International Economic Assistance and Migration: The Case of Sub‐Saharan Countries

Abstract

Development aid is commonly advocated as one of the most effective instruments to reduce international migration. Nevertheless, empirical evidence shows that push factors do not automatically result in massive migrations and that aid policies systematically fail to meet their stated objectives.Recently, several contributions have argued that an increase in sending countries' wealth may lead to a rise in migration, rather than to a reduction, because it enables people to assume the costs and risks of migrating. However, despite the growing number of studies on this phenomenon, the role played by Official Development Assistance (ODA) has not received attention yet. This paper is aimed at providing empirical evidence on this specific issue. In particular, we investigate the relation between ODA and international migration rates of Sub-Saharan countries. We argue that ODA may have a positive effect on migration decisions for two reasons. First, ODA improves workers' ability to cover the costs of migration, by providing new job opportunities and in turn increasing incomes in the recipient country. Second, ODA, that is often associated with development programs in education, communication services and business opportunities, may also stimulate mobility aspirations of potential migrants. We develop an econometric analysis in order to investigate this hypothesis. Specifically, we perform a three-stage least square estimation on a sample of 48 Sub-Saharan countries. We build a twoequation model, so as to allow for endogeneity of ODA, and find that ODA has a positive and statistically significant effect on migration outflows. Thus, as our main contribution, we argue that development aids are not substitute for migration and that the traditional aid policies (such as those of the European Union), aimed at curbing migration by providing international financial aids, might need to be reconsidered.JEL classification: F22, F35, O55.

Foreign aid, bilateral asylum immigration and development

“…Berthélemy et al (2009), using cross-country data from a wide set of countries, find that bilateral aid encourages migration from the poorer economies and reduces it from less poor ones. Belloc (2015), also using a cross-section of countries, finds a positive relationship, in this case linear, between foreign aid and total emigration from South Saharan countries. In Nyberg Sørensen et al (2003), aid to poor countries has no unique effects on migration to rich economies.…”

The Impact of Development Aid on the International Migrations in the African, Caribbean, and Pacifi c Group of States

“…They concluded that aid in the form of infrastructure improvements can have the short-term effect of stimulating emigration, but policies that promote trade, investment, as well as respect for human rights do not reduce emigration overnight, but are a path toward sustained reductions in migration pressure. Belloc (2011) studied the connection between aid and migrations in 48 Sub-Saharan states and discovered that aid has a positive and statistically signifi cant effect on aggregated migration outfl ows, because aid improves workers' ability to cover the costs of migration by providing new job opportunities, and in turn increasing incomes in the recipient country. Whereas, on the other hand, aid is often associated with development programs in education, communication services, and business opportunities, and may also stimulate mobility aspirations of potential migrants.…”

Trends in African Migration to Europe: Drivers Beyond Economic Motivations

“…14. For studies related to cross-sectional analysis, see, for instance, Hatton and Williamson (2005), Czaika (2012), Belloc (2015), and Dao et al (2018). 15.…”