Migration and Forced Displacement
Maximizing economic upsides and protecting the vulnerable
There are about 184 million people worldwide, including 37 million refugees, who live outside their country of nationality. About 43 percent of them live in low- and middle-income countries. With the right policies in place, cross-border migration can be a powerful force for development and prosperity.
To help countries meet this challenge, this topic page brings together important policy messages derived from World Bank research, including the World Development Report 2023: Migrants, Refugees, and Societies. It also provides additional valuable resources for researchers and policy makers seeking to better understand and address the complexities of migration.
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Key Policy Messages
These are major themes and messages emerging from the latest World Bank research on migration and forced displacement. Click on each card to learn more and access related publications.
Origin countries should make labor migration a part of their development strategy
Origin countries should make labor migration a part of their development strategy
- Facilitate remittances, knowledge transfers, and investments from the diaspora
- Mitigate the downsides of “brain drain”
- Expand training for skills in high demand globally (e.g., healthcare)
Yet simply maximizing remittances should not be a policy goal.
Destination countries should attract migrants with skills that are in demand
Destination countries should attract migrants with skills that are in demand
- Facilitate the economic and social inclusion of these migrants
- Support nationals who are negatively affected
Underrepresented voices must be heard, including:
- Developing countries and local authorities in destination countries
- The private sector, labor unions, and other stakeholders who can assess medium-term labor needs
- Migrants and refugees themselves
Donors and host countries should invest in refugees' economic independence
Donors and host countries should invest in refugees' economic independence
Investments in refugee earning capacity can enable refugees to become financially independent, and reduce the amount of humanitarian aid required.
Including refugees in national education and health systems, with adequate international support, is part of a sustainable response to refugee arrivals.
Countries should work to reduce distressed migration, while respecting people’s dignity
Countries should work to reduce distressed migration, while respecting people’s dignity
When migrants are neither refugees nor a strong match for the destination country’s labor market:
- Human dignity must be the guiding policy principle
- International cooperation is essential
Governments should consider the impact of migration policies on children
Governments should consider the impact of migration policies on children
Migration’s impact on children’s outcomes is complex and context-dependent:
- Policies that promote integration are highly beneficial
- Enforcement-oriented policies tend to hinder children’s development
Policies that improve service access and integration typically lead to positive outcomes for migrant children, such as including refugees in national education and health systems with international support.
Migration policies also impact critical family decisions.
International cooperation is critical to managing migration and forced displacement
International cooperation is critical to managing migration and forced displacement
Refugee-hosting countries and destination countries for migrants need and deserve international support:
- Bilateral cooperation can help finance training for migrants to develop in-demand skills
- New financing instruments should be developed to help countries care for non-citizens sustainably
- International support is needed for climate adaptation
Multimedia
Policy Research Working Papers
Thriving beyond Borders ? Understanding Refugee Children’s Life Outcomes
This study examines the human development gaps between forcibly displaced migrant and host children and adolescents, focusing on cognitive and socioemotional skills and physical and mental health. The study also explores how access to services and regularization programs are correlated with these disparities using a unique and comprehensive longitudinal data set of around 2,500 Venezuelan migrant and Colombian host children and adolescents, ages 5 to 17 and living in Medellín, Colombia.
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Policy Research Working Papers
Refugee Education Financing: Key Facts and Findings—Insights into the Financing of Refugee Education in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
This paper, along with its accompanying data, provides the first comprehensive analysis on financing for refugee education in low- and middle-income countries. It is hoped that this dataset and analysis will help to improve the understanding of financing for refugee education in low- and middle-income countries and inform future discussion and debate on refugee education financing.
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Policy Research Working Papers
Right to Education: Forced Migration and Child Education Outcomes
About a third of the 7.7 million Venezuelans who have left their country due to political and economic turmoil have settled in neighboring Colombia. The extent to which the Colombian schooling system can absorb the massive demand for education of Venezuelan children is key for their future trajectory of human capital accumulation, as well as that of Colombian students in receiving communities. This paper estimates the effect of Venezuelan migration on educational outcomes of children living in settlement municipalities in Colombia.
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Policy Research Working Papers
Responsibility Sharing and the Economic Participation of Refugees in Chad
This note explores the relative importance of aid in caring for refugees hosted in Chad and the importance of the incomes earned by the refugees. Economic participation policies are estimated to reduce refugee poverty from 88 to 50 percent (thus increasing the self-sufficiency of refugees dramatically), while increasing the incomes generated by poor refugees by more than 50 percent.
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Policy Research Working Papers
Comparing Internally Displaced Persons with Those Left Behind: Evidence from the Central African Republic
Assessing the welfare of people displaced by conflict is of growing policy importance, but methodologically challenging. It also hinges on constructing counterfactuals that show how internally displaced persons would have fared had they stayed in place. This paper addresses this issue using data from the Central African Republic, which recorded detailed information on displacement histories to isolate the communities from which those living in internally displaced person camps originated.
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