International migration has reached an all-time high, increasing from 150 million to 214 million migrants over the past ten years. Experts predict that this flow of migrants will continue to accelerate in the next few decades. Populations in the developed world are aging, partly contributing to the creation of labour shortages. Simultaneously there is an increasing number of unemployed youth in the developing world, creating incentive to migrate. Not only is there a labour gap geographically, but changes in industry have also changed global demand for skills.

Given these changes, this paper proposes to look at three case studies: the Philippines, Australia and the Pacific Islands, and Mexico and the U.S. in order to highlight the key lessons learned from these cases and to provide policy recommendations.