Immigration

Current Immigration Statistics

Figure 1 offers an overview of migration flows at the beginning of the 21st century. It shows a pronounced flow from lesser developed parts of the world to better-off regions, as measured by the Human Development Index. The United Nations estimated in 2009 the total stock of immigrants at roughly 194 million people. One third of the overall number of immigrants are moving from the global South to the North. The United States harbors the greatest absolute number of residents whose country of birth differs from their current country of residence with 42.8 million; this figure equals 13% of the entire U.S. population. In addition, more than 30% of U.S. citizens are either first-or second-generation immigrants. The Russian Federation is home to 12.3 million foreign-born residents; Germany follows closely with 10.8 million, and is, after the United States, the country with the relatively highest share of nonnative population among the larger economies.

However, resource-rich countries with smaller populations tend to have the highest rate of immigrants per capita. This is the case in the Middle East, which hosts 19 million immigrants, of which 9 million—mostly from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and the Philippines and Sri Lanka—are dispersed through the Gulf States and make up approximately 85% of the region's workforce. Immigrants by far outnumber native residents in Qatar (87%), in the United Arab Emirates (70%), and in Kuwait (69%). Immigration in Africa is both modest and commonly intracontinental (a trend mitigated for northern African states) with South Africa topping the list of destination countries with an immigration population of 1 million [Page 878]residents. Note that immigration data do not include internally displaced persons. Moreover, refugee flows in war-torn regions and among failed states are poorly documented.

Figure 1 Migration flows.

Source: United Nations Development Programme. (2009). Human development report 2009: Overcoming barriers: Human mobility and development (Map 2.1, p. 24). Palgrave Macmillan. Used with permission.

Waves of Immigration

Immigration is a modern phenomenon because it involves the crossing of state borders and thus differs from earlier population movements such as the Barbarian invasions (300 to 700 CE) after the fall of the Roman Empire or the migration patterns of the Middle Ages in Europe generally, or migratory patterns in the Sahel, central Asia, Micronesia, and Australia.

International migration streams have proceeded in two waves: The first wave was characterized by immigration from Europe to North America and parts of Latin America, and reached its climax in the middle to late 19th century. After the two world wars and the global economic depression caused large-scale cross-border movements to ebb, a second wave began in the 1960s and accelerated during the 1990s and into the new millennium.

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