Abstract
‘Migration and development’ assesses the effect of migration on development in origin countries. The main benefit to origin nations is remittance of money back to migrants’ families. This is hard to quantify, but the World Bank estimates that in 2015 some US$586 billion was sent home by migrants worldwide. Remittance directly benefits the recipient family, but it can also have a detrimental effect on society at large, and encourage a culture of migration. Diasporas can coordinate remittance, and also give migrants a say in their native political systems. On the negative side, migration can deplete countries of skills that are in short supply through the ‘brain drain’.
