- The World Migration Report 2020 is the tenth edition of the International Organization for Migration’s flagship World Migration Report publication series. It was released in 2019 at the 110th Session of the IOM Council
- The report presents data and information on human migration together with the analysis of complex and emerging migration issues.
- It is released biennially
- The World Migration Report was first published by IOM in 2000 with the aim of promoting ‘a better understanding of the main migratory movements that are occurring across the globe’.
Key highlights of the report
- As per the report number of international migrants in 2019 is now estimated at 270 million and the top destination remains the U.S., at nearly 51 million.
- According to the U.N. agency, more than half of all international migrants (141 million) live in Europe and North America.
- An estimated 52% are male, and nearly two-thirds of all migrants are looking for work; that’s around 164 million people.
- As per the report, India continued to be the largest country of origin of international migrants. It had the largest number of migrants living abroad (17.5 million), followed by Mexico (11.8 million) and China (10.7 million).
- The report also noted that international remittances increased to $689 billion in 2018.
- The top three remittance recipients were India ($78.6 billion), China ($67.4 billion) and Mexico ($35.7 billion).
- The United States remained the top remittance-sending country ($68 billion) followed by the United Arab Emirates ($44.4 billion) and Saudi Arabia ($36.1 billion).
- It also states that in Africa, Asia and Europe, most international migrants stay within their regions of birth, but the majority of migrants from Latin America and the Caribbean and North America do not.
- Its data showed that Gulf countries have some of the largest numbers of temporary labour migrants in the world, including the United Arab Emirates, where they make up almost 90% of the population.
- According to IOM’s Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre that a total of 41.3 million people were forced to flee their homes at the end of 2018 — a record since monitoring began in 1998.
- It states that Syria has the highest internally population of displaced people, at 6.1 million, followed by Colombia (5.8 million) and the Congo (3.1 million)
- After 9 years of conflict, Syria is also the top refugee-originating country, at well over six million – dwarfing Afghanistan (at around 2.5 million) – out of a total of nearly 26 million.
- With respect to the impact of climate and weather disasters, the report notes that Typhoon Mangkhut in the Philippines contributed to the fact that 3.8 million people were newly displaced there at the end of 2018, the largest number globally.
About the International Organization for Migration (IOM)
- IOM is an intergovernmental organization that provides services and advice concerning migration to governments and migrants, including internally displaced persons, refugees, and migrant workers.
- In the year 2016, it became a related organization of the United Nations
- IOM was initially established in 1951 as the Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration (ICEM) to help resettle people displaced by World War II.
- As of March 2019, the International Organization for Migration has 173 member states and eight observer states
