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.

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.  

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. 

• 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