Managed Labor Migration in Afghanistan : Experience and Evidence with International Afghan Labor Mobility at Micro Level

This paper analyzes Afghanistan's migration phenomenon from a microeconomic perspective. Given the elevated pressures in the labor market, a common tool to sustain livelihoods is migration, affecting 16 percent of Afghan households, both current migrants and returnees. Compared to nonmigrants, returnees are more educated and have higher earnings, while the opposite is true for out-migrants. For most of them, remittances represent a supplement to their income, particularly for those families that currently have a member abroad. Comparing earnings of Afghans abroad to those of similar workers in Afghanistan, wide wage gaps are observed, creating strong pull factors for migration. A strong self-selection of migrants also occurs across countries. Overall, migration represents an opportunity to improve livelihoods, although under its current form it does not incentivize upskilling, as most irregular Afghans find jobs in neighboring countries like Iran in low-skilled sectors where returns to education are low