National Correspondents Network

The participating organizations wish to express their sincere gratitude to the National Correspondents and teams from the 18 OAS member countries that participated in this report by working tirelessly to prepare the national reports, the basis on which this report has been prepared. Argentina Martín Arias Duval, Director , National Directorate of Migration Federico Luis Agusti , … Read more

The Continents and the Main Countries of Origin of Immigrants

For the majority of the countries of the Americas that are part of this report, immigration is an issue of the Americas, that is, the majority of immigrants, both permanent and temporary, came from the Western Hemisphere (Table 3) in 2010. Only in Canada, the United States and Brazil were the majority of immigrants not … Read more

Foreword

Countries of origin, as well as countries of destination, can benefit from international migration, an issue that is high on the political agenda of many governments around the world. For many countries of origin, including in Latin America and the Caribbean, international migration offers opportunities for people to work abroad and support family members who have … Read more

Remittances During 2011

During 2011, income from remittances in the Latin American and Caribbean region showed a significant recovery, reaching annual growth rates close to those recorded before the start of the global economic crisis. Since the last quarter of 2008, increases in unemployment rates in traditional sending countries, such as the United States, Spain and Japan, and the … Read more

Grades

1. Argentina, Barbados, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Paraguay and Uruguay. Although the United States does not formally participate in the SICREMI network of migration correspondents for the Americas, its statistics are readily available and have been incorporated where appropriate. 2. Chile can also … Read more

The Educational Level of the Emigrant Population of the Americas

Emigration of highly-skilled people is often perceived by countries of origin as a brain drain, a loss of skills needed to promote the economic growth and development of their countries. However, there are factors that can compensate to some extent for this fact, if people return or transfer money and skills to their homes (OECD, 2012b). Although … Read more

The Earnings of Migrant Workers From the Americas

Migrant workers can be an important source of income for countries of origin. In 2010, emigrants from Latin America and the Caribbean sent USD 36 billion in remittances (OECD, 2012b) to their countries of origin. The earnings of migrant workers serve not only to support themselves in their adopted countries but also to improve the standard of … Read more

Asylum Seekers in the Americas

For 2010-2011, approximately 13% of asylum requests were made in the countries of the Americas, a figure that has been fairly stable throughout the decade (Table 2). Approximately (Table 2: Asylum seekers in the Americas by country of asylum, 2000 – 2011) three of four applications were made in the United States and Canada. Among the countries … Read more

Introduction (Trends in international migration in the Americas)

The year 2010 saw the first signs of recovery after the Great Recession of 2008-2009 in several countries around the world. In particular, in the Americas, GDP growth rates increased significantly, from an average of –0.4% in 2009 in the countries covered by this report1 to an average of 5.6% in 2010. The latter is comparable … Read more

Executive Summary

Immigration to countries of the Americas The year 2010 showed signs of recovery in the economy of the Americas after the great recession of 2008-2009. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rates showed significant average growth from -0.4% in 2009 to 5.6% in 2010 for the countries covered in this report. This improvement in the economy, however, … Read more