ILO Global Estimates on International Migrant Workers

FOCUS

This report is the third edition of the periodic publication of data on international migrant workers by the International Labour Organisation (ILO). Published in 2021, the report covers 189 countries and provides insights on the changing patterns and trends of labour migration across countries – including information on sex, age and category of economic activity. The first such report was published in the year 2015.

International migrant workers, the report notes, are defined as persons of working age present in the country of measurement. Since it takes 2019 as its year of reference, the report is useful in assessing changes caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The two main sources of data for this report were the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) and the ILO. The report states that the estimated number of international migrants worldwide is 272 million, of which 245 million are of working age (aged 15 and over) in 2019.

This 74-page document is divided into 2 main parts: the Main Results (Part I) and the Estimate Methodology (Part II). 

    FACTOIDS

  1. Globally, migrant workers constitute 4.9 per cent of the labour force of destination countries. Migrant workers constitute 41.4 per cent of the labour force in the Arab states.

  2. Women constitute 41.5 per cent of the international migrant workers, while men constitute 58.5 per cent. The report adds that women face more economic and non-economic obstacles as migrant workers, and it is likely that they migrate as accompanying family members and not primarily to find work.

  3. The share of youth (aged 15-24 years) in international migrant workers increased from 8.3 per cent in 2017 to 10 per cent in 2019. The share of older workers (aged 65 and above) reduced from 5.2 per cent to 3.6 per cent during the same time period.

  4. Of the estimated 169 million international migrant workers, 113.9 million (67.4 per cent) are in high-income countries and 33 million (19.5 per cent) in upper-middle-income countries. The share of migrant workers in high-income countries has declined from 74.7 per cent in 2013 to 67.4 per cent in 2019.

  5. The report states that 79.9 per cent of women international migrant workers are in services (such as healthcare and domestic work), 14.2 per cent are in industry and 5.9 per cent work in agriculture. Among men migrant workers, 35.6 per cent are employed in industry (such as manufacturing and construction), 56.4 per cent in services and 7.9 per cent of men migrant workers are in agriculture.

  6. Northern and Southern Europe, Northern America and the Arab States are the three subregions with the majority of migrant workers, with these hosting 60.6 per cent of international migrant workers as of 2019.


    Focus and Factoids by Muhammad Yusuf Ghazali. 

AUTHOR

Natalia Popova and Andonirina Rakotonarivo

COPYRIGHT

International Labour Organisation

PUBLICATION DATE

2021

TAGS

#migrant-workers #international-migration #women-migrant-workers

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