MORE THAN 247 MILLION PEOPLE, or 3.4 per cent of the world population, live outside their countries of birth.
Although the number of international migrants rose from 175 million in 2000 to more than 247 million in 2013 and surpassed 251 million in 2015, the share of migrants has remained just about three per cent (of world population) for the last 15 years.
The top migrant destination country is the United States (US), followed by Saudi Arabia, Germany, the Russian Federation, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Spain, and Australia.
The top six immigration countries, relative to population, are outside the high income Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development countries: Qatar (91 per cent), UAE (88 per cent), Kuwait (72 per cent), Jordan (56 per cent), and Bahrain (54 per cent).
According to available official data, the Mexico-US corridor is the largest migration corridor in the world, accounting for 13 million migrants in 2013. Russia-Ukraine is the second largest corridor, followed by Bangladesh-India, and Ukraine-Russia. For the former Soviet Union corridors, many natives became migrants without moving when new international boundaries were drawn.
In 2015, worldwide remittance flows are estimated to have exceeded US$601 billion. Of that amount, developing countries are estimated to receive about US$441 billion, nearly three times the amount of official development assistance.
The true size of remittances, including unrecorded flows through formal and informal channels, is believed to be significantly larger. In 2015, the top recipient countries of recorded remittances were India, China, the Philippines, Mexico, and France.
As a share of gross domestic product, however, smaller countries such as Tajikistan (42 per cent), the Kyrgyz Republic (30 per cent), Nepal (29 per cent), Tonga (28 per cent) and Moldova (26 per cent) were the largest recipients. High income countries are the main source of remittances. The US is by far the largest, with an estimated US$56.3 billion in recorded outflows in 2014. Saudi Arabia ranks as the second largest, followed by Russia, Switzerland, Germany, UAE, and Kuwait. The six Gulf Cooperation Council countries accounted for US$98 billion in outward remittance flows in 2014.
Remittance flows at the regional level vary. Highlights for 2015 include: a sharp decline in remittances from Russia to the Commonwealth of Independent States, as a result of the economic slow down in Russia and the depreciation of the ruble; a rebound in Latin America benefitting Mexico and Central America as the result of the US economic recovery; growth continued in South Asia despite low oil prices in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries; and stagnant growth in the Middle East and North Africa and in Sub-Saharan Africa region.
The Egypt has become the top remittance receiver in its region, with remittances of more than three times the size of the Suez Canal.
The cost of remittances is the highest in Sub-Saharan Africa and in the Pacific Island countries (for example, it costs more than 20 per cent to send US$200 from Australia to Vanuatu, and 19 per cent from South Africa to Zambia). As of the third quarter of 2015, the average cost worldwide remained close to eight per cent – far above the three per cent target set in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development (KNOMAD). KNOMAD is a global hub of knowledge and policy expertise on migration and development.
