Return migration and economic development: opportunities and challenges

• A substantial share of migrants return home within a few years, but statistics on return migration are limited. • Returnees bring financial resources, skills, and knowledge that can boost economic development in developing countries. • Their savings and expertise can stimulate investment, entrepreneurship, innovation, and foster job creation. • Overseas work experience enhances returnees’ skills, productivity, and wages. • Realizing these benefits depends on policies that support reintegration, investment, and knowledge transfer. This paper examines the role of return migration in economic development. It documents the various measures of return migration and their limitations. It discusses the impacts of return migration on entrepreneurship, investment, human capital accumulation, and the transfer of knowledge and norms. It also reviews the challenges and debates surrounding the contributions of return migration to the economic development of countries of origin.