Introduction

With some notable exceptions, academic and policy attention for international migration has focused to a far greater extent on countries of destination than on countries of origin. Research projects have been motivated primarily by concerns of receiving societies, funded by agencies in destination countries and based on data collected on the receiving side. But it is clear that migration studies cannot do without indepth understanding of the sending context. In turn, a relative knowledge gap in this area has become particularly salient in the beginning of the 21st century as various receiving countries in Europe are increasingly acknowledging the importance of the ‘partnership with the countries of origin’ in devising migration policies (Communities 2000).

In this context, this chapter is focused on work on migration from a developing or sending country perspective. Until relatively recently, research evidence was largely negative about the relationship between migration and development. On the one hand, migration was often seen as a product of poverty; whilst at the same time, international migration and rural-urban migration within developing countries alike were seen as draining human capital from poor areas, creating or reinforcing dependence, and undermining regional development strategies in sending areas. In turn, despite some reviews in the early to mid- 1990s that took a more critical stance (Papademetriou and Martin 1991; Durand and Massey 1992; Taylor et al. 1996) and the emergence of the ‘new economics of labour migration’ as a theoretical approach that seeks to explain why poor households invest in migration (Stark and Lucas 1988; Stark 1991) rather than acting out of desperation or dependence, public policy towards migration within the development field remained sceptical at best.

However, in the last few years, several new reviews have been carried out, which not only have taken a more positive stance towards the relationship between migration and development, but have started to influence development policy as well. From the academic side, influential overviews have been provided by Skeldon (1997) and Massey et al. (1998). Impacts on policy have also been increasingly evident, especially where reviews have been funded by development cooperation agencies.