This was contained in The World Development Report 2023:
Migrants, Refugees, and Societies released on Tuesday on the World Bank’s
website.
The report noted that the potential gains from migration are
highest for people who moved from low to high-income countries.
It read, “The potential gains are highest for people who
move from low- to high-income countries. The labour demand at the destination
also shapes outcomes. Gains depend on migrants’ skills, gender, age, and
language ability. Although the absolute gains are larger for high-skilled
workers than for low-skilled workers, low-skilled workers experience a
multifold increase in their income as well.
“For example, low-skilled Yemenis and Nigerians moving to
the United States increase their earnings by about 15 times. The gains achieved
by low-skilled workers are higher when they move from a society with high
socioeconomic inequalities to a country with fewer inequalities and where the
difference in wages between low- and high-skilled workers is lower.”
A graph illustrating the increase shows that the highest
gains for low-skilled migrants are from Yemen (over 1,500 per cent), Nigeria
(almost 1,500 per cent) and Egypt (over 1000 per cent).
However, it was noted that income gains are sometimes partly
offset by the financial costs of moving, especially for the low-skilled.
The report read, “Migrants incur a range of expenses before
their departure, from the job information and job matching fees they pay to
intermediary agents to the regulatory compliance or documentation fees (for a
visa/ sponsorship, medical tests, and security clearance), transportation
costs, and pre-departure training costs they must pay. For low-skilled
migration, these costs tend to be borne by the workers, thereby contravening
the principles of fair recruitment. These costs tend to increase with the
duration of contracts, and they limit the ability of many low-skilled workers
to benefit from migration opportunities.”
It was further noted that Nigeria is a major origin and
destination for migrants, adding that Nigeria is home to almost 1.3 million
immigrants and is the origin of 1.7 million emigrants.
The report also revealed that in Nigeria, households that
receive remittances invest more in agrochemicals and planting materials, and
their farms have larger yields.
It, however, noted that in Nigeria, remittance inflows
jumped by almost 10 times in one year and then declined, even though economic
fundamentals suggest they should have increased steadily.
The report further noted that Nigeria and nine other
countries account for more than two-thirds of the 59.1 million internally
displaced persons, with about 3.2 million IDPs in Nigeria.
It was further noted that Nigeria is expected to expand its
population from 213 million to 791 million, becoming the second most populous
country in the world, after India, by the end of the century, despite the
decline in the fertility rate from 6.4 to 5.1.