This paper was updated in March 2015.
Developing countries invest in training skilled workers and can lose part of their investment if those workers emigrate.
How does migration affect development? Maybe the most obvious way is the money that migrants send home to poor countries: remittances. But for years, development researchers have faced a puzzle.
More and more countries are recruiting doctors and nurses overseas, unleashing global debates on the proper regulation health worker migration. The World Health Organization (WHO) has advanced a “Global Code of Practice” on health worker recruitment.
In a recent study, CGD senior fellow Michael Clemens found that, contrary to popular belief, development in poor countries actually fosters more migration, not less.
