Remittances are now more than three times larger than aid flows to countries in the global South and constitute a rapidly growing source of development finance. Yet barriers to both entry and the right to work within Northern countries mean that their full potential is not being realised, with refugees and migrants from many Southern countries meeting significant blockages in their efforts to build new lives and livelihoods in their new homes. In this Viewpoint, I argue that we, as development educators, need to challenge and question the inconsistencies and hypocrisy underpinning national and international attitudes and policies which purport to assist Southern people through aid programmes, yet restrict these same people’s agency to seek employment elsewhere and assist their home communities directly. If handled justly and more openly, the so-called migrant ‘crisis’ represents an opportunity to move away from patronising charity stereotypes which perpetuate Northern ‘saviour complexes’ to more equitable, economically sustainable relationships North and South.