How migrants are changing Europe and North America (and meanwhile El Salvador)
According to the recently released International Migration Outlook 2023, permanent migration to OECD countries reached a new high in 2022 at 6.1 million people.
Many developed countries that are part of the group have accepted the largest numbers of permanent immigrants since their OECD registers began around 15-25 years ago, including Canada, France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
Furthermore, as Katharina Buchholz of Statista reports, the number of international students and asylum seekers also reached a new high in 2022, the latter driven by a sharp increase in applications in the United States.
The report concludes that the world is facing record levels of conflict-related displacement, while many nations are simultaneously trying to fill labor shortages through skilled immigration.
Permanent immigration has been dominated by those eligible through family ties – about 40% of all new immigrants in the OECD last year. In the US, this number was even higher, standing at 69% in 2022, while across the EU, 26.4% of new permanent migrants arrived through family ties, while 37.5% took advantage of EU free movement area.
In some countries in North America and Europe, past years have surpassed 2022 in terms of permanent migration numbers. For Germany, the year in question is 2016, when the country welcomed more than 1 million new immigrants – around 40% for humanitarian reasons – as the Syrian civil war raged. The United States has seen more stable immigration figures since OECD records began in 1996, with a high of 1.27 million reached in 2006.
Spain and Italy recorded the highest permanent migration figures recorded in 2007, following an earlier spike in arrivals across the Mediterranean and the rest of the world.
Among the countries that have kept their permanent immigration well below pre-pandemic levels are Australia, the Czech Republic, Japan and South Korea – all countries whose governments have been critical or at least very shy about to immigration. Permanent migration also remains slightly below 2019 levels in Norway and Sweden.
Anti-migrant revolution in El Salvador
In the meantime, some countries are starting to refuse to be a transit country for migrants, a sort of permanent stopover for those who want to enter other countries. El Salvador was a classic transit destination for irregular African and Indian migrants who then wanted to travel the final route by land. To prevent this phenomenon, the Central American country has decided to ask for a fee of 1000 dollars for the entry of all citizens with Indian passports or those of 50 African countries. A brutal but effective way to avoid being an intermediate stop for migrants. Suggest this solution to some North African country.
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The article How migrants are changing Europe and North America (and meanwhile El Salvador) comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/come-i-migranti-stanno-cambiando-europa-e-nord-america-e-intanto-el-salvador/ on Sun, 29 Oct 2023 14:22:13 +0000.