Cross-Border Jobs, Shared Prosperity: Tackling Global Inequality & Workforce Gaps

The Opportunity
The world is facing a demographic and economic paradox: high-income countries like the U.S., Germany, and Japan are struggling with severe labor shortages due to aging populations, while lower-income countries—where job creation lags far behind workforce growth—face rising unemployment and deepening inequality. Each year, 10–12 million young Africans enter the labor market, but only 3 million jobs are created. At the same time, unfilled jobs in high-income nations cost the global economy an estimated $3–7 billion per day.

Cross-border labor migration presents a transformational solution, offering workers in developing countries income gains of up to 1,500% compared to similar jobs at home while addressing urgent labor shortages in fields that cannot be automated—from elder care to agriculture to the green workforce. But for this solution to scale responsibly, we need a professional, just, and economically efficient global labor migration industry.

Why it matters
Despite its massive potential, labor migration remains an overlooked space in impact investing and philanthropy—with less than 0.5% of international aid and philanthropy directed toward cross-border employment solutions. While global attention often focuses on the failures of existing migration systems—such as the treatment of migrant workers in Saudi Arabia—a small but growing group of innovators is actively addressing systemic challenges. These pioneers are developing formal financial solutions for migrant workers and international students, designing responsible and scalable models that connect workers with meaningful cross-border employment, and building the infrastructure necessary for a well-functioning labor migration industry.

This workshop will demonstrate the case for why SOCAP investors, funders, and ecosystem builders should see labor migration as a critical lens for economic mobility, financial inclusion, skills development, and the future of work.

The Workshop
This interactive workshop seeks to bring a diverse group of participants including investors, funders, and practitioners to explore solutions that aim to build a well-functioning, responsible labor mobility industry. Led by experts actively developing solutions—including fair financing for migrants, sector-specific skilling programs, and ecosystem-building initiatives, this session will focus on practical strategies and real-world applications.

Participants will:
1. Be provided a short introduction by the lead moderator (Elicia Carmichael) on the topic and work through a labor mobility framework to identify key solution gaps—such as ethical recruitment, financial tools for migrant workers, and training models.
2. Collaborate in small groups led by the 3 moderators to design initiatives that scale cross-border migration or enhance the quality of migration.
3. Pitch these initiatives to all workshop participants, receiving live feedback.

The moderators for the workshop are already working on some solutions and can guide the discussion and provide relevant context. For illustrative purposes, some of the challenges being addressed by the moderators are:
– How do we address the shortage of chefs in the USA by building a training, skilling, and placement program for youth in Guatemala?
– How can we design income-share agreements and other financial products to support workers before and during migration—covering costs like language/skills training and settling-in expenses that employers, particularly for blue-collar jobs, traditionally may not fund?
– How do you build a workforce to tackle climate change in high-income countries experiencing severe worker shortages?

We hope SOCAP will provide us with the opportunity to explore how we can mainstream labor migration within the social impact community and unlock one of the most powerful, yet underfunded, levers for global economic opportunity.