Migrants heading … where?

The OECD, the 38 “high development nations” of the world, all saw a massive drop in immigration over the last year, despite “scare” stories in both US and European media. While it may be a fluke, as the OECD suggests, caused by the COVID pandemic, the fact is that even in the wealthist, allegedly most desirable of destinations, the percentages of migrants has dramatically decreased. France saw 21 percent fewer migrants, Germany 26%, and the United States a whopping 44% fewer migrants. Overall, in the last year, there was a 30% drop in migration to the “high development” word.

That drop would have been more dramatic, if one country had not shown a massive INCREASE: Mexico, which has seen a 40 percent RISE in migrant arrivals.

According to a report by the [OECD], there were more humanitarian admissions According to a report by the organization, there were more humanitarian admissions in Mexico in 2020 than in a previous year, than in the United States and Canada. Last year, the US authorities received more than 250,000 asylum applications, 17 percent less than the 300,000 in 2019; while 41,200 were sent to Mexico.

The country not only received more requests for international protection and resettlement, but positive responses to them increased 129 percent annually, also the highest proportion among the OECD economies.

Dora Villanueva in La Jornada, 29 October 2021, page 12 (my translation)

Mexico… like other countries in the Americas… has always had migration, although more recently, the migrants have largely come from within the hemisphere. Those of us originally from the global north sometimes over-estimate our weight in the country, though in reality, we are far outnumbered by migrants from the “lower development” countries to the south of us. And, overall, migrants only account for about 1 percent of the population. Maybe slightly above now.