Managing migration: The global challenge.

What the paper says

The number of international migrants is at an all-time high. There were 191 million migrants in 2005 which means that 3 percent of the worlds people left their country of birth or citizenship for a year or more. The number of international migrants in industrialized countries more than doubled between 1985 and 2005 from almost 55 million to 120 million. However most of the worlds 6.6 billion people never cross a national border; most live and die near their place of birth. Those who cross national borders usually move to nearby countries for example from Mexico to the United States or from Turkey to Germany. The largest flow of migrants is from less developed to more developed countries. In 2005 62 million migrants from developing countries moved to more developed countries but almost as many migrants (61 million) moved from one developing country to another such as from Indonesia to Malaysia. Large flows of people also move from one industrialized country to another from Canada to theUnited States for example and much smaller flows move from more developed to less developed countries such as people from Japan who work in or retire to Thailand. The international community believes that international should be voluntary and has tried to minimize forced migration whether motivated by persecution or economic deprivation at home. The United Nations 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights asserts that everyone has the right to leave any country including his own and to return to his country. However the right to emigrate does not give migrants a right to immigrate and most migrants are not welcomed unconditionally into the countries to which they move. (excerpt)