According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), 175 million people live outside the countries where they were born. Thus, over the past 35 years, the number of emigrants has doubled. According to IOM Director General Brunson McKinley, "if migration used to be a political and humanitarian problem, which it, however, continues to be, now it is also a social and economic problem."
There are many reasons to leave one's homeland. From the IOM's point of view, immigration has long become a normal part of modern life. Globalization requires ever greater mobility from people seeking new jobs. But at the same time, the gap between rich and poor countries is widening. Millions of people leave their homeland in hope of a better future in another country. To these should be added refugees from war: according to IOM estimates, there were 12 million such people in 2002.
The world map as seen by the IOM is divided into two hemispheres - the rich Northwest and the poor South and East. The IOM cannot report how large the number of so-called illegal emigrants is - people working and living in a third country without valid documents. It is known that among the illegal emigrants there are many women, often deprived of any protection, subjected to exploitation and violence. According to the IOM, smuggling gangs earned up to $10 billion from their business in 2002.
The answer to this, according to IOM head McKinley, is simple: it is necessary to regulate migration flows: "We must deprive smugglers and human traffickers of their source of income. In order not to force people to take personal risks associated with illegal border crossing, a better organized official migration system should be developed."
Overall, in the IOM's view, governments react to individual events and factors, without trying to regulate the flow, without addressing the phenomenon of mass migration as an international problem. Meanwhile, the main efforts should be directed, as the IOM believes, at creating acceptable living conditions for people in the regions and countries they are currently trying to leave.
Furthermore, the IOM calls for opening opportunities for legal immigration at the international level, taking targeted effective measures against smugglers, and developing programs for the voluntary return of illegal emigrants.
According to IOM calculations, emigrants send more than $100 billion home each year. Developing countries account for $60 billion: this is more than the assistance provided by Western countries under government programs for economic cooperation and development. India receives the most remittances from its emigrants ($11.5 billion), followed by Mexico ($6.5 billion) and Egypt ($3.7 billion).
According to IOM data, from 1970 to 1995, the largest number of emigrants left Mexico (6 million people), as well as Bangladesh and Afghanistan (more than 4 million emigrants from each country).