Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Reading the numbers

The UN recently stated,"The number of international migrants -- reached 244 million in 2015 for the world as a whole, an increase of 71 million, or 41 percent, compared to 2000." The Wittgenstein Center for Demography in Vienna disagrees with that number primarily because the 244 million includes "persons living in a country other than where they were born." This means that anyone who ever left their country of birth and is still alive is part of this number. If my father were alive, he would be counted in the 244 although he lived 69 years in this country. Another concern is with the the 41 percent number. It is based on the UN's previous number of migrants although the world's population increased from 6.1 to 7.3 billion. 

Some other conclusions:
- Significantly more Europeans migrate within Europe than Africans to Europe. 
- A much larger number of people migrate within the Middle East than from the Middle East to Europe. 
- The largest transcontinental flow continues to move from South to North America, although it has decreased considerably compared to the period from 2005 to 2010. 
- North America and Europe remain the most important target regions for international migration, although North America has a significantly smaller out-migration than Europe. 
- Europe's share of the total migration volume has declined. 
- Migration paths do not lead primarily from very poor to very rich countries, but rather adhere to a graduated model. 
- East and Southeast Asia are developing from typical source regions into target regions of international migration. 
- What has changed in the long retrospective view is the general direction of migration: from North-South to South-North and now, increasingly, to South-South. In earlier centuries, it was the Europeans who emigrated or colonized other parts of the world, which is just another form of migration. 
- But the most surprising result of Abel's calculations is that overall global migration has been on the decline in the last five years.  

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