Working abroad

1
Working abroad the patterns of migration flows
and remittances across countries

• Anne Harrison, Tolani Britton and Annika Swanson

2
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

3
Sustainable development

• Economic development which respects the
  contribution of the environment and the fact that
  economies ultimately function for the benefit of
  people

4
International agreements

• Plan of implementation from WSSD
• MDGs
• Monterrey consensus on investment and development
• Doha development agreement

5
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

6
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

7
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

8
Goal

• Take IMF data on remittances and estimate the
  match between country of origin and destination
• Initially work with data for 2000 only

9
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

10
Problems

• Nationality, citizenship, place of birth
• Refugees
• Length of stay
• Worker or family member
• Links to home country
• Skill level
• Year data available

11
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
12
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

13
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

14
Remittances per migrant

• Annex table 6
• Outflow per migrant (col 4)broadly consistent
  across countries
• Estimate missing countries Nigeria, Qatar, UAE,
  Malaysia, Singapore, Canada

15
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

16
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

17
Geographical groupings
Africa 11.7 10.4
Asia 37.6 43.4
Europe 18.9 19.6
Latin America and Carribean 19.3 16.2
North America 2.4 1.6
Oceania 0.8 0.3
Total 90.7 91.5
Border workers in Europe 19.4 21.4
Total 110.1 115.7
18
Impact on GDP

• Annex table 6 cols 7 and 10
• Largest impact Sudan 106.8
• Philippines 105.9
• Bangladesh 104.0

19
Perception

• Remittances come from OECD countries

20
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 14.1 Japan 2.5
Germany 7.4 Italy 2.0
Switzerland 7.3 Spain 1.7
21
Perception

• Most remittances go to the third world

22
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
23
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