Data can generate insights into migration patterns and trends that subsequently inform policymaking and tackle misperceptions. For example, data on the contribution of migrants to the economies of both sending and receiving countries support the formulation of policies encouraging long-term investments or support in debunking xenophobic claims.
For example, household surveys undertaken in many countries around the world indicate that a substantial share of income comes from remittances, helping to finance health and education services, as well as other basic needs. As part of the Africa Migration Project, six Migration and Remittances Household Surveys were conducted in Burkina Faso, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Uganda (Plaza, Navarrete and Ratha, 2011). Data from these household surveys reveal that households receiving international remittances from OECD countries have been making productive investments in land, housing, businesses, farm improvements, agricultural equipment and so on (36% in Burkina Faso, 55% in Kenya, 57% in Nigeria, 15% in Senegal, and 20% in Uganda) (GMG, 2017).
Zhunio, Vishwasrao and Chiang (2012) investigate the influence of remittances on health and education outcomes across 69 low- and middle-income countries. Data for health and education-related outcomes were obtained from the World Bank’s World Development Indicators while data on the real flows of official remittances were obtained from the World Bank’s 2008 Migration and Remittances Factbook. They find that remittances play an important role in improving primary and secondary school attainment, increasing life expectancy and reducing infant mortality.
The potential development impacts of migrant remittances have been subject of extensive theoretical and empirical explorations. Alpaslan and colleagues (2021) reviewed the literature on the economic effects of remittances on migrants’ countries of origin, demonstrating that the effects of remittances on economic outcomes are context-specific and shaped by the heterogeneity of migrants, their motivations to migrate and the development status and institutional settings in their countries of origin. The review of household-level studies identified an overall positive effect of remittances on consumption more generally but also demonstrated positive effects on households’ agricultural production, household expenditures on education and physical capital investment and entrepreneurial activities.
The Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) assists applicants in seeking patent protection internationally for their inventions, helps patent offices with their patent granting decisions, and facilitates public access to a wealth of technical information relating to those inventions. Data on the inventors of patents who applied for PCT protection are always disaggregated by nationality and place of residence at the time of application, due to the requirement that inventors can only apply for PCT protection if they are a resident (or national). To investigate the contribution of immigration to the host country’s economy it can be insightful to explore the number of citations received by PCT applicants with and without migratory inventors (applicants who were non-nationals qualify as international migrants in statistical terms due to the residence requirement for application). When comparing the share of inventors with and without a migratory background listed among breakthrough patents, i.e., the top 5 patents in terms of citations, we see that the proportion migrants is greater among the breakthrough inventions than among the whole universe of PCT patents. This finding supports the idea that (high-skilled) immigrants disproportionately contribute to their country’s productivity (GMG, 2017).
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Case Study: Data for Insight (CGD, 2009) Suppose, for example, that a researcher observed a (hypothetical) change in a particular European country’s migration policy toward Tunisian nurses in 1997, and wished to understand the development consequences for Tunisia. If the only data available are the number of nurses with “North African” nationality residing in the European country in 1991 and 2001, little can be learned from this experience regarding the potential development impacts of related future changes in policy. On the other hand, if researchers had access to annual data on the arrivals and departures of Tunisian nurses in the European country, or an anonymous sample of individual-level data on Tunisian nurses in the European country that included their year of arrival, the experience would reveal a wealth of information about how the policy change affected Tunisian nurses’ decisions to move and how those movements shaped the lives of people who remained in Tunisia. |
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