Over the past ten years IOM’s experience in ac­companying governments through programmes, initiatives, studies and nu­merous conferences con­cerning Migration for De­velopment in Africa (MIDA) and similar initiatives in Latin America and the Car­ibbean, Asia and the Pacific have demonstrated that migration can bring signifi­cant benefits for social and economic development.

The purpose of this handbook was to present a document designed to serve as a guide for people working to promote and strengthen the positive impact of the link between remittances, migration and development. The handbook also promotes the creation of partnerships between members of the diaspora, government stakeholders acting in the area of remittances and development, the private sector, and development organizations in civil society, including NGOs, academic institutions and foundations. In particular, the handbook was created to achieve four objectives:

Migration to Europe from Latin American and the Caribbean (LAC) has grown rapidly over the last decade. Most of the flows are directed towards southern European countries, although other European countries have also seen significant increases. Widespread poverty and economic hardship caused by the recession in LAC, together with the tightening of visa regimes in the United States following 11 September 2001, have been a major contributing cause of increased flows.

This paper provides a state-of-the-art literature review and is intended to stimulate discussions around some of the most salient issues concerning the relationship between migration, return, and development. It outlines the operational framework and research strategy that will be used to investigate this relationship in an ongoing research project focused on West Africa.

This study on Kenyan diasporas in the South brings to light important  findings on South-South migration as well as innovative insights for  Kenyan policymakers and development practitioners.

As a landlocked country with high rates of emigration, Lesotho widely relies on the resources of its migrants. This study seeks to analyse how Basotho emigrants in the South can become more engaged in the human development of their home country? In the framework of the development of a new migration policy, the Government of Lesotho has requested the ACP Observatory to explore potential ways to enhance the contribution of diasporas.

While the relevance of financial remittances for developing countries is well documented and has gained attention during the last years as an important and stable source of external development, the flows of ideas, knowledge, behaviours and social capital transmitted by migrants to their families, friends and communities in their home countries, defined as “social remittances”, is still overlooked.

Over the past years, migration research and policymaking have focused much attention on South-North flows and on certain aspects of the migration and development nexus, such as remittances and ‘brain drain’. Cultural remittances have received little attention in policymaking. Nevertheless, culture is an important channel in the relation between migrants and their home communities and can be perceived as a potential contribution of diasporas to their countries and communities of origin.

The Workshop on Migration and Development, held in Geneva on 2-3 February 2005, was organized in cooperation with the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The main objectives of the workshop were to examine why migration should be considered a development issue, to look at the synergies between migration and development agendas, and to examine how migration could be mainstreamed into development policy agendas, focusing on MDGs, partnerships and engaging diasporas.