The global economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has brought significant attention to migrant remittances and the potential impact of a projected decline in their volumes. It is important, however, to recognize that migrants contribute much more, both in financial and indirect ways, to their country of origin (CoO). Responses and policies that are being considered should cover all aspects of migrants’ contributions, not only remittances.

One of the challenges for policymakers is to monitor the scope, forms and scales of diaspora contributions, to ensure that diaspora contributions to their CoOs receive proper recognition while creating further incentives and enabling conditions to reach economies of scale. With this in mind, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) solicited support from the DMA Global—a leading organization specialized in diaspora and remittances matters—to assess the existing data gap in this area, and develop recommendations on creating a comprehensive yet tangible approach towards measuring and monitoring economic contributions of diaspora communities.

The resulting Guidance—to be released later this year—asserts that starting with an assessment of required changes to existing data collection frameworks and their receptive resources will inform evidence-based policymaking.