Migrant workers are expected to send home US$225 billion this year, according to a World Bank study which showed remittances playing a key role in slashing poverty rates in developing economies and representing the biggest source of foreign exchange in many countries.

While remittances highlighted migration's positive impact on development, the study also examined the negative effects of the brain drain of educated migrants from developing countries. Five out of 10 college graduates from Sierra Leone and Ghana, for example, live outside their country while many countries in Central America and Sub-Saharan Africa show rates of migration among professionals of over 50 percent.