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Low skilled Indians migrating to the US stand to gain the most as they would see a jump in income of nearly 500%, followed by UAE at almost 300%.
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Those migrating to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) nations, comprising Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait and UAE, stand to gain less
The World Development Report (WDR) has estimated a 120% income gain for Indians going to work overseas, compared to a 40% rise in case of internal migration.
The report, released recently, has estimated that low skilled Indians migrating to the US stand to gain the most as they would see a jump in income of nearly 500%, followed by UAE at almost 300%.
Those migrating to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) nations, comprising Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait and UAE, stand to gain less.
While the gains are much higher for highly skilled workers, like tech workers migrating to Silicon Valley or doctors, even low-skilled workers experience multi-fold jumps.
Apart from the skills, the gain also depends on age, destination and language ability.
Migration leads to large wage increases for most people whose skills and attributes are a strong match with the needs of the destination society.
These gains often exceed what could be achieved in the country of origin, even from internal migration to relatively better-off locations.
The gains are so large that at current rates of economic growth it would take decades for the average low-skilled person working in some countries of origin to earn the income they achieve by migrating to a high-income country.
These gains are then shared with families and communities in the countries of origin through remittances,” said the World Development Report 2023.
Migration, however, comes at a cost, although smaller. For instance, an Indian worker going to Qatar spends two months’ earnings to meet migration cost. It’s a little more for those going to Kuwait. At almost nine months, it is much higher for a Bangladeshi migrating to Kuwait.
The report estimated the number of migrants globally at 184 million, which is 2.3% of the population, including 37 million refugees.
The report mentioned that there are four types of migrants: economic migrants with strong skill match (Indian IT professionals in the US or construction workers in GCC nations), refugees with skills in demand at destination (Syrian entrepreneur refugees in Türkiye), distressed migrants (some poorly skilled migrants at the US southern border) and refugees (Rohingya in Bangladesh).
India-US, India-GCC and Bangladesh-India have been identified to be among the top migration corridors globally along with Mexico-US, China-US, Philippines-US and Kazakhstan-Russia.
The WDR noted how remittances have increased to some of the countries with a large migrant population, including India, Mexico, China and the Philippines.
It estimated that an Indian migrant worker in the UAE, for instance, sends nearly 70% of his/her income to the family, with women likely to remit a higher amount.
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