The number of migrants arrived in the twenty-five Western countries of the Organization has reached its lowest level since 2003.
Le Monde with AFP
In its annual migration report, published on Thursday, October 28, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) notes that migratory flows to member countries fell by more than 30% in 2020.
“The CVIV-19 crisis has led the largest decline ever recorded immigration flows in OECD countries,” summarizes this annual report on the migration, which counts to 3.7 million migrants who have joined twenty-five of his member countries. This is the lowest level that has been recorded since 2003. The fall would even have “largely exceeded 50% if the status changes”, which can make the same person reveal the same person twice. .
“All permanent immigration categories have decreased”
Of the five main destination countries of the OECD, France recorded the least marked drop (- 21%), with 230,000 new immigrants, according to the document.
Overall, “All permanent immigration categories have decreased,” whether temporary work migration or family migration (- 35%). The only immigration category that has not experienced significant decline during this year when the CVIV-19 pandemic paralyzed global economies is that of seasonal agricultural workers (- 9%).
This is explained, according to the OECD, by the fact that Western countries needed this workforce, even in time of sanitary crisis, at the risk of losing harvests. The file says “Clementine Corsica” proved, when an air bridge had been set up to bring more than nine Moroccan hundred and seasonal on the island.
After measuring the impact of the pandemic and its social and economic consequences over a year, the OECD provides that the essential issue of incompans “will be to ensure that the recovery plan is inclusive” , and therefore concerns immigrants. Indeed, the organization notes that the last fifteen months have “ended ten years of continuous improvement of the situation of immigrants in the labor market”.
Jean-Christophe Dumont, Head of the OECD Migration Division, said AFP:
“This remains relatively moderate because there have been very important efforts to keep people involved during the crisis (…). Immigrants are still part of the most vulnerable populations because they are concentrated in the sectors more affected, like the hotel-restoration. “