Remittances & Migration

Context

Main drivers of migration

Migration pressures are growing with 184 million people were on the move as migrants around the world, driven by economic opportunities, conflict and violence, or other reasons, according to the World Development Report 2023. About half live in high-income countries, and one-third live in developing countries. Many countries at all income levels are origin, transit, and destination countries at the same time. The poorest tend to migrate internally because international migration is costly.

Migration is driven by persistent income and opportunity gaps, demographic pressures, climate change, and fragility, conflict, and violence. For many people, moving—within their country or across borders—offers a path out of poverty, insecurity, or limited employment prospects.

Migration patterns are also shaped by social exclusion, corruption, weak services, diaspora networks, and policy choices in origin and destination countries. Effective policies can help countries manage these pressures, support displaced people and host communities, and respond to labor needs.

What are remittances?

People who move to a different country to find work often send money back to their families and community. The movement of funds from the country of work back to a home country is known as remittances. In 2023, remittances back to home countries totalled about $656 billion, equivalent to the GDP of Belgium.

In more than 60 countries, remittances account for 3 percent or more of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and small/fragile states are more heavily dependent on remittances. As such, it is critical that both remittance senders and receivers have access to a multitude of payment methods and channels in order to deliver and receive remittances in an affordable and fast manner.

Strategy

The World Bank Group is working in partnership with countries to address the current global labor market imbalance through formal, demand-driven, and mutually beneficial worker-mobility solutions. Well-managed worker mobility can deliver a triple win: benefiting countries with a surplus of workers, countries with more jobs than workers, and the workers themselves.

By advancing innovative models like Global Skill Partnerships, the World Bank Group is helping bridge global labor shortages, unlock human potential, and make jobs a driver of shared prosperity. This approach ensures that worker mobility is formal, well-managed, and beneficial for all parties involved.

World Bank’s strategy on remittances

The World Bank’s work on remittances is guided by the following Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs):

• Reducing remittance costs
• Increasing the volume of remittances

For years, the World Bank has played a key role in highlighting the importance of remittance flows in developing countries and identifying factors contributing to the high cost of sending money. Its implementation of the General Principles on International Remittance Services – which cover transparency and consumer protection, payment systems infrastructure, legal framework, competition, and governance – is an essential part of efforts to reduce costs.

The World Bank also hosts the Global Remittances Working Group, and its database of worldwide remittance prices that generates quarterly analyses used by researchers and economists. The World Bank will continue to support countries in monitoring remittance prices and eliminating barriers to entry into the remittances market, including by streamlining anti-money-laundering regulations and addressing de-risking by correspondent banks.

Finally, the World Bank also undertakes operational work in specific countries to address remittance issues, for example, in Somalia the Supporting Remittance Flows project supports the Central Bank of to improve its supervisory role in remittance markets and to develop its financial system.

KNOMAD: The Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development

KNOMAD, the Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development, was envisioned as a brain trust for the global community studying migration and its impacts. Active from 2013 until 2024, it was hosted by the World Bank and supported by the EU, Germany, Sweden, and Switzerland. It served as an open, inclusive, multidisciplinary knowledge partnership that drew on experts to create and synthesize knowledge for use by policy makers.

Among other important contributions, KNOMAD shined a global light on the remittances agenda. During its first phase (2013–18), KNOMAD advocated for the creation of SDGs related to migration and remittances (10.7.1; 10.c.1; and 17.3.2). It was influential in G7 discussions and in the negotiations that resulted in the Global Compact on Migration.

During its existence, KNOMAD produced 40 migration and development briefs, 61 working papers, and numerous other policy briefs, many of them focused on remittance flows, trends, and challenges.

Research & Publications

Other KNOMAD publications

World Development Report (2023): Migrants, Refugees and Societies

Related

Topic: Employment & Labor Markets

Topic: Payment Systems

2026-09-28T00:00:00.000Z