Migration has become an issue that’s become increasingly central to how the world thinks about — and funds — development.
If migrants were a country, they’d be the fourth-most-populous country in the world, and the numbers keep rising. One in every 25 people now lives outside the country of their birth, and there’s no reason to think that number will decrease.
Current global waves of migration are driven largely by economic factors, as it becomes easier to move in search of work and education, and cross-border economic disparities become sharper. But it is also driven by political instability and conflict, which, in turn, have been fueled by the enormous disruption from climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the ongoing effects of the war in Ukraine.