Global Perspective: Changing global migration patterns as a result of growing anti-migration sentiment

As the world’s nations and businesses become increasingly interconnected, so too does the flow of global migration. According to the OECD’s “International Migration Outlook 2018”, in 2017 some 258m people resided in a country other than the one they were born in and more than 5m foreign-born persons settled in OECD countries. The flow of migration is believed to not only improve the lives of the migrants themselves, but also to contribute significantly to the economic opportunities of individual businesses and countries.

Despite this, public opinion across the globe is turning against migration, much to the frustration of business leaders and economic research institutes that continue to stress its economic benefits. In turn, more and more nations are implementing measures to combat migration flows. Research suggests, however, that the number of those wishing to – or needing to – migrate across borders will continue growing. Together, these two trends will have a number of significant impacts on countries, industries and businesses.

Pace of Migration

The growth of global migration is outpacing expert estimates. While the 258m global migrants make up only 3.4% of the world’s population, this figure is already higher than the 2003 prediction by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) that international migrants would reach 230m to account for 2.6% of the global population by 2050.

In its “World Migration Report 2018”, the IOM described global migration as “the variable that had shown the greatest volatility in the past and was therefore most difficult to project with some accuracy”. Based on the current trends of natural disasters and political headwinds, the reality of global migration is likely to continue surpassing the projections of analysts.

Read the full Global Perspective in The Report: Cote d'Ivoire 2019