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Development Economics
From remittance to reinvestment: why Earn-Learn-Return is Africa's next growth story
African workers abroad now send home more than $100B a year — more than foreign aid and FDI combined. But remittances reach households, not economies. Circular migration is how that changes.
Remittances to Sub-Saharan Africa crossed $100 billion in 2025 — larger than total FDI and three times official development assistance.
What Earn-Learn-Return actually means
- Earn — the worker accesses a higher-wage market through a fair pathway.
- Learn — the placement is treated as a skills-development stage.
- Return — the return is anticipated, supported and connected to a reintegration pathway.
Europe’s Union of Skills Needs Mobility Infrastructure
Europe’s “Union of Skills” requires labour mobility to be treated as infrastructure, not just recruitment. Sustainable mobility depends on co-investment, regeneration and shared benefits for workers, employers and origin countries.
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Unlocking migration’s potential through better development financing
If international labour mobility is such a powerful driver of development, why is there limited investment in building it as a functioning system?
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