What migration flows look like nowadays and how international migration has changed over the last years are aspects covered by Meghan Benton in a retrospective article, "The Changing Face of International Migration: Flows Are Increasingly Fluid, Diverse, and Unconventional", which is based on a synthesis of debates on these issues held in 2013 and was published in the December newsletter of the Migration Policy Institute (MPI).

In the author's opinion migratory flows are more and more diverse and unconventional, both from the point of view of the immigrants' origins and of the destinations they chose.

Trends: old versus new
The trends before the economic boom which preceded the recession appear to be coming back. Thus Southern European countries, traditionally emigration countries which have recently become immigration countries, while affected by the economic crisis have "delivered" both qualified and unqualified workers to the more prosperous European North. On the other hand traditional countries of immigration - Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States - continue to receive high inflows of immigrants.

The migration flows over the last period have changed, as a response to political conditions and economic restrictions and opportunities. A new trend has been noticed recently - the middle class migration - fuelled by opportunities in countries with emerging economies, in terms of labour, business or education. Moreover several countries encouraged the foreign capital infusion by investments, granting facilities to investors from third countries who create and maintain employment. The labour transfer between different branches of multinational companies has reached record levels over the last 3 years, just like the number of young people who study outside their countries of origin. The recruitment of foreign students has become a priority for certain states, as a method to generate revenues, to enhance the standing of universities and to ensure the future highly skilled workforce.

Diversifying migration corridors
Although traditional migration pathways continue to exist, such as those from Mexico to the US, new migration corridors have emerged as a result of the development of emergent economy countries. Brasil, Turkey and even Mexico become more and more attractive for immigrants from developed countries as a result of the business opportunities and facilities granted to investors. Some of these new immigrants have their origins in the countries which are now in a booming development process. This is the case of the Germans of Turkish origin who return to Turkey and the Americans of Mexican origin who return to Mexico. In addition Latin America exerts a growing influence upon emigrants from Europe.

There is now a trend of making the settling in one country quite relative, to the benefit of mobility and transnationalism. The mobility of highly qualified immigrant workers, investors and businesspeople of the same category is determined by the dynamic economic environment and the global development opportunities.

Migration of qualified workforce in the EU raises concerns
Over the last years Europe, a champion of mobility in the intra-community area, faced a disproportionate growth of highly qualified labour force migration from the South to the North. Although the migration of these workers is in most cases not permanent, it has significant economic impacts upon the source countries. The main destination countries for intra-community migration are Germany, Austria and the United Kingdom. For instance between 2012 and 2013 the number of citizens who emigrated from Italy to Germany increased by 40%, and the number of immigrants from Spain to Germany increased by 39%. The exodus of highly qualified workers from Southern Europe generated anxiety among political decision makers.
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The author of the articles points out the case of Romania and Bulgaria, who have seen an end of the labour market restrictions imposed by certain European Union countries. This was however not a matter of joy, on the contrary, the end of restrictions raised anxiety in countries in Northern Europe and the United Kingdom, generated by the fear that the generous social benefit systems would attract Romanian and Bulgarian immigrants with no employment prospects, who would thus become a burden for those countries.

Although the European Union faces now the difficult challenge of balancing the effects of migration and free mobility in the community space, some progress has been achieved in improving regulations on recognising the qualifications obtained outside the EU and the transfer of social security benefits, which may set the standards beyond the region.

Source: Newsletter Migration Policy Institute 18 December