The 2009 Human Development Report by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) is called “Overcoming barriers: Human mobility and development”.

The report is a serious study of internal and external mobility. It claims that migration has broad positive effects for both the sending and the receiving country. The authors advocate for lowering the barriers to movement and improving the treatment of movers.

One of the findings I find interesting in the report is that “poverty is higher among migrant children, but social transfers can help”. The authors of the report probably understand that such a claim may be ruinous for a campaign to ease migration barriers.

However, we are expected to lose 23% of the working population in Europe in 2050 as compared to 2010. All other continents will experience substantial growth of workforce, with African workers growing with 125% until 2050.

The report addresses climate change as one of the factors for migration. It distinguishes two types of environment events – discrete and continuous. Discrete events often come suddenly and dramatically, forcing people to move quickly to more secure places. Continuous processes, on the other hand, are associated with slow-onset changes like sea level rise, salinization or erosion of agricultural lands and growing water scarcity. In many cases, continuous change leads communities to develop their own adaptation strategies, of which migration may be only one component.

The report also links migration and climate change to the way we consume and use our natural resources today. It lists three specific measures in this aspect:

• demand for more energy in developing countries, where many people still lack access to electricity, can be met while reducing total carbon emissions;
• the use of more energy-efficient technologies that already exist in developed countries needs to be expanded in developing countries;
• energy consumption in developed countries needs to be rationalized.