What has happened in migration?

A great deal has happened in migration in the last two years since the release of the last World Migration Report in late 2021.

The last two years saw major migration and displacement events that have caused great hardship and trauma, as well as loss of life. In addition to the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, as mentioned above, millions of people have been displaced due to conflict, such as within and/or from the Syrian Arab Republic, Yemen, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Sudan, Ethiopia and Myanmar. There have also been large-scale displacements triggered by climate- and weather-related disasters in many parts of the world in 2022 and 2023, including in Pakistan, the Philippines, China, India, Bangladesh, Brazil and Colombia.¹⁶ Further, in February 2023, south-east Türkiye and northern Syrian Arab Republic experienced powerful earthquakes, resulting in more than 50,000 deaths.¹⁷ By March, an estimated 2.7 million people had been displaced in Türkiye and many had been left homeless in the Syrian Arab Republic.¹⁸

We have also witnessed the intensification of migration as a political tool in democratic systems around the world, notably in Europe, with some national election outcomes turning on the issues of anti-immigration and increasing cost of living.¹⁹A rise in anti-immigrant sentiment has also been seen in other parts of the world experiencing worsening economic conditions, such as North and Southern Africa, South-East Asia and the Middle East.²⁰

Notwithstanding recent events, long-term data on international migration have taught us that migration is not uniform across the world, but is shaped by economic, geographic, demographic and other factors, resulting in distinct migration patterns, such as migration “corridors” being developed over many years (see Chapter 2 of this report for details). The largest corridors tend to be from developing countries to larger economies, such as those of the United States of America, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Germany; large corridors can also reflect protracted conflict and related displacement, such as from the Syrian Arab Republic to Türkiye (the second-largest corridor in the world).

Note: See Chapter 2 for elaboration and discussion.
Sources:
a UN DESA, 2021.
b ILO, 2021.
c IOM, n.d.
d Ratha et al., 2023.
e UNHCR, 2023.
f IDMC, 2023.