Large numbers of people around the world, particularly in developing countries, aspire to migrate but are prevented from doing so. Such ‘involuntary immobility’ is believed to pose important challenges to economic development, but the phenomenon remains largely unexplored. This project aims to fill this gap by focusing on involuntary immobility caused by restrictive emigration policies. It starts with a micro-level examination of the repercussions of a partial emigration ban in Sri Lanka on the income and wellbeing of affected women, shedding light on the individual impacts of involuntary immobility due to restrictive policies. Subsequently, a broader analysis aims to quantify emigration policy restrictiveness across 25 Asian and African countries from 1960 to 2023. This involves creating indicators to measure the presence and coverage of emigration bans, enabling comparative analysis over time and across countries. These indicators are then utilized in a gravity model of migration to empirically assess the effectiveness of emigration policies in shaping migration flows and generating involuntary immobility. Furthermore, the project evaluates the macro-level development effects of involuntary immobility by examining its linkages with poverty and inequality. Finally, a simulation using a general equilibrium gravity model explores the broader developmental impacts beyond poverty and inequality, considering a counterfactual scenario where emigration bans never occurred.