PARIS, JULY 13, 2010: THANKS to the financial crisis, the international migration has declined but as the recovery picks up momentum, migrants would again be needed to fill up the void for skilled and experienced employees, says a new OECD Report.

The OECD’s International Migration Outlook 2010 says that the inflow of immigrants to OECD countries fell by about 6% in 2008 to 4.4 million people, reversing five years of average annual increases of 11%. Recent national data suggest migration numbers fell further in 2009.

The decline reflects a fall in labour demand in OECD countries, says the OECD. Immigrants have been hard hit by the jobs crisis, with young immigrants, in particular, suffering steeper drops in employment.

Unemployment among male immigrants, many of whom worked in sectors that were badly hit by the crisis such as construction, hotels and restaurants, has generally risen more than among their native counterparts. Nonetheless, few unemployed immigrants are returning home. In some countries, there has been an increase in employment rates among immigrant women, who have taken jobs to make up for the lost income of their unemployed spouses.

Beyond the short-term impact of the crisis, immigration will continue to play a vital role for OECD economies in the long term because of the need for extra workers to maintain growth and prosperity.

With this in mind, the OECD says, governments in OECD countries should make every effort to assist immigrants who have lost their jobs, both by ensuring that they have the same rights to unemployment support as native workers and by providing support for job searches and language-training to help their integration.