How to lend and spend money to increase the gains from international migration David McKenzie September 22, 2026 This page in: English

How to lend and spend money to increase the gains from international migration David McKenzie September 22, 2026 This page in: English https://blogs.worldbank.org/en/impactevaluations/how-to-lend-and-spend-money-to-increase-the-gains-from-internati It has long been argued that even relatively small increases in global migration could result in gains that far exceed the total of all foreign aid or the total gains from relaxing all remaining trade barriers. The migrants themselves typically experience large, immediate, and persistent income gains that are much greater than from any other evaluated policy intervention that I know about. There are also broader benefits to sending countries through remittances, knowledge transfers, trade facilitation, and many other channels. Yet despite this promise, in two decades at the World Bank, I’ve only managed to work on one successful operational project that let more people benefit from such opportunities – work on developing and evaluating a seasonal migration program from the Pacific Islands to New Zealand. This led me to wonder whether I’m just missing out, and how much governments are borrowing and spending to facilitate more benefits from migration.