As the world struggles to cope with global economic imbalances, diverging demographic trends, and climate change, migration will become a necessity in the decades to come for countries at all levels of income. If managed well, migration can be a force for prosperity and can help achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

The publication of “World Development Report 2023: Migrants, refugees and societies” proposes an integrated framework to maximise the development impacts of cross-border movements on both destination and origin countries and on migrants and refugees themselves.

Contributing to this international project, Frédéric Docquier, Crossing Borders Research Programme Leader at the Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research, acted as a member of the Advisory Committee.

The framework this report offers, drawn from labour economics and international law, rests on a “match and motive” matrix that focuses on two factors: how closely migrants’ skills and attributes match the needs of destination countries and what motives underlie their movements.

This approach enables policy makers to distinguish between different types of movements and to design migration policies for each. International cooperation will be critical to the effective management of migration.
Discover the “World Development Report 2023 – Migrants, refugees and societies”.