Implementing restrictive policies against legal migrants and refugees can relieve pressure on the country’s infrastructure and services, but it can also waste a long -term economic opportunity, the monetary fund points out.
Restricting migration can relieve pressure on a country’s infrastructure and services, but also compromise productivity and wealth gains by wasting a “valuable opportunity” to boost the long-term economy, a study by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) concludes on Tuesday.
At the same time, they argue the authors of the analysis, more restrictive rules for migrants and refugees do not tend to prevent them from abandoning their countries; In practice, these migratory flows are eventually redirected to other regions of the world.
“Implementing restrictive migration and asylum policies can, in some cases, prevent a valuable opportunity to boost productivity And the potential product, and at the same time transfers the weight of overcrowding elsewhere, ”reads the study.
In the short and medium term, reception countries that apply more restrictive migratory policies record a modest reduction in Gross Domestic Product (GDP), with a slight impulse to production in other regions due to increased labor supply. Thus, more restrictive policies that reduce migratory flows to a group of countries by 20% can increase influx to other regions by 10% and increase their production by 0.2% within five years.
However, the effects on productivity may be more significant if migrant and refugee skills complement those of the local population, responding to needs not yet met.
The absorption capacity of the reception country is also determining, being more limited in emerging and developing economies. However, it is precisely in these countries that, according to the IMF, the benefits of good migrant integration can be “particularly high.”
The IMF report defends the need to measures that relieve pressure on services and infrastructures of the countries that receive migrants, giving priority to public investment and the development of the private sector. This could, according to the entity, contribute to the benefits of migration to “materialize earlier.”
International cooperation is also pointed out as a way to help to distribute short -term costs associated with the reception of large and unexpected migratory flows.
Migrants are at least 3.7% of the world’s population
According to the IMF, the world population of legal migrants and refugees reached, in 2024, the 304 million – 3.7% of the global population and almost twice the recorded in 1995. Of these people, one in six was refugee or asylum applicant.
O study also contradicts the perception that the rich nations are being flooded with immigrantspropagated by anti-immigration politicians: Emerging and developing economies welcome three in four refugees and absorb about 40% of legal migrants.
The fact that the poorest countries are receiving a “disproportionate” amount of refugees can be problematic as they tend to integrate into the informal economy.
“Reinforcing incentives for integration into formal work – including through tax systems and well -designed transfers programs, as well as better access to public health and education services – can help these economies harvest the benefits of these migratory flows,” the report says.
“Perspective of anmemic growth”
The IMF stresses that migrants usually have greater geographical mobility than native citizens, which allows them react faster to market changes. In addition, they tend to be younger – such as refugees – which can generate economic gains that exceed tax costs.
Although refugees often face difficulties in inserting themselves into the job market or find opportunities compatible with their qualifications, if properly integrated, the benefits of their contributions are considered superior – especially in the long run.
The IMF underlines the importance of migration and asylum policies “in the context of a perspective of anmemic growth and growing demographic pressures”.
A migration also affects two -way inflation: On the one hand, the greater availability of workers helps to contain the increase in prices by moderating the rise of wages; On the other hand, the sudden growth of the population can stimulate the demand for goods and services, pressuring short -term prices. In the long run, however, benefits tend to prevail.
