As BBC notes, employment among migrants is growing simultaneously with unemployment and discontent among the local population. In response, authorities are tightening migration policies. On the other hand, the technological revolution is reducing the need for labor.
As a result, in advanced economies, the rate of inflow of labor migrants is gradually slowing, and middle-income countries are taking the lead, according to a fresh study by the International Labour Organization. This group, besides China and Brazil, includes Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and Turkmenistan.
Where foreigners go
The majority still prefer the developed West: half of all foreign labor in the world is shared equally by North America and Europe.
Foreign entrepreneurs are attracted by the business climate, finance, and scientific base – ask South African Elon Musk. Workers are lured by high salaries, employment opportunities, and career prospects.
And local employers, for their part, seek talent and can afford to spend. For example, the Bank of England (the British central bank) is headed by Canadian Mark Carney, and the ballet troupe of the Berlin State Ballet (Staatsballett Berlin) is led by Spaniard Nacho Duato, who previously worked in Russia at the Mikhailovsky Theatre.
Developed wealthy countries account for 68% of all labor migration. This is partly explained by their attractiveness to workers from poor countries. Partly by the gradual liberalization of the labor market and the opening of borders, primarily in the European Union, where nearly half a billion people are free to move between the bloc's 28 countries and actively do so.
And while migrants make up 18.5% of the labor force in developed countries, globally only one in twenty, or less than 5%, of the 3.5 billion workers came from abroad.
Migrants and refugees
There are more than a quarter of a billion migrants in the world, of which only about 7% are refugees, while the lion's share – almost 60% – are labor migrants, that is, people of working age who have come abroad and are either already working or looking for work.
In the four years since the previous study, the number of labor migrants in the world has grown by almost 10%.
Benefit or harm?
Almost 90% of labor migrants are people aged 25 to 64. "It follows that some countries are losing the most productive part of their working-age population. And this could have an adverse impact on their economies," warns the International Labour Organization.
On the other hand, migrants often send their earnings home, helping poor countries cope with chronic shortages of funds for social support and a lack of currency to purchase food, fuel, and other critically important imported goods.
For countries receiving migrants, on one side of the scale is the economic benefit from the influx of hardworking, capable, smart, and talented people. On the other is the gradual growth of discontent among the local population over the dominance of foreigners.
Natives of developed countries are most often outraged, and a quick glance at statistics shows why.
In high-income countries, migrants account for 18.5% of the labor force, while in other groups their share ranges from 1.4% to 2.2%. Moreover, migrants have a better chance of finding work: more than 70% of those who arrived are economically active, while among the native population this figure is below 60%.