A record year. With 6.1 million “new permanent immigrants”, an increase of 26% year-on-year, “immigration in (38) OECD countries reaches unprecedented levels” in 2022, according to a report from this institution published Monday.
Last year, more than one country in three recorded flows “unprecedented for at least fifteen years”, including France (301,000 people), Spain (471,000) or Belgium (122,000), while several others such as the United Kingdom (521,000) or Canada (437,000) broke absolute records, according to data compiled by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. Figures to which must be added the approximately 4.7 million displaced Ukrainians recorded in June 2023 in the 38 OECD member countries.
With two million files, the number of asylum applications filed in OECD countries has also reached a record. The United States, where 730,000 of these refugee requests were filed last year, alone welcomed 1.05 million new immigrants.
Figures linked to labor shortages
This global dynamic is “linked to the fact that many OECD countries are experiencing labor shortages,” explains the organization in its report. “Regulated immigration of foreign workers”, underlines the document, amounts to 21% of total flows and now represents the same proportion as people immigrating for humanitarian reasons.
A share that is all the more significant given that the increase in family immigration, which remains the main category with four out of ten entries, is mainly “due to families accompanying immigrant workers”, observes the OECD.