ABSTRACT
The world migration system has been under increasing strain for more than four decades. The strain stems from a gathering mismatch between rising emigration pressures and dwindling opportunities for legal entry (especially of low-skilled workers). Instead of trying to bring these two powerful contradictory trends into dynamic harmony through pro-active inter-state cooperation, nations have continued to follow mostly reactive and inward-looking policies and taken short-term or ad hoc measures to manage migration. This has produced a string of perverse results: human and economic costs have risen sharply while the opportunities for enhancing world stability and welfare gains have been largely forgone.
