At the dawn of the new millennium, international development agencies and governments have ‘‘discovered’’ the potential of migration and remittances to stimulate development in poor countries. However, migration and development is anything but a new topic. The debate about migration and development has swung back and forth like a pendulum, from optimism in the postwar period to deep ‘‘brain drain’’ pessimism since the 1970s towards neo-optimistic ‘‘brain gain’’ since 2000.