How Immigrants Contribute to Developing Countries’ Economies is the fruit of the joint OECD-ILO project, Assessing the Economic Contribution of Labour Migration in Developing Countries as Countries of Destination (ECLM), carried-out in ten low- and middle-income countries. The project was managed by David Khoudour, Head of the Migration and Skills Unit of the OECD Development Centre, under the guidance of Mario Pezzini, Director of the OECD Development Centre and Special Advisor to the OECD Secretary-General on Development, Federico Bonaglia, Deputy Director of the OECD Development Centre, Manuela Tomei, Director of the ILO’s Conditions of Work and Equality Department, and Michelle Leighton, Chief of the Labour Migration Branch at the ILO. Shinyoung Jeon and Hyeshin Park, from the OECD Development Centre, co-ordinated the project, while Theodoor Sparreboom, Chief Technical Advisor in the Labour Migration Branch, led the ILO team. The OECD team included Maria Alejandra Betancourt, Bram Dekker, Fatoumata Diarrassouba and Sarah Kups. The ILO team was composed of Sandra Berger and Jesse Mertens.
The report is a collective work of the OECD Development Centre and the ILO, both of which provided significant contributions, including valuable comments, advice and feedback on each chapter. The OECD Development Centre team drafted Chapter 1, Chapter 2 Chapter 6, while the ILO team drafted Chapter 3 Chapter 4. Chapter 5 was jointly drafted by both teams. Vararat Atisophon, OECD Development Centre, helped with statistical work, while Alexandra Le Cam, OECD Development Centre, and Hélène Lombard, ILO, provided administrative support for the project, including country missions and event organisation. Jill Gaston edited the report and the OECD Development Centre’s Communications and Publications Unit, led by Delphine Grandrieux and Henri-Bernard Solignac-Lecomte, turned the draft into a publication. The cover was designed by Aida Buendía at the OECD Development Centre.
The ECLM team is grateful for insightful comments by Federico Bonaglia, Tim Bulman, Thomas Liebig and Alexander Pick at the OECD, Michelle Leighton and Natalia Popova at the ILO, and Corrado Giulietti at the University of Southampton. The project has also benefited from the contribution from previous colleagues at the OECD Development Centre, especially Marcus Böhme, Ragini Chaurasia and Andrea Cinque. The project team also thanks all the participants who attended the expert meeting organised in Paris on 23-24 February 2015, as well as various country seminars, and who provided useful comments at different stages of the project. The OECD Development Centre is also grateful to the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation for its support and collaboration.
This report is the result of close collaboration with national institutions in each partner country. Support from the institutions as project focal points is gratefully acknowledged, namely the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security in Argentina, the General Directorate of Migration under the Ministry of Interior and Police in Costa Rica, the National Population Office under the Ministry of Planning and Development in Côte d’Ivoire, the Ministry of Economic Planning and Development in the Dominican Republic, the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations in Ghana, the State Migration Service in Kyrgyzstan, the Ministry of Employment and Labour in Nepal, the Ministry of Public Service and Labour in Rwanda, the Department of Labour in South Africa and the Ministry of Labour in Thailand.
Support from the ILO regional and countries offices is gratefully acknowledged, namely the ILO Country Office for Argentina, the ILO Country Office for Central America, Haiti, Panama and the Dominican Republic, the ILO Country Office for Côte d’Ivoire, Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Togo, the ILO Country Office for Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the ILO Country Office for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, the ILO Country Office for Nepal, the ILO Country Office for Tanzania, Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda, the ILO Country Office for South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland and the ILO Country Office for Thailand, Cambodia and Lao People’s Democratic Republic.
The OECD Development Centre and the ILO are particularly grateful to the European Commission for its financial support and close collaboration in carrying out this project. A special thanks goes to Stefano Signore, Camilla Hagström and Isabelle Wahedova in the Commission’s Directorate General for Development Cooperation.
* This publication has been produced with the assistance of the European Union. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of the OECD Development Centre and the ILO and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union.