大象传媒

大象传媒.co.uk

Talk about Newsnight

Paul Mason's Idle Scrawl

Random facts on world migration

  • Paul Mason
  • 19 May 06, 03:58 PM

In lieu of a blog because I am frantically multitasking on several stubborn stories for next week...some facts. We did a piece on Newsnight last night about migration. In lieu of a proper blog I am including the stats we used and a link to the United Nations of a report. The facts...

There are 200 million migrants in the world
Double the number than in 1980
Migrants make up 3% of the world's population.
Less than 10% of migrants are refugees.
3 billion people live on less than $2 a day
The gap between the richest and poorest 20% has doubled in 40 years
Between 1870 - 1910 migration boosted the workforce in the Americas by 40%
By 1890 there were more Germans in New York than in Hamburg
By 2050 32% of the rich world's population will be aged over 60
There will be two elderly people for every child
By 2050 98 million people will migrate to rich countries
There will be 73 million more deaths than their will be births in rich countries
It is said that there are more Malawian doctors practising in Manchester than in Malawi
Malawi trains 60 nurses a year.
Each year 100 nurses leave to work abroad.

If you saw the piece and want to comment - bang away below. We've had a lot of comment of the back of Steve Motson's "authored piece" on migration, but not many about last night, other than a complaint from a viewer who thinks I look "dishevelled".

Comments  Post your comment

  • 1.
  • At 02:01 PM on 22 May 2006,
  • Candadai Tirumalai wrote:

Germans in United States tended to oppose Prohibition because beer end wine were--and are-- a part of their daily lives. Many Germans and Scandinavians settled in the Midwest, contributing to the Populist and Progressive traditions particularly strong in that part of the country. Charles Lindbergh, the first man to fly across the Atlantic, was the son of a Swede who settled in Minnesota: an aerial Viking. The immigration quotas implemented by the United States in the 1920s favoured the Northern European populations whose descendants had settled here in large numbers, because they were believed to be more industrious. These were not relaxed until the 1920s, when John Kennedy, whose ancestors had come from Ireland, intoroduced new measures.

Actually, John Kennedy was a President in the early 1960's. On Immigration and Migration, I have considered that the Republicans and Democrats have forgotten their roots.

  • 3.
  • At 02:44 PM on 22 May 2006,
  • Candadai Tirumalai wrote:

I am sorry: I meant the 1960s but typed the 1920s. Apologies.

  • 4.
  • At 04:32 PM on 22 May 2006,
  • Simon wrote:

Paul,
Sorry to say I did not see your piece on immigration. I dont think I got beyond the credits where the prospect of immigration leading the way again sadly saw TV off and reading before bed.

Not a relfection on you, rather I was really disappointed by Steven Moxon's piece on Thursday and thought I cant be done with more of the same. No doubt I would have learned more form your piece than from Steve Moxon's

Simon

In the post above this one, the "Continue reading "That Newsnight relaunch in full..."" link yields a 404.

  • 6.
  • At 05:58 PM on 22 May 2006,
  • Helper Monkey wrote:

We are looking at the 404 right now.

  • 7.
  • At 06:00 PM on 22 May 2006,
  • Carino Risagallo wrote:

This one did for a while too Alan, I'm guessing it'll fix itself with the next blog entry (which will be broken itself) unless the boffins get round to it before then.

  • 8.
  • At 06:17 PM on 23 May 2006,
  • Robin Cohen wrote:

Paul
Thanks for inviting me to feed some views into your piece, which I enjoyed. I have had quite a few emails challenging 'my' figures. Of course the figures were not mine or yours but come from the (generally v. sound) report of the Global Commission on International Migration, to which a link is provided.
Sorry to be so tediously academic, but this might be a helpful explanation:
1. The '200 million' migrants is derived from the number of non-nationals living in all countries in 2004 for more than a year. It could include someone who has not acquired local citizenship, but has been there for 50 years. By contrast, it also does not include all illegals. However, this is the crucial point, '200 million' is not the number crossing borders for settlement in 2004.
2. Even with the US-VISIT system, exits are poorly counted. So we have reasonable counts of inflow, but very poor data on outflow, leading to unreliable estimates of stock. Many migration scholars think transnationals (coming for longer or shorter periods of work), not settlers, are now a substantial minority, or perhaps the majority, of international labour migrants. The Eastern Europeans in Western Europe are a good example.
Comments 1 and 2 may help to inform the debate on numbers.
Thanks for your patience if you have managed to read this long blog.

  • 9.
  • At 08:56 PM on 29 Jun 2006,
  • wilson vanga wrote:

i think it is waste of time

This post is closed to new comments.

The 大象传媒 is not responsible for the content of external internet sites