REGIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION: KEY FACTS AND FIGURES

The UN defines a migrant as an individual who has resided in a foreign country for more than one year irrespective of the causes, voluntary or involuntary, and the means, regular or irregular, used to migrate. However, there is no universally accepted definition of migration.

By its very nature, migration, especially irregular migration, is a phenomenon which is difficult to quantify. As a result, statistics on migration-related issues are not always available and vary according to the source. Nevertheless, they are needed to identify trends for policy making and to ensure an informed debate on a politically sensitive topic.

International Migration

To date, there are more than 215 million migrants worldwide, nearly half being women. Over the last 50 years, the share of international migrants in the world‘s population has remained remarkably stable at around 3%. The volume of South-South migration is larger than South-North migration. Almost 80% of South-South migration takes place across the land borders of adjacent countries and appears to occur between countries with relatively small differences in income.

Source: World Bank, Migration and Remittances Factbook 2011

Migrant stock by regions

Top 10 migrant destination countries: United States, Russia, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Canada, UK, Spain, France, Australia and India.

Top 10 emigration countries: Mexico, India, Russia, China, Ukraine, Bangladesh, Pakistan, UK, the Philippines and Turkey.

Source: World Bank, Migration and Remittances Factbook 2011

Migration towards the EU

In 2010, 32.5 million foreign citizens lived in the EU27, of which 12.3 million (2.5% of the total population) were citizens of another EU Member State and the remaining 20.2 million (4% of the total population) were citizens of non-EU countries.

Source: EMN, Key EU Migratory Statistics, March 2012

Main countries of origin of non-nationals, EU-27, 2010 (million)

Source: Eurostat, 2011

There are some 650 million border crossings per year for the Schengen area as a whole.

Today about one third of all immigration to the EU is related to family reasons.

Source: EC, COM(2011)248 of 4 May 2011

The rate of migration from countries a low Human Development Indice (HDI) towards the EU is low contrary to the accepted wisdom.

Share of immigrants by citizenship group, EU-27, 2009 (%)

National means former emigrants returning home and citizens born abroad who are immigrating for the first time and non-national means people who are not citizens of the destination country.

Eurostat estimated that over 2.3 million persons emigrated from the EU in 2008.

Irregular migration

Globally there are some 30 to 40 million irregular or undocumented migrants (15-20% of all international migrants). About 1.9–3.8 million are estimated to be in the EU (Clandestino, http://irregular-migration.hwwi.net), and some 10.3 million in the US. One in every five migrants living in the US and EU entered clandestinely or overstayed a visa.

Source: ICHRP, Irregular Migration, Migrant Smuggling and Human Rights: Towards Coherence – 2010

In 2010, the number of irregularly staying third country nationals apprehended in the EU was about 505.000. Member States returned about 224.000 persons.

Source: EMN, Key EU Migratory Statistics, March 2012

Summary of FRAN indicators for the EU27

Source: Frontex Risk Analysis Network (FRAN), Nov 2011

Remittances

Remittances to developing countries are estimated to have reached over €260 billion in 2011 (three times the size of official development assistance), up 8% over 2010. The true size, including unrecorded flows through formal and informal channels, is believed to be significantly larger.

Remittance costs have fallen steadily from 8.8% in 2008 to 7.3% in the third quarter of 2011, but remain high, especially in Africa and in small nations.

Source: World Bank, Migration and development Brief 17 - 2011

Remittance flows to developing countries have recovered after the global financial crisis, but are forecast to grow at a slower pace in 2012-2014

Top 10 recipients of migrant remittances and Top 10 recipients of migrant remittances as a share of GDP

Source: World Bank, Migration and development Brief 17 - 2011

Asylum

Refugees and asylum seekers made up 16.3 million (8% of international migrants) in 2010. The share of refugees in the migrant population was 14.6% in low-income countries compared with 2.1% in high-income OECD countries.

The EU27 registered 301.000 asylum claims in 2011, a 14% increase compared with 2010 (259.000).Three quarters of first instance decisions were rejections.

Source: Eurostat – 2011

In 2010, only about 5.000 refugees were resettled in the EU as a whole (compared to 75.000 in the US). This number should increase with the adoption of an EU joint resettlement scheme in March 2012.

Source: EC, COM(2011)248 of 4 May 2011

Top destination countries for refugees: West Bank and Gaza, Jordan, Chad, Syria, Tanzania, Ecuador, Lebanon, Iraq, Zambia and Pakistan.

Source: World Bank, Migration and Remittances Factbook 2011

Source: UNHCR, Asylum Levels and Trends in Industrialized Countries – 2011

IDPs

At the end of 2011, the global number of IDPs stood at 26.4 million (compared with 27.5 million in 2010). There has been a steady increase over the past 15 years. More than 3.5 million people were newly displaced in 2011, a 20% increase from 2010, including up to 1 million people displaced by the post-election violence in Côte d’Ivoire and over 800.000 people displaced by the Arab Spring.

Countries with the largest internally displaced populations (in millions): Colombia (3.9–5.3), Iraq (2.3–2.6), Sudan (2.2), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (1.7) and Somalia (1.5).

Source: IDMC- NRC, Global Overview 2011

Source: IDMC- NRC, Global Overview 2011

This article was written under the ETEM project, funded by the EU and implemented by ICMPD.