Immigration & Emigration

The flow of migration always involves two-way connections. Given two locations, A and B, some people migrate from A to B, while at the same time, others migrate from B to A. Emigration is migration from a location; immigration is migration to a location.

The difference between the number of immigrants and the number of emigrants is the net migration. If the number of immigrants exceeds the number of emigrants, the net migration is positive, and the region has net in-migration. If the number of emigrants exceeds the number of immigrants, the net migration is negative, and the region has net out-migration.

Figure 3-9 summarizes the origin and destination of international migrants between 1990 and 2017. In 2017, 258 million of the world’s 7.6 billion people were living outside their country of birth. The largest number came from Asia, and the largest numbers went to Asia or Europe. North America, Europe, and the South Pacific have more immigrants than emigrants, whereas Africa, Asia, and Latin America have more emigrants than immigrants.

Migrants 1990-2017

More than 40 percent of international migrants originate in Asia.

The United States has more foreign-born residents than any other country, approximately 45 million as of 2018, a number that is growing annually by around 1 million. Germany, Russia, and Saudi Arabia are a distant second, with 12 million immigrants each. Australia and Canada, which are much less populous than the United States, have higher rates of net in-migration. The highest in-migration rates of all are in petroleum-exporting countries of Southwest Asia, which attract immigrants primarily from poorer countries in Asia to perform many of the dirty and dangerous functions in the oil fields and construction industry. The below shows the largest flows of migrants between pairs of countries between 1990 and 2017. By far the largest flow is from Mexico to the United States.

Migration Patterns in Europe

Europe (including Russia) is home to 78 million of the world’s 258 million immigrants as of 2017. Otherwise stated, Europe has less than 10 percent of the world’s total population but more than 30 percent of the world’s migrants. Germany and Russia each have 12 million immigrants, the United Kingdom has 9 million, France has 8 million, and Spain and Italy have 6 million each.

In the region as a whole, around 10 percent of Europe’s population consists of immigrants. The foreign-born population is 41 percent in Luxembourg and 29 percent in Switzerland. Germany, the most populous country in Europe (other than Russia), not only has the largest number of immigrants, it also has one of the largest percentages of immigrants.

Europe’s 78 million immigrants include 47 million originating in another European country and 31 million from other regions of the world. The general pattern of movement of migrants in Europe is from south and east to north and west. This pattern holds both for migrants within Europe and for those originating in other regions of the world, primarily from North Africa & Southwest Asia as well as Asian countries once part of the former Soviet Union.

Net Migration, European Union, 2017

Most portions of Southern Europe and former Communist countries of Central Europe have net out-migration. Most portions of Northern and Western Europe have net in-migration.

Net Migration, United Kingdom

Since the late twentieth century, the United Kingdom has had more immigration than emigration, especially from Europe and Asia.

Russia is the country of origin in Europe for the largest number of emigrants, 6 million, although overall it has net in-migration. Other leading sources of emigrants include 5 million from Ukraine, 4 million each from Kazakhstan and Poland, and 3 million each from Morocco, Romania, and Turkey. More than 1 million migrants each have gone to Germany from Kazakhstan, Poland, Russia, and Turkey; to France from Algeria and Morocco; to Italy from Romania; to Russia from Kazakhstan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan; and to Ukraine from Russia. The arrival of large numbers of refugees has altered the patterns of migration within Europe (see under Europe Immigration Issues).

Pause & Reflect 3.1.3

Do the developed countries of Europe and North America appear in Figure 3-9 to have net in-migration or net out-migration?