GIZ conducts numerous analyses and studies on migration and development. It maintains close ties to diaspora organisations and has taken up the issue of remittances. GIZ also acts as advisor to policy-makers in the countries of origin as well as to the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

Diaspora Engagement

As part of a pilot promotion programme, GIZ is advising and co-financing numerous migrant organisation projects. The range of countries and themes is as varied as the needs of the countries of origin. In the old quarter of Herat in Afghanistan, some 200 girls were unable to attend school because there were no classrooms for them. Together with GIZ, an Afghan association based in Germany has since built ten classrooms, a library and a staff room, so that today all of the girls can go to school.

• Pilot Projects

Remittances

To make migrants' money transfers to their countries of origin cheaper and more secure, GTZ founded the internet site www.geldtransFair.de in collaboration with the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management. This helpful tool enables migrants to find the best way for them to transfer their money. For instance, fees for Mustaf to transfer EUR 100 to his parents in Kosovo range from EUR 1.50 to EUR 40, depending on which financial institution he chooses. With one click on the geldtransFair site, Mustaf can find the transfer route that is best for him.

• Remittances

Policy Consultancy

If migrants' know-how, financial input and innovative energy are to benefit their country, conditions in the home country must be favourable – for returning migrants and the diaspora too. The global financial crisis has seen many migrants lose their jobs in their host countries, forcing them to return home. Between October 2008 and April 2009, for example, about a million migrants returned to Uzbekistan. With GIZ support, the Uzbek Government is responding to this situation with anti-crisis measures, which are essential given the great risk of social unrest and escalating poverty.

• Policy Consultancy

Private Sector potential

Migration often stimulates the economy of the migrants’ home country when migrants start new businesses, form trade connections or create new markets in host or home countries. In this context too, GIZ has advised and supported various activities, channelling its inputs through existing GIZ projects in the various countries of origin. In this way new companies could be founded, jobs created and incomes increased.

• Private Sector