9 October 2014
The time has come for a “high-road scenario” based on facilitating migration, not restricting it. It’s a scenario that must be driven by a vision of migration as a process to be managed rather than a problem to be solved – a means to expand people’s development. For a globalised world we will handicap ourselves if we continue developing barriers instead of linkages that connect countries, communities and individuals across borders.
The number of people on the move is at an all-time high: at least one billion of the planet’s seven billion population. Migration fuels growth, innovation and entrepreneurship in both the countries people come from and in those they move to. When governed humanely to promote safety, order and dignity, migration has endless advantages. It provides opportunities, raises incomes and living standards and allows people to both pursue their educational or career ambitions.
Europe’s population meanwhile is ageing, and the EU is predicting a massive shortage of workers as the working age population will drop by 45m in the next 50 years. In many countries, migration has either slowed or even reversed the ageing trend and its slide towards untenable ratios between the working and non-working populations. Migration offers the means to keep key sectors of national economies afloat, whether in the care professions, the hospitality industry or the high-tech sector.
“In many countries, migration has either slowed or even reversed the ageing trend and its slide towards untenable ratios between the working and non-working populations”
Last year, migrants from developing countries sent an estimated $414bn back to their families – three times the amount provided by official international development assistance (ODA). More than a billion people rely on these remittances to help pay for their education, healthcare, water and sanitation. A recent study of six European cities – Barcelona, Dublin, Hamburg, Lille, Prague and Turin –shows how beneficial labour migration is to the host communities. In Turin, for example, tax revenues from foreigners brought a net benefit of €1.5bn to public finances. The same study also showed how migrants help to fill gaps in the labour market and so contribute to growth in new sectors. Their presence does much to help offset the impact of ageing.
