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An economic migrant is someone who chooses to emigrate from one region to another to seek an improvement in living standards because the living conditions or job opportunities in the migrant's own region do not satisfy expectations. Economic migrants who work outside their home country are termed migrant workers by the United Nations. Additional deciding factors in economic migration include, but are not limited to insufficient economic opportunity, separation from family, or the desire to settle with a spouse native to another country.

Refugees and Economic Migrants
An economic migrant may be subjected to the same disposition(s) as a refugee, however the two are distinct from one another. Though the two can be found side by side amidst migration, a refugee does not have the choice to leave their country. According to the 1951 Geneva convention, refugees are forced from their region of living as a result of some degree of persecution. A refugee is in search of protection, while an economic migrant is in search of a better life, primarily from an economic standpoint.

Legality
Many countries have immigration and visa restrictions that prohibit a person entering the country for the purposes of gaining work without a valid work visa. Persons who are declared an economic migrant can be refused entry into a country. Thus, the migrant's presence is deemed illegal. Within the European Union economic migration is legal. Immigration policy is a tension between global equality and local equality. In some instances, a nation will intentionally limit emigration in an attempt to protect the job opportunities of native workers. A nation may levy strict policies against immigrants of specific racial background as well. These policies are written to ensure that competition in local labor markets are not distorted. However, while these policies are aimed at protecting a nations economic status, they are sometimes seen as inhumane.

The World Bank estimates that remittances totaled $420 billion in 2009, of which $317 billion went to developing countries.