Global Migration Crisis

Building on data contained in a larger published study, this paper lists “ten reasons why international migration is one of the greatest challenges of our time.” The first reason is based on numbers. Although the international migrant population in 2017 is only 3.4 percent of the world’s population compared to 2.6 percent in 1960, it is seven times higher in the developed regions than in the developing regions. A second reason is the changing character of migration. Whereas a few decades ago, most migrants were “labor workers;” today more than 50 percent are family migrants, a population more likely to develop lasting ties to their new homelands. Another reason relates to demographic trends in many Western countries, where the total fertility rate has dropped below replacement levels and where aging populations will require continued migration to bolster worker to retiree ratios in order to fund pension and health care costs for the elderly.  The authors also posit the existence of a “Western identity crisis,” involving the need to “cultivate a common ‘bond’ that goes beyond the global economy and political liberalism; a bond that is global and yet keeps a core that distinguishes the ‘here’ from the ‘there.’” The authors assert that “we are witnessing an interesting phenomenon in which states seek to protect their unique identity, but cannot clearly specify what it is.”  The authors also discuss what they perceive to be the excesses of multiculturalism, including affording protections to “anti-liberal minorities” that seek to undermine the freedom and rights of others. (American Immigrant Policy Portal)

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