Politicians and the media expend inordinate amounts of energy debating migration, often using nativist, populist and xenophobic rhetoric. This is despite the fact that, as of 2017, only three out of every 100 people - a mere 3.4% of the world's population - have left their home nations to migrate to a new country.
The message from people like US President Donald Trump and the UK's "Brexiteers" is that migrants should be kept out at all costs to "save" their economies. Yet many scholars have argued that attracting and keeping migrants is essential to economic competitiveness in a globalising world. Some countries are responding positively to such arguments, embracing the benefits migrants can offer to their economies. Others - African countries among them - are far behind the curve.
...