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Old 12-31-10, 12:38 PM   #1
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Default Latin America migration trends

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) noted that "Mexico ranks first in the world" with 10.1 million people living abroad, about 10 percent of the total population.

Also according to the 2010 annual report recently published on migration, IOM estimated that "about 26.6 million people born in Latin America and the Caribbean live outside their native countries."

The Latin American countries leading the list are Mexico, Colombia, Puerto Rico and Cuba, followed by El Salvador, Brazil, Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Haiti and Peru.

The IOM's director for Latin America and the Caribbean, Diego Beltrand in an interview expressed concern over "increasing anti-immigrant feeling compounded by the global economic crisis."

He noted that the crisis has affected the economic development of migrants, which adds translates into a lower flow of remittances to home countries in the past year.

Bertrand noted the need for host countries "appreciate the positive contributions" of the migrants to their societies.

"Specifically, the migrants in the United States contribute to the economy 37 billion dollars," he said, and stressed that the IOM Director William Lacy Swing has indicated that migration should be based on socio-economic trends, not ideological myths.

The IOM report added that migration from Latin America countries and the Caribbean represented approximately 15 percent of international migration worldwide.

The main destinations of migrants from Latin America are the United States (68 percent), Argentina and Spain, followed by Venezuela and Canada. According to the IOM more than half of these migrants come from Mexico.

The migration corridor between Mexico and the United States is the world's largest with 9.3 million migrants, "a situation that reflects the particular historical and geographical relationship" between the two countries, says the study.

As for remittances, IOM said that the countries of the region received 64.7 billion dollars in 2008, almost 1.5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) figure that marks a decline when compared to 2006; primarily as result of the economic downturn and problems in the U.S. labor market.

Although Mexico is the country with the largest volume of inflow of remittances with 26.3 billion dollars in 2008, the IOM estimated that it was the country most affected by the recession because it was the first to feel the effects of crisis with a 3.0 percent reduction in remittances between 2007 and 2008.

Mexico also experienced the greatest decline in 2009 with 13 percent, the IOM warned.

Moreover, the IOM noted that the number of international migrants in the region is 7.5 million people.

Argentina and Venezuela with 1.4 million and a million immigrants remain the two main destination countries in Latin America and the Caribbean while that Mexico has replaced Brazil in third place.

Finally, there was a tendency of irregular migration (from one million in 2006 to 600 thousand in 2009) of Mexico to the U.S., which is due largely to "a combination of recession along with the implementation of stricter controls to the entry of undocumented workers."

Furthermore, "many destination countries have strengthened their internal measures against employers of irregular migrants, while intensifying the implementation of repatriation programs and implementing more stringent border control," he said.

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