 Global migration: trends, causes, impacts, and balancing gains and costsÇaglar Özden Chapter 18 in Elgar Encyclopedia of International Trade, 2026, pp 83-88 from Edward Elgar Publishing Abstract: Migration is a defining feature of human history and one of the central forces in today's interconnected world, shaped by economic opportunities, demographic imbalances, political instability, and environmental change. Over 184 million people, 2.3% of the world's population, live outside their country of nationality with substantial shares in low- and middle-income countries. Migration generates significant economic and social gains for destination countries, alleviating labor shortages, spurring innovation, and enriching cultural diversity, while providing numerous development linkages for origin countries. These include financial, knowledge, and technology transfers. However, migration creates challenges, including integration difficulties for the migrants, political polarization in the destination, and brain drain in the origin countries. To balance these gains and costs, origin and destination countries should implement policies that align their labor market needs with migration flows, strengthen protection and integration, foster bilateral and multilateral cooperation, and address root causes such as poverty, conflict, and climate change. Keywords: Migration; Brain drain; Migrants; Refugees; Globalization (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:elg:eechap:23076_19 Ordering information: This item can be ordered from Access Statistics for this chapter More chapters in Chapters from Edward Elgar Publishing |
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