In September 2000, the United Nations MillenniumDevelopment Goals rallied the international community behind a sharedvision. The MDGs, which expire in 2015, signaled a new era of globalcooperation, and triggered real progress in terms of lifting millions of peopleout of extreme poverty, improving health and access to education, andempowering women.
The eight original MDGs, which include reducing child mortality and achievinguniversal primary education, are lauded for their simplicity and measurability. They took an abstract, outsize challenge anddistilled it into achievable ends. But, as Albert Einstein loved to say, “Noteverything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be countedcounts.”
Today, it is important that we not become trapped by whatworked in the past. To succeed, the post-2015 agenda must break the originalmold. It must be grounded in a fuller narrative about how development occurs – a narrativethat accounts for complex issues such as migration. Otherwise, the globaldevelopment agenda could lose its relevance, and thus its grip on stakeholders.
It is perhaps understandable that the original MDGs did notmention either internal or international migration. These are politicallysensitive topics that could have polarized, rather than united, the internationalcommunity. Moreover, our empirical understanding of how migration interactswith development was limited at the time; there was little data with which toshape measurable goals.
et migration is the original strategy for people seeking toescape poverty, mitigate risk, and build a better life. It has been with ussince the dawn ofmankind, and its economic impact today is massive. Migrant remittances exceed thevalue of all overseas development aid combined, to say nothing of the taxesthat migrants pay, the investments they make, and the trade they stimulate.
As we consider the next-generation development agenda, itis also critical to understand that migration was a vital force in achievingthe original MDGs. There are an estimated 215 million international migrants today – a numberexpected to grow to 400 million by 2040 – and another 740 million internalmigrants who have moved from rural to urban areas within countries. Eachtypically supports many family members back home, which also helps to liftentire communities.
In Bangladesh, for example, just 13% of households thatreceive remittancesfrom abroad are below the poverty line, compared to 34% ofnon-remittance-receiving households. Evidence from Latin America, Africa, SouthAsia, and elsewhere shows that remittances reduce the depth and severity of poverty, and thatthe additional income is disproportionately spent on education and health. Inrural Pakistan, remittancesare associated with higher school enrollment, especially for girls. The listgoes on.
Beyond the data, there is no greater symbol of the world’sgrowing interdependence than the movement of people. If we can make meaningfuleconomic progress in the coming generations, one of the pivotal reasons will bethat people are allowed to move more freely. Advanced countries, with theiradverse demographic trends, need migrants, as do developing countries – notonly for migrants’ economic contributions, but also for the social and culturaldiversity that they bring.
This is not to deny that migration has downsides. But migrationis here to stay, and it is growing. There can be no return to a monoethnicpast, so successful societies will need to adapt to diversity.
Typically, development experts regard migration as a signof failure: if development policies work, people should not want to move.Accordingly, migration has been viewed as a problem to be solved – not asa solution to a problem.
But migration should not be considered good or bad; it issimply natural to the human condition. People migrate from poor countries, frommiddle-income countries, and from rich countries. They go from north to south,south to north, south to south, and north to north.
The likeliestoutcome of the debate on the post-2015 global development agenda will besomething between the MDG-style approach – concrete, measurable targets forreducing extreme poverty – and the emerging sustainable development narrative,which emphasizes the complex forces of interdependence, such as migration andclimate change. In the imperfect world of politics, this middle ground would bea positive outcome.
Fortunately, the type of measurable outcomes that the MDGshave thus far demanded are being developed for migration. The overarching goal is todesign a roadmap that can take us from today’s poorly managed, exploitativesystem of human mobility to one that is well managed, protects migrant rights,and plans for the consequences and opportunities of migration.
An ideal result would focus attention on the need to reducethe barriers to all kinds of human mobility – both internal and across nationalborders – by lowering its economic and social costs. Such an agenda includessimple measures, like reducing fees for visas, and more complex reforms, likeallowing migrants to switch employers without penalty and increasing theproportion of migrants who enjoy legal protections and labor rights.
The bottom line is that making migration part of theworld’s development strategy will have a meaningful impact on the lives ofmigrants, affording them greater access to rights and to the fruits of theirlabor. Perhaps even more important, it could change public perceptions ofmigrants, so that they are viewed as a blessing rather than a scourge.