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Migration slowing as recession bites: report

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-09-09 13:19

HOUSTON: Immigrants are overwhelmingly choosing to stay in their adopted countries, rather than return home, despite the impact of the economic downturn on employment, a report released Tuesday said.

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The report, compiled by Washington D.C. -based think tank Migration Policy Institute, also found that some migration flows, particularly illegal migration, are also down as would-be migrants are deterred by reduced job prospects in countries that would previously have offered them better opportunities.

Fewer Mexican citizens tried to enter the US and fewer Mexican citizens who were in the US illegally tried to return home, according to the report, which focuses on migration flows to and from the major migrant-receiving regions of the world.

The number of Mexican citizens who came to the US between March 2008 and March 2009 fell to 175,000, down from 653,000 between March 2004 and March 2005, largely driven by reduced job opportunities in the US, the report said.

Meanwhile, the report found that 166,000 Mexican citizens made return trips to their home country between January and March this year. An estimated 199,000 returned during the same period in 2008, with 210,000 in 2007.

"This recession has caused people to stay put at both ends, in their adopted countries and in their home countries," said Michelle Mittelstadt, spokeswoman for the Migration Policy Institute.

"Even in countries that are paying immigrants to leave, such as Japan, the Czech Republic and Spain, the immigrants are not taking them up on these offers to (go home),"she said.

Demetrios G. Papademetriou, president of Migration Policy Institute, who co-authored the report, said that so far, "despite a few exceptions, there have been no dramatic changes in the way in which either policy-makers or migrants have behaved."

Staying put "seems to be the firmest interim conclusion one can draw from the available data," he said. However, he said, "large-scale immigration will resume in the next two to five years" when employment in major immigrant-attracting countries start growing again.