Paper Walls are Easier to Tear Down : Passport Costs and Legal Barriers to Emigration
Increased attention to the development potential of international migration has led to calls for greater global cooperation and for industrial countries to consider temporary worker programs and other options for increasing the number of immigrants admitted. But less attention has been devoted to po...
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| Format: | Policy Research Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2012
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2005/12/6448755/paper-walls-easier-tear-down-passport-costs-legal-barriers-emigration http://hdl.handle.net/10986/8589 |
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okr-10986-85892021-04-23T14:02:43Z Paper Walls are Easier to Tear Down : Passport Costs and Legal Barriers to Emigration McKenzie, David J. ACCOUNTABILITY BAHAMAS BUREAUCRACY CITIZEN CITIZENS CIVIL WAR CONTRACT ENFORCEMENT CORRUPTION COUNTRY POPULATION COUNTRY REPORTS CRIME DECENTRALIZATION DEMOCRACY DIASPORA ECONOMIES OF SCALE EMIGRANTS EMIGRATION GAMBIA GDP GDP PER CAPITA GOVERNANCE INDICATORS GOVERNMENT EFFECTIVENESS GRAND CORRUPTION HUMAN RIGHTS IMMIGRANTS IMMIGRATION INCOME LEVELS INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION MARGINAL COST MEDIA INDEPENDENCE MIGRATION PATTERNS MIGRATION RATES NATIONAL INCOME PER CAPITA INCOME PER CAPITA INCOMES POLITICAL ECONOMY POLITICAL STABILITY POOR GOVERNANCE PUBLIC SERVICE PROVISION REGULATORY QUALITY RETURN MIGRATION RULE OF LAW TAXATION THE THE GAMBIA VISAS Increased attention to the development potential of international migration has led to calls for greater global cooperation and for industrial countries to consider temporary worker programs and other options for increasing the number of immigrants admitted. But less attention has been devoted to policies that migrant-sending countries pursue that impact on the ability of people to emigrate under the existing system. This paper documents the existence and impact of two such policies: passport costs and legal restrictions on emigration. New data collected on passport costs in 127 countries reveals enormous variation in the cost of a passport from one country to the next. One in every 10 countries in the sample is found to have passport costs exceeding 10 percent of annual per capita income. High passport costs are found to be associated with poor governance, especially in terms of the quality of the bureaucracy, and with lower levels of migration. Countries that place legal restrictions on the rights of women to emigrate are also found to have lower migration rates than countries with similar income and population levels. These findings suggest there is scope for some developing countries to receive greater benefits from migration by tearing down the paper walls they place around their own citizens. 2012-06-20T20:57:35Z 2012-06-20T20:57:35Z 2005-12 http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2005/12/6448755/paper-walls-easier-tear-down-passport-costs-legal-barriers-emigration http://hdl.handle.net/10986/8589 English Policy Research Working Paper; No. 3783 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/ World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Publications & Research |
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Digital Repository |
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Foreign Institution |
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Digital Repositories |
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World Bank Open Knowledge Repository |
| collection |
World Bank |
| language |
English |
| topic |
ACCOUNTABILITY BAHAMAS BUREAUCRACY CITIZEN CITIZENS CIVIL WAR CONTRACT ENFORCEMENT CORRUPTION COUNTRY POPULATION COUNTRY REPORTS CRIME DECENTRALIZATION DEMOCRACY DIASPORA ECONOMIES OF SCALE EMIGRANTS EMIGRATION GAMBIA GDP GDP PER CAPITA GOVERNANCE INDICATORS GOVERNMENT EFFECTIVENESS GRAND CORRUPTION HUMAN RIGHTS IMMIGRANTS IMMIGRATION INCOME LEVELS INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION MARGINAL COST MEDIA INDEPENDENCE MIGRATION PATTERNS MIGRATION RATES NATIONAL INCOME PER CAPITA INCOME PER CAPITA INCOMES POLITICAL ECONOMY POLITICAL STABILITY POOR GOVERNANCE PUBLIC SERVICE PROVISION REGULATORY QUALITY RETURN MIGRATION RULE OF LAW TAXATION THE THE GAMBIA VISAS |
| spellingShingle |
ACCOUNTABILITY BAHAMAS BUREAUCRACY CITIZEN CITIZENS CIVIL WAR CONTRACT ENFORCEMENT CORRUPTION COUNTRY POPULATION COUNTRY REPORTS CRIME DECENTRALIZATION DEMOCRACY DIASPORA ECONOMIES OF SCALE EMIGRANTS EMIGRATION GAMBIA GDP GDP PER CAPITA GOVERNANCE INDICATORS GOVERNMENT EFFECTIVENESS GRAND CORRUPTION HUMAN RIGHTS IMMIGRANTS IMMIGRATION INCOME LEVELS INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION MARGINAL COST MEDIA INDEPENDENCE MIGRATION PATTERNS MIGRATION RATES NATIONAL INCOME PER CAPITA INCOME PER CAPITA INCOMES POLITICAL ECONOMY POLITICAL STABILITY POOR GOVERNANCE PUBLIC SERVICE PROVISION REGULATORY QUALITY RETURN MIGRATION RULE OF LAW TAXATION THE THE GAMBIA VISAS McKenzie, David J. Paper Walls are Easier to Tear Down : Passport Costs and Legal Barriers to Emigration |
| relation |
Policy Research Working Paper; No. 3783 |
| description |
Increased attention to the development potential of international migration has led to calls for greater global cooperation and for industrial countries to consider temporary worker programs and other options for increasing the number of immigrants admitted. But less attention has been devoted to policies that migrant-sending countries pursue that impact on the ability of people to emigrate under the existing system. This paper documents the existence and impact of two such policies: passport costs and legal restrictions on emigration. New data collected on passport costs in 127 countries reveals enormous variation in the cost of a passport from one country to the next. One in every 10 countries in the sample is found to have passport costs exceeding 10 percent of annual per capita income. High passport costs are found to be associated with poor governance, especially in terms of the quality of the bureaucracy, and with lower levels of migration. Countries that place legal restrictions on the rights of women to emigrate are also found to have lower migration rates than countries with similar income and population levels. These findings suggest there is scope for some developing countries to receive greater benefits from migration by tearing down the paper walls they place around their own citizens. |
| format |
Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper |
| author |
McKenzie, David J. |
| author_facet |
McKenzie, David J. |
| author_sort |
McKenzie, David J. |
| title |
Paper Walls are Easier to Tear Down : Passport Costs and Legal Barriers to Emigration |
| title_short |
Paper Walls are Easier to Tear Down : Passport Costs and Legal Barriers to Emigration |
| title_full |
Paper Walls are Easier to Tear Down : Passport Costs and Legal Barriers to Emigration |
| title_fullStr |
Paper Walls are Easier to Tear Down : Passport Costs and Legal Barriers to Emigration |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Paper Walls are Easier to Tear Down : Passport Costs and Legal Barriers to Emigration |
| title_sort |
paper walls are easier to tear down : passport costs and legal barriers to emigration |
| publisher |
World Bank, Washington, DC |
| publishDate |
2012 |
| url |
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2005/12/6448755/paper-walls-easier-tear-down-passport-costs-legal-barriers-emigration http://hdl.handle.net/10986/8589 |
| _version_ |
1764408055379787776 |