Migration Details

Some 200 million people today—one in 33—do not live in the country where they were born. That number should grow as aging rich societies run short of workers, which should be a boon for development. Workers who have migrated from poor to rich countries already send billions of dollars back to their families each year, a flow that surpasses foreign aid. Some immigrants from developing countries, especially students, pick up skills and bring them home—engineers and physicians as well as entrepreneurs who, for example, start computer businesses.

But what about brain drain? Emigration has been blamed for emptying African clinics of nurses, who can earn far more in London hospitals. But CGD research fellow Michael Clemens has found little evidence that these skilled people hurt their home country by leaving it. Far more ails African clinics and hospitals than a lack of personnel, and personnel shortages themselves result from many forces—such as low pay and poor working conditions—untouched by international migration policies

The CDI rewards immigration of both skilled and unskilled people, though unskilled more so. One indicator used is the gross inflow of migrants from developing countries in a recent year, including unskilled and skilled immigrants but leaving out illegals. Another is the net increase in the number of unskilled immigrant residents from developing countries during the 1990s. (Based on census data, it cannot be updated often.) The Index also uses indicators of openness to students from poor countries and aid for refugees and asylum seekers.

Austria takes first for accepting the most migrants for its size, with Switzerland not far behind. At the bottom is Japan, whose population of unskilled workers from developing countries actually shrank during the 1990s. The U.S., the great nation of immigrants, scores a surprisingly mediocre 4.7. Why? For its size, its inflow of legal immigrants and refugees is actually low compared to many European nations.

For more, go Inside the Index.