International Migration Outlook 2023: Analysis of Trends, Impacts, and Challenges

PWOnlyIAS October 26, 2023 06:46 2114 0

Context: Recently OECD released its flagship report titled ‘International Migration Outlook 2023’.

International Migration Outlook 2023: Analysis of Trends, Impacts, and Challenges

What is Migration:

International Organisation for Migration (IOM) defines Migration as the movement of a person from his or her place of usual residence, whether within a country or across an international border, temporarily or permanently, and for a variety of reasons.

Types of migration:

Intra-country: comprises of Inter-state migration and Intra-state migration
International migration: comprises of migrant workers who travel abroad
Forced migration : comprises environmental refugees and war refugees.
Gender and marriage migration: Men migrate for economic reasons while women migrate for marriage relations.

Highlights of Migration Report: Trends, Challenges, and Policy Responses

India Replaces China as the main country of origin for OECD destination countries in 2020 and 2021.
Increasing Trend: With nearly 0.41 million new migrants in 2021, India lies way ahead of China in terms of yearly migrants.
Climate Change Related Migration: Report lays special emphasis on climate induced migration which has gained prominence in recent times
Refugee Crisis: Inflow of refugees from Ukraine has reached a record high level due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.
Rise in Internal Displacement : Regional conflict, economic crisis and climate change have led to an increase in intra-country migrations worldwide.
Worker man in the global market: India tops the list with 172% growth followed by Uzbekistan and Ukraine.
New legislative demands: Columbia’s Congress began discussing bill regarding climate-induced displacement with special focus on housing and healthcare.
USA remains the largest destination/recipient of permanent immigrants in 2021

Global Migration Dynamics: India’s Prominence and Internal Trends

India accounts for the highest share with nearly 18 million Indians living outside the country.
India is also the leading recipient of remittances. India has become the first country in the world to have annual remittances from abroad crossing the $100-billion mark.
India, China and Mexico are among the top 5 origin countries for migration.
The Gulf countries, the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom are some of the top destinations for Indian emigrants.
Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine has resulted in millions of Ukrainian refugees in OECD countries.

Internal Migration in India

Nearly 37% of India’s population consists of migrants (45 crore)
These can be classified as Inter-state and Intra-state migration
Migration of India report 2021 by MOSPI highlights that less developed states like UP, Bihar and Jharkhand have a net out-migration trend.
On the other hand, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Karnataka have emerged as recipients of rural migrants.

Drivers of Global Migration: Exploring Influential Factors and Trends

Availing employment opportunities: Migration to Gulf countries from India highlights the labour demand in the Gulf.
Climate crisis: Climate related migration occurs when people leave their home due to extreme weather events like glacial melt, floods, wildfires and droughts.
War impact: As observed in case of Russia-Ukraine war and Israel-Palestine war.
Internal disturbance: Afghanistan crisis led to large scale migration in order to escape poverty and exploitation
Skill labour force requirement in the West: Skilled labourers from India and China form the bulk of the USA service sector.

Migration

Understanding the Impacts of Migration on Labour Markets and Economic Growth

Positive impact
- Labour markets
  - Migrants fill important niches both in fast-growing and declining sectors of the economy.
  - Like the native-born, young migrants are better educated than those nearing retirement.
  - Migrants contribute significantly to labour-market flexibility, notably in Europe.
- The public purse
  - Migrants contribute more in taxes and social contributions than they receive in benefits.
  - Labour migrants have the most positive impact on the public purse. Employment is the single biggest determinant of migrants’ net fiscal contribution.
- Economic growth
  - Migration boosts the working-age population.
  - Migrants arrive with skills and contribute to human capital development of receiving countries.
  - Migrants also contribute to technological progress.
- Labour market:
  - Migration boosts the working age population in recipient states
- Standard of Living:
Negative impact
- Racial tension and discrimination: For instance son of the soil policy in Australia and USA
- Gender imbalance: Usually men migrate leading to skewed human capital
- Pressure on Natural resources: leads to housing crisis and climate related crisis including pollution
- Exploitation of Workers: The Kafala system in the Gulf has led to exploitation of migrant labours.

What is OECD:

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is an international organisation that works to build better policies for better lives.
It consists of 38 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate economic progress and world trade
It is headquartered in Paris, France.

Migration

Columbia and Costa Rica were the recent countries to join OECD. However, India is not a member of OECD.
Important publications are
- Black-list report for tax haven countries to keep track of terror financing and illegal economic activities
- International Migration Outlook to keep track of global migration scenario
- OECD Economic Outlook to keep track of macroeconomic stability