The world is worried about migration and forced displacement. In October, the Development Committee Communiqué highlighted the need for action to address challenges – climate change, migration and forced displacement, global health, as well as fragility, conflict and violence (FCV) – that “threaten” all countries. Migration however, is not a threat.

If well managed, migration can be beneficial for countries of origin, destination and migrants themselves. A better integration of migrants into the labor market is one of the challenges that need to be tackled to reap these gains of migration. Migrants lag behind natives on the labor markets in many (if not all) countries in Europe and Central Asia (ECA), as shown in the latest regional Economic Update of the World Bank. The unemployment rate for people born outside the European Union was twice as high in 2016 compared to the native-born population. — blog.wb.org/blogs