Migration contributes to gross domestic product, employment, trade, poverty reduction and inclusive growth, a new report by the UN body on trade and development, UNCTAD has said.
The report, titled Economic Development in Africa Report 2018: Migration for Structural Transformation, was discussed by experts at the UNECA office in Kigali.
Migration has offered many people a better life, said Claudia Roethlisberger, economic affairs officer at the division for Africa, Least Developed Countries and Special Programmes at UNCTAD, as she was dispelling the myths about migration.
"Migration benefits for both the country of origin and the destination country. It's a myth that migration contributes to unemployment. Our research shows that migration contributes to GDP growth," she said.
She said that migrants boost economic transformation which sets grounds for wage increase in the long run.
Roethlisberger drew attention to the case where the abolition of work permit fees in 2013 for nationals of Kenya and Rwanda permitted labour mobility between the two countries.
"You cannot stop people from moving," Emelang Leteane, an ECA social affairs officer, stressed.
"We can plan for migration; we can manage it better, and this is a call for policy makers."
"Population movements across borders often offer individuals a chance for a better life, with the social and economic benefits extending to both source and destination countries, as well as future generations,” UNCTAD Secretary-General Mukhisa Kituyi, is quoted saying.
"Our analysis shows this to be true for millions of African migrants and their families. Yet much of the public discourse, particularly as it relates to international African migration, is rife with misconceptions that have become part of a divisive, misleading and harmful narrative.”
The new report does much to counter this narrative.
The report says that most African migrants move within the continent.
In 2017, the report says, 19 million international migrants moved within Africa and 17 million Africans left the continent. In addition, Africa is a migration destination for 5.5 million people who came from outside the continent.
During the same year, the top five intra-African migration destinations (receiving countries in descending order) were South Africa, Cote d’Ivoire, Uganda, Nigeria, and Ethiopia (all exceeding one million migrants), the report says.
The contribution of migrants to GDP was measured at 19% in Côte d’Ivoire (2008), 13% in Rwanda (2012), 9% in South Africa (2011) and 1% in Ghana (2010).
Remittance inflows from outside and within Africa rose on average from $38.4 billion (2005–2007), to $64.9 billion (2014–2016). These accounted for 51% of private capital flows in Africa in 2016, up from 42% in 2010.
This, it is noted, is why both intra and extra-continental migration are needed for supporting Africa’s structural transformation.
Migration and trade
The report also provides evidence on the "intimate correlation between two sides of the same coin: migration and trade” UNCTAD’s Junior Roy Davis, a lead author on the report is quoted saying.
"Africa is on the cusp of tremendous change,” he said.
"On 21 March 2018, 44 African countries signed the establishment of the African Continental Free Trade Area and 30 of them signed the Protocol on the Free Movement of Persons.”
He added: "These critical milestones follow the launch of the Single African Air Transport Market in January 2018. In this context the report contributes to a better understanding of the implications of intra-African migration for the continent’s socio-economic transformation”.
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