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
Asia
Europe
Latin America and Carribean
North America
Oceania
Total
Border workers in Europe
Total
11.7
37.6
18.9
19.3
2.4
0.8
90.7
19.4
110.1
10.4
43.4
19.6
16.2
1.6
0.3
91.5
21.4
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
Germany
14.1
Japan
2.5
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