International Migration

Canada and the World

Current Events with a Canadian Perspective

Last update

25 January 2012

Site map

Patterns of International Migration

Moving from one country to another is longer easy

as borders remain tight in the wake of the recession;

it’s especially hard to move to a better place

It may be a statement of the obvious, but the UN’s Development Report for 2009 points out that, “In general…people move of their own volition, to better-off places. More than three quarters of international migrants go to a country with a higher level of human development than their country of origin.”

On the other hand, the numbers show that for those who have little choice going to a better place is not usually an option. Again, the UN Development Report states, “Most of the world’s 200 million international migrants moved from one developing country to another or between developed countries.”

Huge Numbers of People Want to Move

A Gallup Poll carried out in 135 countries found that “about 16% of the world’s adults would like to move to another country permanently if they had the chance.”

That means that 700 million, more than the entire population of North and South America, would like to live somewhere else.

The series of Gallup surveys carried out between 2007 and 2009 found those most unhappy with their current living conditions were in sub-Saharan Africa. A whopping 38% of people in that region said they would like to get out if they had the chance.

People in Asian countries are the most satisfied “with 10% of the adult population, or roughly 250 million, expressing a desire to migrate permanently.”

Overwhelmingly People

Want to Move to Developed Countries

And, where do these folks want to settle? Almost a quarter (165 million adults) sees the United States as the best place to live.

Canada is the first choice of 45 million people. The countries of the European Union (EU) are equally attractive as North America, with first choice countries being Britain and France, followed by Spain and Germany.

However, 80 million people currently living in the EU say they would like to move to another member country.

Somewhat surprisingly, 30 million named Saudi Arabia as the place they would prefer to go to if they could leave their present home. Obviously, a complete lack of democracy and rampant discrimination against women are not turn-offs for a lot of people.

Data on those Who Have already Moved

There are 214 million people not living in the countries of their birth. Where are they?

Here’s a small sampling from Stalker’s Guide to International Migration and other sources of where they come from and where they go:

“Australia has a large British contingent,” says Stalker. “Of the 4.8 million foreign-born in 2005, 23% came from the United Kingdom;
“Indonesian women, who are mostly Muslim, are much sought after for work as maids in the [Persian] Gulf, though they also go to a number of Asian countries including Malaysia and Hong Kong;”
People from the Caribbean emigrate a lot, with the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and Cuba being major source countries: “10% of the people born in Cuba now live in the United States;”
More than one million people from India now live in the United Kingdom as do 750,000 Pakistanis, 285,000 Bangladeshis, and a quarter million other people of Asian origin. These numbers come from The Guardian (April 2008;
According to The Canadians Abroad Project of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, 2.8 million Canadians – 4.5% of the country’s population lives abroad; and,
Stalker’s Guide reports that, “Of the 108 million people alive today who were born in Mexico more than 10 million live in the USA.”

More Migrants on the Way

The Great Recession has slowed down international migration; it has not stopped it.

According to the UN agency IRIN Global (January 2011), “The current ‘lull’ in international migration due to economic recession…should be used by countries to prepare for larger flows of people...”

But, that doesn’t seem to be happening; in fact, it looks as though the reverse is the case.

In advance of International Migrants Day (December 18, 2010), Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued a report that said many government policies expose migrants to abuse.

Covering the report the Jakarta Post (Indonesia) wrote: “The abuses include labour exploitation, violence, trafficking, mistreatment in detention and killings, yet the nations involved offer limited recourse to seek justice.”

The newspaper quotes HRW senior women’s rights researcher Nisha Varia as saying “Many governments make things worse with policies that aggravate discrimination or make it hard for migrants to even approach authorities for help.”

Sources

“Overcoming Barriers: Human Mobility and Development.” United Nations, 2009.

“700 Million Worldwide Desire to Migrate Permanently.” Neli Esipova and Julie Ray, Gallup World, November 2, 2009.

“UK immigration: Factfile.” The Guardian, April 6, 2008.

“The Canadians Abroad Project.” Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, June 27, 2011.

“Prepare now for Future Migration Surge,” IRIN Global, January 3, 2011.

“Flawed Policies Expose Migrants to Abuse:HRW.” Jakarta Post, December 13, 2010.

“Go Forth, Multiply and Fill the Provinces.” Neil Reynolds, Globe and Mail, January 3, 2011.

OVERPOPULATED WORLD

One of the prime reasons for migration is that there are just too many people squeezed into some tight spaces.

For example, in the Marine Lines neighbourhood of Mumbai, India, people are packed in at the density of 114,000 per km2, while for the whole of Canada the population density is 3.3 per km2.

There are about seven billion people on the planet and they could all fit into Nova Scotia plus a small slice of New Brunswick if they were happy to live at the same density as the folks in Marine Lines.

Of course, creating a community such as this would be massively unsustainable and is based on trickery with numbers.

However, this did not stop Neil Reynolds from using a similar calculation to back his argument that the world needs more people.

Writing a column in The Globe and Mail (January 2011) Mr. Reynolds argues that Canada’s wide open spaces could and should accommodate far more people.

“Earth can sustain more people,” he claims, “and some countries (such as Canada) needs them.”

This article caused a flurry of angry responses of which the following is typical: “What a shockingly stupid hypothesis! It would make much more sense to aspire to spread Canada’s density over the rest of the world.”

The Gallup polling organization has developed something it calls the Potential Net Migration Index (PNMI).

Its purpose is to identify the countries seen as the most desirable by potential migrants.

The index “is the estimated number of adults who would like to move out of a country permanently subtracted from the estimated number who would like to move to it, as a proportion of the total adult population.

The higher the resulting positive PNMI value, the larger the potential net population gain.”

And the winners are:

Singapore – (+260%)

Saudi Arabia – (+180%)

New Zealand – (+175%)

Canada – (+ 170%)

Australia – (+ 145%)

While the losers are:

DR Congo – (-60%)

Zimbabwe – (-55%)

Sierra Leone – (-55%)

Haiti – (-50%)

El Salvador – (-50%)

According to BBC News, “At the start of the 21st century, one in every 35 people is an international migrant. If they all lived in the same place, it would be the world’s fifth-largest country.”