THE number of immigrants in the
world has increased during the past decade, with 3.2 per cent of the
world's population, living abroad. No prizes for guessing that Asia
clocked the largest increase of international migrants while the United
States remained the most popular destination. These figures were
released by UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN-DESA) ahead
of a high-level global Summit on Migration and Development to be held
by the General Assembly in New York on 3 and 4 October.
There
are 232 million people living abroad worldwide, compared with 175
million in 2000 and 154 million in 1990. This growth was mainly fuelled
by the increasing demand for foreign labour in the oil-producing
countries of Western Asia and in South-Eastern Asian countries with
rapidly growing economies, such as Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.
While most international migrants originate in developing countries, in
recent years migrants have settled in almost equal number in developed
and developing regions.
According
to the latest statistics, the US gained the largest absolute number of
international migrants between 1990 and 2013—nearly 23 million, equal to
one million additional migrants per year. The world's largest corridor
of international migration, was between the United States and Mexico.
The United Arab Emirates recorded the second largest gain with seven
million, followed by Spain with six million. Europe and Asia host nearly
two-thirds of all international migrants worldwide. Europe remained the
most popular destination region with 72 million international migrants
in 2013, compared to 71 million in Asia with Germany and France hosting
the largest immigrant communities due to work migration and geographic
routes with North Africa.
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