‘43% of emigrants are Asians’

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) launched the publication titled “Perspectives on Global Development 2017: International Migration in a Shifting World” which also showed a 4% increase in Asian emigrants in the last two decades. Europeans made up 25% of international emigrants in 2015 making them the second largest group according to the report by OECD. According to the publication, top 15 countries accounted for 45% of total emigrants. All but two, Germany and United Kingdom are developed countries on the list. Of the 13 developing countries that are the major source for emigrants, 10 are Asian countries with  Bangladesh being the fifth largest source of emigrants. The other countries on the list are- India, Mexico, Russia, China, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Ukraine, Philippines, Syria, Afghanistan, Poland, Kazakhstan and Indonesia. The high number of emigrants leaving Afghanistan and Syria are for humanitarian reasons. About 15.6 million individuals born in India were living in another country in 2015, making Indians the largest source of emigrants. The top 15 destination countries hosted 64% of the world’s total stock of international immigrants in 2015. Among the top ten destination countries all but Russia are in the high income category. The United States remained the most attractive destination. The number of immigrants in the US was around 47 million as of 2015 with an average 3% increase per year. The top 15 destination countries are- US, Russia, Germany, Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom, UAE, Canada, France, Australia, Spain, India, Italy, Ukraine, Thailand and Pakistan. As a host country of ninth GFMD summit, Bangladesh put more focus on global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration by 2018. A debate was held on the proposed package of global compact for migration on the second day of the summit where most of the developed countries disagreed with the proposal, according to diplomatic source. Many countries disagreed with the proposal of global compact and some did agree with it, said Shahidul Haque, foreign secretary, Bangladesh. Haque also said it will take long time to make a global compact which will compel countries to ensure migration rights. The representatives from United Nation did not respond actively during the debate over a global compact, said a source who participated in the debate.