Migration and Remittances: Recent Developments and Outlook

This Brief reports global trends in migration and remittance flows, major policy developments, and the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicators for reducing remittance costs and worker-paid recruitment costs. The special focus of the Brief is return migration, a challenging issue around the world amid a rise in asylum seekers and undocumented migrants.

Findings in the report suggest that officially recorded remittances to developing countries are expected to grow by 4.8% to USD 450 billion for 2017. Global remittances, which include flows to high-income countries, are projected to grow by 3.9% to USD 596 billion. The projected recovery in remittance flows is driven by relatively stronger growth in the European Union, Russian Federation, and the United States. As a result, those regions likely to see the strongest growth in remittance inflows this year are Sub-Saharan Africa, Europe and Central Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean. In the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, fiscal tightening, due to low oil prices, and policies discouraging recruitment of foreign workers, will dampen remittance flows to East and South Asia.