How Immigrants Contribute to Rwanda's Economy

Immigrants' contribution to Rwanda's economy is relatively small, but growing. Unlike in many other developing countries, immigrants in Rwanda are on average better educated and work in more productive sectors than the native-born population. Although immigration is associated with a small reduction in the employment rate of the native-born population, immigrants' contribution to the Rwandan gross domestic product is higher than their share in employment. In addition, immigrants contribute more in taxes than they receive in government benefits, leading to a positive effect on the fiscal balance. A mix of migration policies, aimed at meeting labour market needs and fostering immigrants’ integration, and non-migration policies, intending to leverage the impact of immigration on the economy, would help enhance the contribution of immigrants to Rwanda’s economy. How Immigrants Contribute to Rwanda’s Economy is the result of a project carried out by the OECD Development Centre and the International Labour Organization, with support from the European Union. The project aimed to analyse several economic impacts – on the labour market, economic growth, and public finance – of immigration in ten partner countries: Argentina, Costa Rica, Côte d'Ivoire, the Dominican Republic, Ghana, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Rwanda, South Africa and Thailand. The empirical evidence stems from a combination of quantitative and qualitative analyses of secondary, and in some cases primary, data sources.