Understanding Global Migration

Understanding Global Migration

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Interactive global migration map

MacArthur's fall 2008 newsletter online

Program Director John Slocum discusses global migration

July 2008

Global Migration & Human Mobility, eNewsletters

More than 200 million of the world?s 6.7 billion people aremigrants, an unprecedented number. Many are refugees fleeing violenceand persecution, but more are voluntary migrants moving for economicopportunity. Most migrate to developed nations, such as the UnitedStates, but 40 percent move within the developing world, likethe thousands of Filipinos who travel to the Middle East to work eachyear or the Afghanis who pour into Iran. Understanding this historicmovement of people across the globe is the focus of MacArthur?s global migration and human mobility grantmaking and the topic of the Foundation?s upcoming fall newsletter.

Cell phones, electronic wire transfers, and inexpensive airlinetickets have made it easier than ever to migrate and for people tomaintain ties with their home countries through visiting and sendingmoney, called ?remittances,? to relatives. The soaring number ofmigrants, people who live outside of their country for at least a year,has made migration a pressing international policy issue. Yet there islittle research about migration?s impact on nations and people. Throughits support for this field, MacArthur seeks to address these gaps inknowledge and encourage research that can help migration benefitindividuals and societies.

?In entering the field of international migration, we hope tocontribute to building a flexible, adaptive framework for understandingmigration processes around the world and to help capture the benefitsof migration for individual migrants as well as countries of origin anddestination,? writes MacArthur President Jonathan Fanton in thenewsletter.

MacArthur?s grantmaking focuses on two areas: improving governanceof migration regionally, nationally, and internationally, and fosteringa better understanding of the relationship of migration to economicdevelopment. While international law governs the treatment of refugees,there is no consensus for a global regime that oversees the people whomove by choice from Kazakhstan to Russia, Bangladesh to India, orAlgeria to France to work. Instead, nations have convened regional andbilateral gatherings to address common concerns. MacArthur is fundingresearch on international migration governance and supports a majorinternational dialogue, the Global Forum on Migration and Development.The first meeting of the Global Forum was held in Brussels in July2007, and attended by 156 nations. The next Global Forum, to be held inManila in October, will focus specifically on migrants? rights.

MacArthur also supports research on the economic implications ofmigration, with an emphasis on remittances, brain drain, and diasporanetworks. Remittances to developing nations are estimated at about $300billion annually, far outweighing the global total of foreign aid. Butit is not clear how the funds are being used. A University of Michiganfield experiment looks at how creating savings accounts in El Salvadorand other banking products can help Salvadoran migrants in the U.S. andtheir families at home make better use of remittances.

The exodus of healthcare workers from countries such as South Africacomplicates efforts to provide quality health services in areas of theworld ravaged by diseases like AIDS. The Foundation is supportingseparate initiatives by AcademyHealth and the Aspen Institute?s Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiativeto develop guidelines aimed at preventing abuse of foreign healthcareworkers and encouraging attention to the healthcare needs of theircountries of origin. Read the newsletter