by Danish Zahoor
While the West has borrowed from the East, such as through the adoption of yoga and Buddhist philosophy, the developing world has much to learn from the West regarding economic development and transformation.
The global South faces enduring socio-economic and political challenges, including corruption; elite capture, and slow economic growth. These issues are partly a legacy of colonialism but also arise from stagnant social values and resistance to change. Although education quality has improved and become more inclusive in recent decades, structural unemployment still hampers the prospects of billions of young people. In this context, migration can offer a much-needed opportunity for renewal.
Brain Gain
For decades, countries have lamented the ‘brain drain’ caused by the emigration of talented youth to developed nations. Governments invest heavily in education and skill development, only to see their best minds leave for better opportunities.
However, viewing migration in this way is simplistic and short-sighted. The movement of educated young people to developed economies benefits origin and destination societies.
For the latter, it helps address the shortage of skilled human resources. For the former, emigrants often return home with wealth, advanced education, and higher-order skills—valuable assets for the global South. This phenomenon has driven the growth of many tech startups across the region and is now rightly recognized as ‘brain gain.’
Economic Injections
Emigrants often return money to their families in currencies with high exchange values. This means that, when converted, the sums are substantial in the context of a developing country’s economy.
For instance, the high value of the Euro and Pound can make even seasonal jobs, such as fruit picking, attractive to those holding middle-management positions in their home countries. Remittances improve the standard of living for families with members working abroad and act as vital injections to the domestic economy. Businesses like restaurants, stores, inns, hotels, gyms, and movie theatres are frequently established with this money, generating significant employment and income for locals.
Diversification
Households play a dual role in any economy: they supply labour and consume goods and services. The consumer function is crucial for sustained economic growth, but it depends heavily on the household’s ability to find employment.
When some household members migrate to developed economies, the risks associated with employment are diversified, especially in stagnant economies. While migration can separate families, it mitigates employment and financial risks, contributing to a stronger household foundation, which is essential for a robust national economy.
Escape from Socialism
Endemic poverty, lack of education, and slow economic growth have entrenched socialism in the global South for decades. Socialism, in turn, perpetuates these problems, trapping economies in a vicious cycle. It is accompanied by a vast, state-controlled bureaucracy that stifles creativity and entrepreneurial energy. Nepotism and corruption further entrench elite capture, marginalizing large segments of society.
Conversely, migration to the developed world allows emigrants to explore, develop, and utilize their talents in free-market conditions. Western economies offer migrants numerous opportunities for personal and professional growth, ultimately yielding significant financial and economic benefits.
Social Transformation
People-to-people contact fosters the exchange of ideas, values, and knowledge. When migrants return to their home countries after a successful stint in the West, they bring with them the values they have absorbed during their stay abroad. Values like transparency, change, competition, education, scientific inquiry, and free thinking, which may be repressed in developing nations due to traditional value systems, begin to take root.
This cultural infusion lays the groundwork for social and cultural transformation, essential for economic growth. While the West has borrowed from the East, such as through the adoption of yoga and Buddhist philosophy, the developing world has much to learn from the West regarding economic development and transformation.
Challenges to Migration
Economic migration primarily flows from developing to developed countries, presenting significant opportunities for talent in the global South. However, migration is not a cure-all and brings its own challenges: xenophobia, isolation, trafficking, and human rights violations. While Western societies recognize the importance of migrants in sustaining their economies, conservative and nationalist political movements often create hostile environments for free and open migration.
Migration is a crucial human component of globalization, necessitating extensive research to address challenges and close policy gaps. By refining the migration process, we can ensure that the benefits of globalization are distributed more equitably across national, ethnic, and cultural boundaries, thus making it a transformative force for the global South.
(The author is an academician and research fellow at the University of Leeds, specialising in migration and human rights studies. Ideas are personal.)
