United Nations Radio

African migrants

Nearly one billion people - that's about one out of every seven people - are migrants. Migration and its potential to increase people's freedom and improve their lives is the subject of this year's Human Development Report, entitled Overcoming barriers: Human mobility and development. Ginette Azcona, a researcher /writer consultant for the research team that prepared the report, says it has three key messages:

Azcona 1: The first is that there are great potential gains to human development from mobility for migrants, origin and destination communities. Second, the gains are in the form of income, greater income, but also in other facets of human development, such as education, health and empowerment. Third, the poorest have the most to gain from moving but unfortunately, they also face the largest barriers and are the least likely to move. We find that internal migration is much more numerous and much more important perhaps than international migration. Of the nearly one billion movers in the world, 740 million are internal migrants.

Adams: You mentioned about the fact that most migrants do not cross international borders. I just find that a little hard to believe. Can you talk about that a bit more?

Azcona: Yes. We actually find that internal migration is much more prevalent than international migration. You find in many countries that the movement within borders is higher. People are moving to economic centers within their own countries more often than they are to other countries. For example, migrants from developing countries are moving more to other countries in developing countries but are also moving more within their own country, and less perhaps to other developed countries. And this has to do a lot with the restrictions on movement in, for example, developing and developed countries, where access for migrants is restricted with migration barriers.

Adams: Now you started your research on this about a year and a half ago right as the recession was starting. Are you finding that your findings are still valid?

Azcona: Yes we are. We do of course mention that the economic situation that we are facing currently in developing countries and developed countries is a challenge but this really is the time to come up with a new deal for migrants - one that focuses on human rights, one that focuses on basic rights for migrants and one that looks to improve the outcomes for migrants in destination communities and at the same time reduces the transaction costs that are associated with migration.

Producer: Gerry Adams
Duration: 2'09"