Labor Mobility in the Middle East and North Africa : Challenges and Opportunities

Brodmann, Stefanie ; Pouget, Yann ; Gatti, Roberta

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: BRAIN DRAIN;    CITIZENS;    COUNTRIES OF ORIGIN;    COUNTRY OF ORIGIN;    CRISES;   

RP-ID  :  59406

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Increased labor mobility bears largepotential benefits for human development and povertyreduction through various channels including morecompetitive global labor markets and increased efficiency inthe matching of skills supply and demand. Bank support forenhanced and better managed migration can complement broaderefforts to reduce poverty and promote human development,similarly to how Bank projects on trade liberalization havehelped in reducing market distortions and raise welfare.With Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries becomingincreasingly eager to adopt a proactive approach to improvemigration outcomes, cross-sectoral Bank teams are wellpositioned to respond to increasing demand for migrationmanagement systems. Labor mobility has proven to be aforceful driver of convergence in living standards.Estimates suggest that gains from the liberalization ofmigration could surpass welfare gains from tradeliberalization. Currently, migration represents the mainform of global and regional integration for MENA countries.In the future, increased labor mobility could fosterregional economic integration, a recognized priority withinthe Arab World Initiative (AWI).