World Migration Report 2020 and the trend of migration globally

At 17.5 million, Indian diaspora largest in the world: UN report. The Global Migration Report 2020 highlighting the international migrants stock was recently released.

Background

• It is released by the UN-affiliated International Organization for Migration (IOM).
• The International Organization for Migration (IOM) provides services and advice concerning migration to governments and migrants, including internally displaced persons, refugees, and migrant workers.
• IOM's stated mission is to promote humane and orderly migration by providing services and advice to governments and migrants.
• IOM works to help ensure the orderly and humane management of migration, to promote international cooperation on migration issues, to assist in the search for practical solutions to migration problems and to provide humanitarian assistance to migrants in need, be they refugees, displaced persons or other uprooted people.

Top destinations

• The top destination for international migrants is the US where, as of September 2019, there were 50.7 million international migrants.
• The US remained the top remittance-sending country ($68.0 billion) followed by the United Arab Emirates ($44.4 billion) and Saudi Arabia ($36.1 billion).
• The US is followed by Germany, Saudi Arabia, Russian Federation and the UK.
• Gulf countries have some of the largest numbers of temporary labour migrants in the world, including the United Arab Emirates, where they make up almost 90 percent of the population.

Indian case

• India continues to be the largest country of origin of international migrants with a 17.5 million-strong diaspora across the world.
• It received the highest remittance of $78.6 billion from Indians living abroad
• After India the largest number of migrants living abroad is followed by Mexico (11.8 million), and China (10.7 million).

Other Highlights of the report

• Overall figure represents just a tiny fraction of the world's population, although it is a 0.1 percent increase on the level indicated in its last report, published two years ago.
• More than half of all international migrants (141 million) live in Europe and North America.
• In Africa, Asia and Europe, most international migrants stay within their regions of birth, but the majority of migrants from Latin America and the Caribbean and North America do not.
• IOM's Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre highlighted that a total of 41.3 million people were forced to flee their homes at the end of 2018 a record since monitoring began in 1998.
• Turning to the impact of climate and weather disasters, the report notes that Typhoon Mangkhut in the Philippines contributed to the fact that 3.8 million people were newly displaced there at the end of 2018, the largest number globally.