“If you add up the total over the last few decades, the most important route is still between Mexico and the United States. But if we look at more recent years, we see how Asia and Africa stand out. For example, if between 1990 and 2000 the increase in the number of foreigners was due by a third to arrivals to Europe and by two-thirds to North America; then between 2000 and 2010, a quarter was due to Europe, a quarter to North America, and almost 40 percent of displacements were to Asia.
If we look back over the last three years, around 30 percent of migrants are heading to Europe, 18 percent to the United States, and 50 percent to Asia,” says Lattes, a researcher at the Population Division of the UN’s Economic and Social Affairs Department. “Simplifying this, we can say that between 1990 and 2000, the growth in the number of foreigners was 100 percent in the north, and is now around 50 percent, while the rest of migratory flows are south-south. And we think that this trend is going to continue,” he adds.
Experts in migration warn that a rapidly aging Europe could face a demographic deficit by 2030 that will make maintaining its traditional welfare state — already hard hit by the ongoing depression — near impossible. The old world could need more immigrants exactly at the time when it has set its sights on holding back the other side of the planet. “If Europe continues with its restrictive policies, there is a very real risk that it will not be able to attract the qualified immigrants it needs in the current context of global competition,” says Catherine de Wenden, a French sociologist and head of the CNRS, the country’s science council. De Wenden, who has spent much of her time over the last two decades researching international migratory flows, is convinced that in the future there will be as many people heading north as moving in different directions within the southern hemisphere. “But the North will need to continue attracting more immigrants,” she says.
Inga kommentarer:
Skicka en kommentar