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2010 Rev. Universitara Sociologie 53 (2010)
Economic Recession and Migratory Flows

handle is hein.journals/rvusoclge2010 and id is 53 raw text is: Economic recession and migratory flows Abstract: During the past decade, migration has increasingly been seen as having potential benefits for development, as well as significant risks and costs. Given this, how will the current economic downturn impact on migration's potential contribution to development? This article explores this question by looking at how past economic crises have affected migration, and by considering the likely implications of the current financial crisis for the migration development nexus. Key words: international migration, crises, migration effects Trends in international migration At the threshold of the recession, in 2005, the number of international migrants stood at an all- time high of 195 million - a level two and a half times greater than the 75 million recorded in 1960. Trends in international migration are often misperceived. In the first place, the share that migrants represent of the world population is relatively low: they make up about 3 percent of world population and the world's workers. While the immigrant share of the total population by major world region is largest in Oceania (including Australia and New Zealand) and Northern America, the biggest concentrations of immigrants are in Europe, followed by Asia. When migration is viewed through a country (versus a regional) lens, the United States in particular stands out: PhD. St. Cristina ILIE University of Craiova cristin il@yahoo.com while it accounts for one in 20 world residents, it is home to one in five of the world's migrants. Illegal migration may be less of a worldwide phenomenon than many realize. The United Nations estimates there are roughly 20 to 30 million unauthorized migrants worldwide, composing 10 to 15 percent of the world's immigration stock. An estimated 11 million unauthorized immigrants live in the United States, according to US government estimates. Along with temporary migrant workers, unauthorized immigrants represent the flows most closely linked to the economy, and thus the ones most likely to fall in poor economic times. As the financial crisis descended, immigrants were having a significant effect on employment growth in many industrialized countries. While they represented one in six workers in the United States, they constituted one in two new workers in the United States and nearly seven in 10 new workers in the United Kingdom. In terms of workers, low- skilled migrants still represent the bulk of global migration flows, although high- and low-skilled immigrants now represent equal shares of migrants to the 30 countries that compose the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the so-called club of wealthy nations. Many of the immigrant workers hardest hit by the recession are 53

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