The volume of international migration has more than doubled since 1975 and Africans have become the most mobile population globally. Although much of the movement from and within sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is voluntary, a substantial part is triggered by a combination of political and economic events which may force professionals to migrate. A high proportion of these migrants are skilled and the ‘brain drain’ effect of this skilled emigration was perceived as a blight on the region’s economy before the twenty-first century. According to United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimates, between 1990 and 2003, 20,000 skilled people left African countries annually for destinations elsewhere (Mutume 2003).
The role of environmentally induced income variability as a determinant of migration has been studied little to none. We provide a theoretical discussion based on a 'risk aversion channel' and an overview of the empirical literature on this. We also extend a previous empirical study on 39 sub-Saharan African countries with yearly data from 1960 to 2000 by including income variability and its weather determinants. Our findings lead us to acknowledge that, based on our dataset and methodology, income variability is a negligible driver of migration decisions at the macroeconomic level.
Migration has been associated with high levels of remittances, which are viewed as having a positive impact on the economy. This chapter assesses the effects of migration on Jamaica; the policies employed by the public sector and other sectors of the society to minimise drawbacks and maximise benefits of both; policies applied in other sectors that affect immigration; successful policy approaches adopted; and other policy options which could address the challenges of development and migration.
