While the rich countries are facing a population declinemost low-income countries are experiencing rapid economic growth. population growthThis constitutes pressure to create more jobs for young people.

This combination of factors makes the migration can become a driving force for the development of the prosperity and the development of the world, exposes Axel van Trotsenburgsenior managing director of World Bank Group.

The World Development Report 2023: Migrants, Refugees, and Societies. identifies this trend as a unique opportunity to make migration more helpful to economies and people.

"Migration can be a powerful force for prosperity and development. When properly managed, it provides benefits for all people in both sending and receiving societies," says Trotsenburg.

The Report of the World Bank that as the world struggles to cope with the challenges of the global economic imbalancesIn view of diverging demographic trends and climate change, migration will become a necessity in the coming decades for countries at all income levels.

"If managed well, migration can be a force for prosperity and can help achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals," he stresses.

In the coming decades, many countries will experience a marked decline in the proportion of working-age adults, for example, Spainwhich has a population of 47 million, will see this percentage reduced by more than a third by 2100 and will double the number of people over 65 years of age. Countries such as MexicoThailand, Tunisia and Turkey will soon need more foreign workers because their populations have stopped growing.

In the last decade, the number of refugees almost tripled and the climate change threatens to drive migration trends even further. Until now, most climate-driven displacement has been observed within countries, but about 40% of the world's population, 3.5 billion people, live in places highly exposed to climate impacts, the Report notes.

To maximize the development impacts of cross-border movements on both destination and origin countries, and on the migrants and refugees themselves, the Report proposes an integrated framework that focuses on two factors: the extent to which the skills and attributes of migrants match the needs of destination countries, and what motivations underlie their movements.

This approach will enable policymakers to distinguish between different types of movements and design migration policies for each. International cooperation will be essential for effective migration management.

Current approaches not only fail to maximize the potential development gains from migration, but also cause great suffering to those who move under unfavorable conditions.

The goal for policymakers should be to strengthen the match between migrants' skills and demand in destination societies, while protecting refugees and reducing the need for unfavorable displacement.

The Report states that countries of origin should make labor migration an explicit part of their development strategy, thus:

• Remittance costs must be reduced
• Facilitating knowledge transfer from the Diaspora
• Develop skills that are in high demand around the world so that citizens can get better jobs if they migrate
• Mitigate the adverse effects of the "brain drain".
• Protecting its citizens while abroad and supporting them when they return home

While destination countries must:

• Encouraging migration when the skills brought by migrants are in high demand
• Facilitating their inclusion
• Addressing the social impacts that cause concern to its citizens
• Enable refugees to relocate, secure employment and access available national services

The Report stresses that multilateral efforts are needed to spread the costs of receiving refugees and to address unfavorable migration cases.

Source: World Bank