According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), migration flows hit “record levels, but are not out of control” for the second year in a row. Additionally, workers who are migrants have not been fully assimilated into the labor market.
In 2023, the 38 OECD countries recorded 6.5 million new “permanent” immigrants (including those with residency permits and European nationals), a 10 percent increase over 2022, a year that had already seen record migration flows. With 1.2 million new legal, permanent residents – the most since 2006 – the United States, where Donald Trump, the victor of the most recent presidential election, has pledged mass deportations, continues to be the top destination nation.
Furthermore, migration has reached record levels in roughly one-third of OECD nations, including the UK (747 000), Canada (472,000), France (298,000), Japan (155,000), and Switzerland (144 500). However, another third of the countries in the region saw a decline in the rate of migration flows, especially in Denmark, Estonia, Israel, Italy, Lithuania, and New Zealand.
Ten nations, including the United States (73.3 percent), Canada (75.8 percent), and the United Kingdom (76.3 percent), as well as the 27 EU nations had “the highest migrant employment rates ever recorded.”
Over the past 15 years, the proportion of immigrants among business owners has grown dramatically in OECD nations. According to the report, the average percentage of self-employed workers who were migrants in 2022 was 17 percent, up from 11 percent in 2006. Stefano Scarpetta also maintains that “improving the accessibility and availability of labor migration pathways is essential to strengthen overall flow control and manage irregular migration, in addition to helping to address labor shortages.”
Strong demand for labour in host countries has been a key driver of migration over the past two years ,” OECD’s Director of Employment and Labour Stefano Scarpetta detailed in an editorial. According to him, ” the increase in the number of migrant workers has contributed to sustained economic growth ” in some of the organisation’s member countries.
The EU Issued a Record Number of Residence Permits
A record 3.7 million residency permits were granted by EU nations to non-EU nationals, mostly for employment purposes. 33.8 percent came from work permits, followed by “humanitarian and other reasons” (25.6 percent), family reasons (26.4 percent), and education (14.3 percent).
According to Eurostat data, the largest number of permits in 2023 were issued to Ukrainians (307,313), followed by Belarusians (281 279) and Indians (207 966). The primary reason these nations send their citizens here is to find work.
Over the previous 15 years, the proportion of immigrants among business owners has grown dramatically in OECD nations. On average, migrants made up 17 percent of self-employed people in OECD nations in 2022, up from 11 percent in 2006. In addition to addressing labor shortages, Stefano Scarpetta maintains that “improving the accessibility and availability of labor migration pathways is essential to strengthen overall flow control and manage irregular migration.”
In the UK Net Migration was slightly decreased, while work visas rose.
In Britain, the biggest driver of migration last year was work. There was also an increase in the number of people arriving from outside the European Union on work visas, the figures suggest. Although net migration to the UK fell 10 percent last year compared to the year before, it was 685 000 in the year to December 2023, says the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Non-EU immigration for work reasons went up from 277 000 in the year to December 2022 to 423 000 in the year to December 2023, according to the ONS. More than four out of 10 people moving to the UK for work-related reasons last year came from India or Nigeria, most commonly in the health and social care sector.
According to the OECD report, the most prevalent nationality among foreign-born individuals relocating permanently to the UK in 2022 was Indian. Chinese and Nigerians followed them. Britain approved nearly 450 000 student visa applications last year, more than any other OECD country. That was a six percent decrease from the level in 2022, but an increase of nearly one fifth from the 2019 figure.
“Family migration surged, with 373 000 new family migrants in 2023, a 60 percent increase compared to 2022,” according to the OECD. In the United Kingdom, 70 percent of family migrants were traveling with relatives of labor migrants. “The health and care visa for accompanying family members accounted for the bulk of the increase,” the report continued.
The health and social care sector accounted for over 60 percent of skilled worker visa grants in the year ending March 2024 and was largely shielded from 2024 increases in salary thresholds.
In 2023, the skilled worker salary threshold was raised to £38 700. With the measures, the previous Tory government sought to reduce the number of people entering Britain by 300 000 annually. However, new Labour Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has postponed a planned increase in the salary threshold for those looking to bring family members to the UK.
This implies that individuals from other countries will only need to make £28 000 in order to bring their families to the UK.
France Needs 3.9 Million New Workers
Many professions in the French economy are under pressure: cooks, hotel and restaurant employees, boilermakers, engineers, construction workers, skilled construction workers, etc – the French newspaper, Le Point reported last year. According to figures from the Ministry of Labour, in 2023, there were approximately 2.7 million immigrant workers (EU and non-EU) occupied the 10 percent of jobs in France. But the country’s economy is still demanding the working force reinforcement.
As the President of Movement of the Enterprises of France, Patrick Martin said on a radio show: “By 2050, unless we reinvent our social model, unless we reinvent our economic model, we will need 3.9 million foreign employees” outside the European Union since “all EU countries are faced with the same demographic problem”.
To make this claim, Patrick Martin relies on a 2021 prospective study from the Center for Global Development . The researchers at the Washington-based American think tank examined the United Nations’ demographic projections from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis and data on international migration flows. “Europeans are living longer and having fewer children. This is reducing the working-age population even as the number of retirees is increasing. This risks straining welfare systems and the social safety net, as well as slowing economic growth and prosperity for all,” argues Charles Kenny, author of the study for the Center for Global Development.
According to the ILO’s most recent estimates, there were an estimated 169 million migrant workers globally in 2019 (ILO, 2021). Over two-thirds of all migrant workers were concentrated in high-income countries, and approximately 60.6 percent were located in three subregions: 24.2 per cent in Northern, Southern and Western Europe; 22.1 percent in Northern America; and 14.3 percent in the Arab States.
