Rural out-migration and economic development at origin. What do we know?

People mobility for temporary or permanent labour purposes is a routine part of agricultural activity. There are very significant migration flows in some developing areas, with considerable impacts on individuals, households and regions at origin.

Despite the growing debate about motivations and impacts of recent migration flows, costs and returns of this global phenomenon are still unclear and remain far outside the public policy realm. This is true especially with respect to migration of people from rural areas of developing countries. The purpose of this paper is to review key issues relating to rural labour migration and its links to economic development at origin.