Unlocking Safe Pathways: How Safe Migration Channels Benefit Everyone

A new publication by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) shows what legal migration channels look like today, based on data from 100 countries and 69 cities around the world.

This week, we mark the World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, a reminder of the ongoing fight against one of the biggest scourges of our time, and also a reminder of the need for safe, orderly and regular migration pathways.

Expanding legal channels for migration through increasing visas for specific purposes such as work, education or family reunification reduces the risks of trafficking and may actually dampen irregular migration, especially when it is combined with border enforcement and other efforts.

Migration is expected to grow — in both size and complexity — in the coming years. However, right now the options available for potential migrants are not fit for purpose. In some cases, there may be legal channels for migration, but these may not be accessible to everyone. For example, options for legal migration for those from developing countries have decreased, while those for individuals from developed countries have grown.

What the current system often fails to recognize is the full benefit that migration brings for individuals, communities and countries of origin and destination.

Many high-income countries are experiencing labour shortages, exacerbated by aging populations. In both countries of origin and destination, reducing migration barriers is associated with large economic gains. For instance, in 2022, tax contributions of Venezuelan migrants and refugees to Colombia reached 529.1 million US dollars.

This means that having more legal ways to migrate could not only help save migrants’ lives and protect their rights, offering alternatives to exploitation found in dangerous migration routes or through smuggling, but it would also help countries’ societies and economies.

If more migrants had safe and legal ways to access healthcare, training, education or employment, they would be better integrated in their countries of destination. This would unlock a range of proven benefits — from more entrepreneurship to higher taxes paid.

New channels, or “pathways,” should be set up to facilitate migration for education, labour, family, humanitarian or other reasons.

What could this look like in practice? These could range from large-scale national initiatives to smaller local projects — for example, from laws allowing student migrants to work to community projects allowing citizens to take in refugees.

A new report by IOM’s Migration Governance Indicators shows that 24 per cent of countries studied had measures to facilitate migration for education, 39 per cent to facilitate labour migration, 39 per cent to facilitate migration for humanitarian reasons, and 42 per cent to facilitate migration for family reasons.

The way that governments went about setting their policies often made a difference. For example, countries that engaged with the private sector on migration policy were more likely to have clearly defined programmes for managing labour migration. Countries that had agreements on how to move social security benefits across borders — for example, pensions — were more likely to have measures to allow family-related migration. This shows that when it comes to establishing more legal channels for migration, working with different countries and sectors can help.

The study also found that government information on visa or residence options was often not user-friendly. The information was rarely offered in different languages, and only around half of countries provided clear and regularly updated information about migration rules and regulations.

Migration procedures themselves were not always easy to use. Most countries used a combination of online and paper processes for visa applications, and only 16 per cent had fully online processes.

Policies to facilitate regular migration often pay off. Among countries that primarily received migrants, those that were part of regional agreements to promote labour migration (such as EU freedom of movement agreements) tended to have lower dependency ratios — in other words, migrants to these countries were more often working age and available to hold jobs that contributed to tax revenues and overall economic activity — which supports better healthcare and pension systems.

The study also showed that migrant-sending countries benefitted from certain policies. For example, countries that had emigration policies and engaged their diasporas abroad received, on average, three times more remittances than countries lacking these policies. These inflows were considerable — an equivalent of 12.9 percent of those countries’ GDP in 2022.

As the world becomes more complex through ever-evolving technological, geopolitical, demographic and environmental change, new challenges and opportunities are emerging for migration policy. This means that new approaches are needed not only to make migration safe, but to make it as beneficial for migrants and countries as possible.

When people have more regular, safer and more orderly opportunities to migrate, they benefit. And so do the communities they come from and migrate to. Expanding regular migration pathways enables everyone to benefit from migration.

The good news is that increasingly, there is far more than enough evidence to act upon.

A version of this article was originally published on Medium, on 30 July 2024.