ABSTRACT
Despite the fact that only about 3 per cent of the world's population are considered migrants (UNDP 2009), migration, over recent years, has become a key development issue (de Haas 2012; Faist et al. 2011; Glick Schiller 2011). Debates about the so-called migration-development nexus have shifted from migration being seen as a ‘brain drain’ on valuable resources, to its holding potential for development, with migrants being key development actors (de Haas 2010; Faist 2008; Kunz 2008). Now discussed by government and civil society representatives at annual global meetings (Martin and Abella 2009; Piper 2009; Skeldon 2008), multi-lateral organisations such as the World Bank and the IMF are also increasingly interested in what migration has to offer for development (Kunz 2008; Ratha and Shaw 2007).
