The real cost of "free" migration: why African workers still pay the price
A year after the ILO's latest fee data, the gap between policy and practice along West Africa–Gulf corridors is still costing workers up to nine months of wages. Here's what the numbers show — and what changes when employers pay.
The official position across most destination markets is unambiguous: workers should not pay to be recruited. The lived reality in 2026 is something else.
The gap between policy and practice
Eighteen destination countries have now adopted some version of the "employer pays" principle in their published recruitment guidance.
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.
Read the piece
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?
Read the piece