Irregular Migration between Security and Development Approaches: Economic Impacts on Countries of Origin and Transit

Abstract

This study examines the phenomenon of illegal (irregular) migration as a transnational issue, focusing on analyzing its structural drivers and assessing its mutual economic impacts on countries of origin, transit, and destination. Adopting a descriptive-analytical approach, and reviewing data and reports from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) for the years 2022–2023, the paper highlights the shortcomings of the deterrence-based security approaches adopted by Global North countries. Such policies fail to contain the phenomenon due to their neglect of the underlying developmental root causes, such as unemployment, poverty, brain drain, and political instability in the Global South.

Through statistical tracking of a pivotal transit country like Libya, the study reveals a significant increase in inflow indicators; the total number of migrants rose to 706,062, distributed across 100% of municipalities, driven by a $133 decrease in the average cost of the journey within a six-month period. Conversely, the critical stabilizing role of migrant remittances in the economies of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is evident. Egypt topped the list with $19.7 billion, followed by Lebanon at $7.2 billion—achieving the deepest impact relative to its GDP—and Morocco at $6.4 billion, in addition to serving as a vital humanitarian lifeline in conflict-affected nations such as Yemen ($3.4 billion) and Syria ($1.6 billion). The study concludes that while these financial inflows support the current account, they reflect a rentier dependency that exposes the weakness of local productive structures. Consequently, the paper recommends transitioning toward an international participatory developmental approach that supports investment projects in countries of origin, intensifying regional coordination for border control, and rationalizing subsidy policies in transit nations to reduce the incentives for irregular settlement while directing surpluses toward securing national borders.