Contact: Liz Timmins; Clarkslegal (Reading, England)
According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, international migration into OECD countries declined during 2008 and 2009, with a further dip in 2010. The OECD has 34 member countries
including Australia and the USA as well EU countries such as the UK, France, Germany, Greece and Poland. Migration to European OECD countries (excluding intra-EU movements) dropped by 3% in 2010.
The OECD is blaming the global financial and economic crisis which had, and continues to have, a tremendously negative impact on employment globally. In particular it has highlighted the state of the EU and its prospects of growth and employment as a key factor in international migration.
The report indicates that both high and low-skilled migrants are put off coming to the UK because of the lack of opportunities. Even internal EU migration has slowed, with less EU workers coming to the UK in search of work.
The future
The OECD have said that the preliminary figures for 2011 show that immigration has started to increase again in several OECD countries. The UK may want this trend to continue as, according to the OECD, if immigration has not increased by 2015 there will not be sufficient people to maintain the working age population in many OECD countries, especially in the EU.
With immigration continuing to be a contentious topic amongst voters it will be interesting to see whether the government seeks to address this issue in the future.
