Search

The portability of social benefits is gaining importance given the increasing share of individuals working at least part of their life outside their home country. Bilateral social security agreements (BSSAs) are considered a crucial approach to establishing portability, but the functionality and effectiveness of these agreements have not yet been investigated; thus, important guidance for policy makers in migrant-sending and migrant-receiving countries is missing. To shed light on how BSSAs work in practice, this document is part of a series providing information and lessons from studies of portability in four diverse but comparable migration corridors: Austria-Turkey, Germany-Turkey, Belgium-Morocco, and France-Morocco. A summary policy paper draws broader conclusions and offers overarching policy recommendations. This report looks specifically into the working of the Belgium-Morocco corridor. Findings suggest that the BSSA is broadly working well, with no main substantive issues in the area of pension portability, except for the non-portability of the noncontributory top-up pension and issues with widows’ pensions in case of divorce and repudiation, and in health care, the pending introduction of portable health care for retirees with single pensions from the other country. Process issues around information provision in Morocco and automation of information exchange are recognized.

The portability of social benefits is gaining importance given the increasing share of individuals working at least a part of their life outside their home country. Bilateral social security agreements (BSSAs) are considered a crucial approach to establishing portability, but the functionality and effectiveness of these agreements have not yet been investigated; thus important guidance for policymakers in migrant-sending and migrant-receiving countries is missing. To shed light on how BSSAs work in practice, this document is part of a series providing information and lessons from studies of portability in four diverse but comparable migration corridors: Austria-Turkey, Germany-Turkey, Belgium-Morocco, and France-Morocco. A summary policy paper draws broader conclusions and offers overarching policy recommendations. This report looks specifically into the working of the Austria-Turkey corridor. Findings suggest that the BSSA between Austria and Turkey is broadly working well, with no main substantive issues in the area of pension portability and few minor substantive issues concerning health care portability and financing. Process issues around information and automation of information exchange are recognized and are beginning to be addressed.

This paper documents the influence of diaspora networks of highly-skilled individuals -- that is, inventors -- on international technological collaborations. Using gravity models, it studies the determinants of the internationalization of inventive activity between a group of industrialized countries and a sample of developing and emerging economies. The paper examines the influence exerted by skilled diasporas in fostering cross-country co-inventorship as well as R&D offshoring. The study finds a strong and robust relationship between inventor diasporas and different forms of international co-patenting. However, the effect decreases with the level of formality of the interactions. Interestingly, some of the most successful diasporas recently documented -- namely, Chinese and Indian ones -- do not govern the results.

Turkey now hosts the largest refugee population in the world. The Government of Turkey (GoT) estimates the total number of registered Syrians under Temporary Protection (SuTPs) at 2,225,147. The objective of this policy brief is to collate existing publically available material on the situation of SuTPs in Turkey and to summarize: (i) the strategy and principles of Turkey’s unique response to its displacement crisis; (ii) the challenges in managing the socioeconomic dimensions of displacement; and (iii) remaining critical policy issues and the road ahead for Turkey, as well as implications for other countries’ refugee response efforts.

Most reports on refugees deal with the immediate needs of displaced people. This paper seeks to go beyond the emergency phase and explore the challenges surrounding protracted refugee situations. The paper examines the refugee situation in Sub-Saharan Africa from a long-term angle, from the perspective of refugees own agency as well as from the perspective of the host community. The paper aims to shed light on the economic lives of refugees in their host communities. Starting with an overview of the situation of refugees in Sub-Saharan Africa, the paper draws on findings from the literature to debunk some entrenched beliefs about refugees. The discussion of refugee crises in Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda draws some lessons. The decision to return is discussed and it is argued that the decision depends on the socioeconomic condition in the host country versus the country of refuge, integration versus return policies in place, the individual set of skills of each refugee, and his or her subjective perception of the political climate in both countries.

This study examines the long-term impacts of international migration by comparing immigrants who had successful ballot entries in a migration lottery program, and first moved almost a decade ago, with people who had unsuccessful entries into those same ballots. The long-term gain in income is found to be similar in magnitude to the gain in the first year, despite migrants upgrading their education and changing their locations and occupations. This results in large, sustained benefits to the migrants’ immediate family, who have substantially higher consumption, durable asset ownership, savings, and dietary diversity. In contrast, the study finds no measureable impact on extended family.

Social norms affect almost every aspect of people’s lives, and can be an obstacle to or support economic development. This paper outlines what social norms are and how they work, providing examples from everyday life and from development case studies. Sometimes not much can be done about changing undesirable social norms. In those cases, development economists need to be aware of how the existence of those norms can impact the effects of the policies they advocate. But of particular importance to development economists is the ways in which social norms can be changed, at least under some circumstances. Understanding of social norm change is still patchy at best, but the paper outlines the theoretical underpinnings of change, with empirical evidence from various policies aimed at changing social norms. However, some of those policies raise ethical concerns that would require attention.

Project greenback 2.0, remittances champion cities consists in identifying cities where a series of measures are implemented to foster the development of a sound remittance market. The objective of the project is the promotion of transparency and competition in the market for remittances and, ultimately, the reduction of prices for remittance services. Montreuil, France is the second Remittances Champion City after Turin, Italy. This report presents the main results of the survey. It starts with an overview of migration from and remittances to the selected countries. It then presents the research objectives and describes both the survey design and sampling methodology as well as the challenges posed by the field work. It is followed by a presentation of the main findings of the survey, based on a total sample of 428 migrants. After a brief description of the socio-demographic characteristics of the surveyed migrants, the discussion focuses on their financial inclusion and their remittance behavior. The last part of the report provides concluding remarks on the policy options for private and public actions to promote the objectives of greenback 2.0.

Ghana is experiencing its third gold rush, and this paper sheds light on the socioeconomic impacts of this rapid expansion in industrial production. The paper uses a rich data set consisting of geocoded household data combined with detailed information on gold mining activities, and conducts two types of difference-in-differences estimations that provide complementary evidence. The first is a local-level analysis that identifies an economic footprint area very close to a mine; the second is a district-level analysis that captures the fiscal channel. The results indicate that men are more likely to benefit from direct employment as miners and that women are more likely to gain from indirect employment opportunities in services, although these results are imprecisely measured. Long-established households gain access to infrastructure, such as electricity and radios. Migrants living close to mines are less likely to have access to electricity and the incidence of diarrheal diseases is higher among migrant children. Overall, however, infant mortality rates decrease significantly in mining communities.

This report starts by presenting the international and Italian context of international remittance flows in the past decade, as a general framework of the study (chapter two). The connection between the labor market integration of migrants with the more general economic trends in their destination countries is a crucial issue in the current academic and political debate. Trends and impacts of the economic crisis reflect themselves in micro-behaviors and affect also the transnational activities of migrants. Chapter three presents the objectives of the research and the related survey design and sampling techniques for the fieldwork, while a specific methodological note is added at the end of the report on the fieldwork phase. Chapter four focuses on empirical findings from the analysis of the 480 interviews collected. After a brief description of demographic and economic conditions of interviewed migrants, the core of this section is devoted to the analysis of migrants’ attitudes and behaviors in sending remittances, in engaging in investments and savings, and to explore changes across time and according to their occupational status at destination. In light of the global commitment to the reduction of remittance costs as a part of a more comprehensive strategy to foster the migration and development nexus, a specific section deals with remittance service providers and remittance costs revealing still room for improvement for the development of a competitive and transparent remittance market. The conclusive chapter highlights the main empirical findings and suggests further lines of analysis on migratory models, migrant economic integration and transnationalism from the collected empirical evidence.

In 2009 the Gabonese authorities defined a new vision whose strategic guidelines are detailed in an operational plan, the strategic plan for an emerging Gabon (PSGE) whose goal is to turn Gabon into an emerging country within one generation. PSGE includes an ambitious public investment program to develop basic infrastructure and to create the necessary economic environment for the emergence of a diversified economy. The major challenge for PSGE, and how it can be different from previous development plans, will be to become a growth model that is both sustainable and inclusive, leading to a significant improvement in the revenue and living conditions of all Gabonese people. This report is a contribution to the debate on how to achieve this goal. It was developed as part of the implementation of a new World Bank intervention strategy in Gabon wherein competitiveness and employment is the first pillar. It identifies the main obstacles to the low impact of economic growth on employment in Gabon and makes recommendations that will foster dialogue between the World Bank and the Gabonese authorities on the subject. The report is divided into three parts: (i) an analysis of Gabons economic performance since the independence and its effect on employment, (ii) an analysis of the main characteristics of the labor market, and (iii) a review of the main obstacles to job creation. The conclusion recommends some options for reforming the labor market as well as the legal and institutional framework for employment promotion in Gabon.

This issue includes the following headings: integrated health systems: Lesothos pioneering model; access to healthcare for the poor: lessons from Ghana, India, and Mexico; and cost efficiency: Singapores secret to healthcare.

Inclusive growth (IG) analysis involves analyzing the available data in a country to determine the best course of action for accelerating growth and or improving the distribution of the opportunities and benefits from the growth process. In economies in which international migration is a significant trend, that determination may be especially challenging. The international migration phenomenon can contribute to (or detract from) growth and its distribution through myriad number of complex and sometimes divergent channels, and these effects can change substantially over time. The ability to analyze these impacts, however, is often significantly handicapped by a lack of appropriate data. Moreover, because the migration decision is inherently a private decision made by households in the best interest of their welfare, determining the policy conclusions based on the results of inclusive growth analysis is often unclear. Governments are rightfully wary of interfering with the migration process. This paper examines the issue of international migration in inclusive growth. The aim is to provide the practitioners of inclusive growth diagnostics a useful framework for assessing the nature of the international migration phenomenon, and to highlight the key tools utilized in evaluating its current and potential impact on shared growth.

This brief focuses on the period of displacement and seeks to outline the impact of refugees on neighboring countries, including the developmental implications of forced displacement. The study has two main sections. The first section describes trends in the distribution of refugees in asylum countries. A series of graphs and tables highlights the fact that the largest percentage of refugees is found in countries neighboring their country of origin, most of which are middle-income countries. The second section discusses how neighboring countries that host refugees for protracted periods experience long-term economic, social, political, and environmental impacts. Furthermore, it also shows that in terms of the impacts and the opportunities that the presence of refugees create, there can be winners and losers among both the displaced and their hosts. Finally, this brief presents examples of global experience of development interventions that have focused on mitigating the negative aspects of large-scale and protracted displacement and strengthening the productive capacities of refugees in host countries.