5 facts about migrants (and why the world needs migrants)

The world needs migrants. Migration isn’t just a product of global inequality—it’s the solution to it. 

Where income inequality squeezes the middle class, migration expands it. Migrants boost economies at both ends of their journeys and migration allows millions of people to not only change their geography, but their social class as well. 

To celebrate our migrants and the hard work that they do, here are 5 facts about migrants (and why the world needs them).

Remittances effectively redistribute wealth

In 2020, migrants worldwide sent a total of USD 702 billion home. Of that amount, USD 540 billion was sent to low and middle-income countries. Remittances sent by migrants have 3 times more impact than international aid programmes. In fact, funds sent home by migrant workers support about one in nine people globally.

Migrants create success

When migrants have the environment to prosper, they do exactly that. In 2018, over half of America’s ‘unicorns’ were founded by immigrants. And in 2020, immigrants were starting businesses in the USA at nearly double the rate of people born there. Between 1901 and 2021, 35% of the Nobel Prizes won by Americans were awarded to immigrants working in chemistry, medicine and physics.

Migrants boost the economy

The work that migrants do has a huge impact on the global economy. In 2015, migrants contributed over 9% (or USD 6.7 trillion) to the global gross domestic product (GDP). Had immigration to the United Kingdom and Germany ceased in 1990, both countries’ real GDP in 2014 would have been lower by GBP 175 billion and GBP 155 billion respectively.

Migration and remittances help to reduce poverty

Not only does immigration provide a source of dynamism globally, but it’s also a catalyst for economic growth at an aggregate level and produces net economic benefits. Both international migration and remittances significantly reduce the level, depth and severity of poverty in the developing world.

Migration is a question of social justice

To the ravages of war, climate change, racial discrimination and religious persecution, migration provides a solution that is not only fair but beneficial. It brings opportunities to the dispossessed, bringing people together for their mutual economic and spiritual gain. Preventing migration is not only unjust, but it’s also futile. It’s to stifle an irrepressible force. It’s to criminalise and demonise a vital natural response to a global problem while robbing us of its benefits.

For the world to reap the benefits of migration, we must support it both with infrastructure and mindset. Stronger communities are built with integration. And migration brings essential benefits to both the host country and the rest of the world.

We must work towards a world without borders.

A world where hard-working people can seize every opportunity to live and work in peace with dignity and with genuine hope of a better future.

At TransferGo, we empower migrants to prosper.

Because the world needs migrants.

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