Türkiye) 3) distressed migrants (some poorly skilled migrants at the US southern border) and 4) refugees (Rohingya in Bangladesh). 

– India-US, India-Bangladesh and India-GCC have been considered among the top migrant corridors.

Increase in Remittances: The remittances have increased to some of the countries with a large migrant population, including India, Mexico, China and the Philippines.

– It is estimated that an Indian migrant worker in the UAE, for instance, sends nearly 70% of his/her income to the family, with women likely to remit a higher amount. 

Income gain for Indians who migrate to another country: The report estimated a 120% income gain for Indians who migrate to another country for work, compared to a 40% rise in the case of internal migration.

– Under-skilled Indian citizens migrating to the US noticed a hike in their income of nearly 500%, followed by the UAE by almost 300%.

– Those migrating to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) nations other than UAE stand to gain less.

What are the recommendations given by the report?

The report proposes an integrated framework to maximize the development impacts of cross-border movements on both destination and origin countries and on migrants and refugees themselves. 

The framework rests on a “match and motive” matrix that focuses on two factors: how closely migrants’ skills and attributes match the needs of destination countries and what motives underlie their movements. 

This approach enables policy makers to distinguish between different types of movements and to design migration policies for each. International cooperation will be critical to the effective management of migration.