Annan offers global forum on migration & development
07 Jun '06
4 min read
The report finds that migration has become a major feature of international life. People living outside their home countries numbered 191 million in 2005 – 115 million in developed countries, 75 million in the developing world.
One third of all current immigrants in the world have moved from one developing country to another, while about the same number have moved from the developing world to the developed. In other words, 'South-South' migration is roughly as common as 'South-North,' according to the report. But migration to countries designated as “high-income” – a category which includes some developing countries, such as the Republic of Korea, Singapore, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – has grown much faster than to the rest of the world.
Migration is not a zero-sum game, the report finds. It can benefit both sending and receiving countries at once. Significantly, many countries once known for emigration – Ireland, the Republic of Korea and Spain among them – now boast thriving economies and host large numbers of immigrants.
The report also reviews scores of promising policy developments, such as multiple-entry visas that provide more fluid and better regulated access to needed immigrant workers, support for immigrant entrepreneurship and host-country training programmes, international cooperation to increase training of skilled workers in migrant-sending countries to allay 'brain drain,' and country-of-origin outreach to overseas diasporas.
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