World Migration Report 2024

The report finds that migration within one’s country remains more prevalent than cross-border migration. The total percentage of international migrants has seen slight increments since 1970 (when it was 2.3 per cent of the global population) and currently stands at a 3.6 per cent.

The largest migration corridor is from Mexico to the United States of America, the report notes. It is followed by the corridor from the Syrian Arab Republic to Türkiye, and from Ukraine to the Russian Federation. The fourth largest corridor is from India to the United Arab Emirates. India to the United States of America is the sixth largest corridor.

The United States of America, Germany, and Saudi Arabia are the top three destination countries for international migration. India, Mexico, and the Russian Federation are the top three origin countries. India is also estimated to have received over 111 billion US dollars in international remittances in 2022, making it the top recipient globally and the first country to ever surpass that amount.

In April 2020, the World Bank had projected a 20 per cent drop in global remittances due to the covid-19 pandemic. However, the actual decline was far smaller at 2.4 per cent globally. Low- and middle-income countries received 540 billion US dollars in 2020, just 1.6 per cent lower than in 2019. By 2021, remittance flows had rebounded, increasing by 7.3 per cent to reach 589 billion US dollars.

The gap between male to female migrants has been widening since 2000. The Gulf countries are popular destinations for men to migrate for occupational reasons. About 83 per cent of migrant workers in the region in 2019 were men, mostly working in construction. Women on the other hand usually move to countries where there are more jobs in the service industry, like domestic work and healthcare.

The report finds that as the per capita gross domestic product (GDP) of a country increases, emigration initially increases and then dips. This rise-then-fall pattern of people leaving their country as it gets richer is called the “mobility transition” by some scholars. India’s emigrant population has increased from 7.15 million in 1995 to 17.79 million in 2020, and India’s human development index (HDI) score also, in correlation, went from ‘low’ in 1995 to ‘medium’ in 2020.

The report presents two contradictory claims vis-a-vis climate change-induced food security and migration. It notes that there is evidence to suggest that migration has enhanced climate resilience in origin communities. In India, internal migration often shows influence of climate-related causes and remittances are used to obtain essential goods and food. However, a study conducted in western Bihar showed that migration-related changes in family structures, along with entrenched gender roles, have worsened outcomes for food security in women-led households. These nuances, as per the report, need to be considered to create thoughtful policy interventions that can minimise the risks faced by the most vulnerable communities.

Three years after the covid-19 pandemic, migration and mobility flows have largely bounced back but they are still below the levels recorded in 2019, before the pandemic. They are still around 25 to 49 per cent below their 2019 numbers in Europe, Asia, and the Pacific.

Focus and Factoids by Adrita Bhattacharya.