There is no "invasion", in the last two years the global population of international migrants has increased by only 0.1%.
The report is by Umberto Mazzantini, published by Green Report, 28-11-2019, reproduced by the Humanitas Unisinos Institute. The translation is by Luisa Rabolini.
Introducing World Migration Report 2020 (WMR 2020) at the Council of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in progress in Geneva, the director general of IOM, António VitorinoHe recalled that "in a global media environment strongly interested in the issue of migration, the need for reliable and evidence-based analysis of this decisive problem of our time has never been more urgent. As an agency of the United Nations responsible for migration, was for a long time the imperative of the IOM promote a balanced understanding of migration around the world". And the WMR 2020 continues in the wake of the organization's commitment to providing well-researched, accurate and accessible information on migration, but which is unfortunately ignored and/or manipulated by politicians who have made xenophobia and the fake news the raw material with which to gain consensus and power and intoxicate public opinion.
Vitorino said that "the IOM has an obligation to demystify the complexity and diversity of human mobility. As this report shows, we have a set of data and information that is constantly growing and improving, which can help us form a better idea of the basic characteristics of migration in increasingly uncertain times."
O WMR 2020 is the tenth edition of a report first published 20 years ago and provides the latest data and information on the migrationas well as the analysis of complex and emerging migration problems. O WMR 2018 has been downloaded more than 400,000 times. In an age of disinformation, the topics covered in the report include human mobility and climate change, the contributions of migrants in the countries that receive them and those from which they departed, children and unsafe migration, migration and health, timely and relevant information that should not only be read by experts, but above all by political decision-makers and the general public.
The German ambassador to the UN, Michael von Ungern-SternbergHe emphasized that "migration has become a hot topic in societies all over the world. This is a good development. However, we must face the risk of undue politicization and falsification of facts. The World Migration Report will contribute to a constructive discussion on this extremely sensitive issue and will lay the foundations for the necessary international cooperation."
Marie McAuliffe, co-director of WMR 2020, also emphasized the importance of partnerships: "To obtain the latest evidence on migration, the thematic chapters were written by some of the leading researchers in the field and the report was co-written with a famous scholar, Professor Binod Khadriafrom the Jawaharlal Nehru University, in the United States. India. To ensure that the WMR 2020 provide a high quality contribution as an important reference report on migration, before editing it, the draft report was reviewed by leading migration scholars and thematic experts from the IOM".
In 2019, the number of international migrants is estimated at 270 million and the main destination continues to be the United States. United States of AmericaWith 51 million migrants, another 90 million international migrants live divided between the many European countries, including non-EU countries (and among these there are hundreds of thousands of new generation Italian migrants). A IOM points out that while neo and sovereigntist far right all over the western world talk of "invasion", in the last two years the global population of international migrants has increased by only 0.1%. The UN explains that "This figure represents only a small fraction of the world's population (3.5%), which means that the vast majority of the world's population (96.5%) lives in the country of their birth."
The report also dispels another myth ("they're all young men who steal our jobs"): 52% of the international migrants are men and 48% are womenand around two thirds of them are looking for work, or 164 million people.
The extent to which the Italian right's view ("everyone is black and Islamic") of migration is distorted and falsified is evidenced by the WMR 2020 when it comes to ethnic components of the migrant population: "The India remains the largest country of origin for international migrants, with 17.5 million people living abroad, followed by Mexico (11.8 million) and China (10.7 million)". With regard to "they steal our jobs", other findings from the report indicate that in high-income countries, such as Italy, the number of migrant workers has decreased slightly - from 112.3 to 111.2 million - but has increased elsewhere. The strongest increase occurred in the "richest" middle-income countries, where international migrants rose from 17.5 to 30.5 million.
If we move on from the now obsolete and hypocritical slogan "let's help them in their homes", we discover that the migrants themselves help each other in their homes, just as the millions of migrants did and do Italian migrants spread all over the world. In fact, the sending of funds to the homeland by international migrants increased to reach US$ 689 billion in 2018 and the main beneficiaries are the India (78.6 billion dollars), the China (67.4 billion dollars), the Mexico (35.7 billion dollars) and the Philippines (34 billion dollars). With 68 billion dollars, the USA continue to be the main source of remittances for migrants, followed by the United Arab Emirates (44.4 billion) and by Saudi Arabia (36.1 billion).
Although Trump and its walls, the USA continue to be the country that attracts the most migrants, the report by the IOM confirms that there are other important migratory corridors that go from poorer countries to richer ones"like those for the France, Russia, United Arab Emirates e Saudi ArabiaIt confirms that for migrants Italy remains above all a transit country."
A IOM emphasizes that "This trend will probably remain the same for many years, while the populations of some sub-regions and developing countries are expected to increase in the coming decades, which will put migratory pressure on future generations."
O WMR 2020 also points out that "In Africa, Asia e Europemost of the international migrants remain in their regions of birth, but not the majority of migrants in the region. Latin Americano Caribbean and North America".
In Oceania in 2019 the levels of migration remained practically the same, but the new possible cause of future migration can be seen there. As Doreen DebrumAccording to the UN Permanent Representative for the Marshall Islands in Geneva, "the Republic of the Marshall Islands is on the brink of catastrophe. Each scientific report brings our home into deeper and more serious exposure to the risks, threats and imminent dangers posed by climate change; this would endanger the entire population of the Marshall Islands and would likely involve the forced relocation of our people and the loss of our homeland."
Regarding Middle EastThe figures in the report show that, in reality, it is the countries in the Gulfand not Europewhich are home to the largest number of temporary migrant workers in the world, in particular the United Arab Emirateswhere migrants account for around 90% of the population.
A WMR 2020 denounces that, in the last two years, the conflicts and violence taking place in the Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo (RDC), Myanmar, South Sudan, Syria e Yemen have caused mass internal migration, and IOM's monitoring of internal displacement points out that "by the end of 2018, 41.3 million people had been forced to leave their homes: a record since monitoring began in 1998".
The country with the most internal refugees is Syria (6.1 million), followed by Colombia (5.8 million), which no one talks about, and the RDC (3.1 million). After nine years of civil war Syria is also the number one country of origin for refugees, with more than 6 million people, followed by the rest of the world. Afghanistan (around 2.5 million), out of a world total of around 26 million.
Then there is the impact of climate and weather disasters: the report notes that "the Typhoon Mangkhut in the Philippines contributed to the fact that, at the end of 2018, 3.8 million people had been displaced in these regions, the highest number in the world." Little or nothing is known, but it's an enormity compared to the consequences of the climate disasters affecting Europe and North America, which are overflowing onto the pages of newspapers and television screens, computers and smartphones."
After reading WMR 2020, Jacqueline Bhabha, who teaches at Harvard University, said. "Several chapters of the report are perfect for introducing my students to new topics. The report is very well written and well researched. As migration continues to be an issue of growing interest, the WMR 2020 is the key to meeting the growing demand for high-quality, evidence-based research on this topic, while also contributing to debunking the fake news and the misinformationdesigned to influence public opinion and political debate".
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