This presentation examines the role of migration in the sustainable development goals (SDGs), the importance of internal migration, remittances and the recognised seasonal employer (RSE) scheme.

1. Labour Migration and Development:
Implementing the SDGs
L. Alan Winters
CEO of Migrating Out of Poverty
and Professor of Economics
University of Sussex

2. The Argument
• Internal Migration is important
– Especially for poverty alleviation
• International Migration generates huge gains
– Migrants and their households
• Remittances help households
– But remittance costs is a second order issue
• The big policy gains come from increasing
numbers of migrants
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3. The SDGs on Migration
• 8.8 Protect labour rights and promote safe and
secure working environments for all workers, including
migrant workers, in particular women migrants, and
those in precarious employment
• 10.7 Facilitate orderly, safe, regular and responsible
migration and mobility of people, including through the
implementation of planned and well-managed
migration policies
• 10.c By 2030, reduce to less than 3 per cent the
transaction costs of migrant remittances and eliminate
remittance corridors with costs higher than 5 per cent
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4. Internal Migration is Key
• Clearly part of the SDGs
• Four-fifths of migration is internal
• Essential part of development
– Urbanisation
– Exploiting natural resources (+ and -)
– Environmental pressures
• More relevant to the poorest than international
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5. Internal Migration Helps
• Mostly viewed very positively by migrants and
their households - livelihoods, life-styles
– Ethiopia: small income differences, but 84% felt
households with migrants were better off
– Ghana: 85% of migrant h’holds report
improvement; >80% of migrants find work -
mostly informal sector
– Domestic work, construction → vulnerabilities
• Policy involves making services available,
protecting rights, avoiding discrimination
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6. International Migration: Migrants
• Development as if people mattered, not space
– i.e. count the migrants’ welfare
• Income in Jamaica = $3,600
• Income of Jamaicans = $6,500
– 235 million live where differential ≥ 20%
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Source: Clemens and Pritchett (2008)

7. Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE)
• New Zealand, 9 Pacific Islands
• Agricultural Season
• Formally evaluated and declared to be
• Best Practice
– Domestically – labour, over-staying, crime
– Development – incomes, education, poverty
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8. • Labour markets/conditions
– Pastoral care
– No recruitment fees, market wages, minimum
remuneration, transport costs shared (and loans for
worker part)
– Work-ready pools
• New Zealand Evaluation - Successful
– Reliable work-force for affected sectors
– Productivity gains if workers return
– Over-staying 1% or less
– Negligible complaints of exploitation
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9. RSE: Development Effects
• Base-line pre-programme survey
• D-i-D, with propensity mapping for samples
• Semi-annual income:
+34-38% in Tonga +30-36% in Vanuatu
• Consumption +10% in T; +ve in V
• Poverty: -50% in T at $1 pd; -30% ($2 pd); -ve in V
• Also, subjective welfare, bank account use,
durable assets, schooling
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10. Remittances to households left behind
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• Typically cut poverty, foster investment
– Precise effects depends on who migrates
• Remittances transfer income
– Migrant loses income, family gains it
• Cutting remittance costs: nice, but second order
– Global weighted average costs < 6% (2015, Q2)
– SDG aims at, say, 4% → gain of 2%
– Remittances approx. $500 billion
→ maximum gain of $10 billion p.a.

11. International Migration Policy
• Value ≈ (whost-whome) cumulated, less costs
– Defines what people will pay to migrate
• If reduce costs, e.g. recognise qualifications or
manage agent fees, where will the surplus go?
– Economic rent to migrant? Excess training?
Queuing?
• The issue is the limited stock of places creates
scarcity rents that people compete for
• The big gain is to increase numbers, therefore …
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12. Indicators
• For international migration:
– Number of migrants;
– Number of residence/working visas and
naturalisations issued by host countries
– Average ‘excess income’ of migrants
• For internal migration:
– Share of urban population that are migrants
– Explicit recognition of migrants’ rights
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13. Thank you
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