The Stock of Immigrants in the Americas and Emigrants From the Americas

Almost all of this increase was in Canada and the United States, where the immigrant population has almost doubled since 1990, reaching a level of 53 million people in 2013. By contrast, the immigrant population in Latin America and the Caribbean has increased by only 19% since 1990, reaching a level of 7.7 million in 2013. However, if the evolution is measured over the period 2000-2013, the increase in the immigrant population in Latin America and the Caribbean has been somewhat higher than that observed in Canada and the United States (35% vs. 31%).

Despite the increase in the number of immigrants in Latin America and the Caribbean between 1990 and 2013, immigration remains limited in this region, representing only 1.4% of the total population in the region in 2013, compared to 14.9 % for Canada and the United States.

Certain legal, economic, social and cultural factors have influenced the growing number of immigrants in Latin America and the Caribbean between 2000 and 2013.

First, Latin America and the Caribbean have been transformed through economic growth, generally creating greater employment opportunities. Second, the different integration systems linking different countries of the Americas, in particular Mercosur, have increased the number of member countries and introduced provisions to facilitate entry, stay and access to employment by citizens of their countries. The result has been an increase in movements from the poorest to the richest countries in the region (Argentina, Barbados, Chile, Costa Rica), with workers attracted by better wages available in destination countries.

Even so, it is evident from Table 8 that these explanations do not do justice to the range of increases in the immigrant population observed in the period 2000-2013 in the countries of the Americas. Indeed, large increases are seen in most countries, whether rich or poor. Central America and the Andean Region in particular have seen very large increases in their immigrant populations since 2000 (73% and 39%, respectively). Most of the increase in Central America was concentrated in Belize, Mexico and Panama. The increase in the Caribbean has been smaller (23%), but the foreign-born population in this region of the Americas tends to be relatively larger than elsewhere, also showing smaller proportional increases.

The greater mobility observed in Latin America and the Caribbean in the last decade may well reflect a decrease in entry restrictions in general, but other factors such as lower transportation costs and better access to information on job opportunities also play a role. in other parts. However, the increases registered are from very low levels in many countries and the stock of immigrants continues to remain small in proportional terms. In any case, some countries are beginning to emerge as important destinations for emigrants from the region.

Countries of origin and destination of immigrants and emigrants

The United States of America is the most important destination country for migrants from the Americas, but also for migrants from all over the world. Between 1990 and 2013, the immigrant population in the United States doubled. By 2013, five out of six migrants from the Americas and one in five worldwide lived in the United States.

Although the immigrant population in the United States of America is considerable in both absolute and proportional terms, several countries in the Americas have larger immigrant populations in relative terms such as Antigua and Barbuda (31.9%), Canada (20.7% ), Bahamas (16.3%) and Belize (15.3%).

The increase in immigration to the United States did not come entirely through formal channels. Nearly half of the growth in the immigrant population since 1990 (+23.2 million) has been irregular migration, due to both crossing borders without inspection and overstaying a visa. Due to the strong growth of the United States economy in the 1990s and up to 2008, many immigrants were attracted by the numerous employment opportunities, often in lower-skilled jobs, which are the ones that the most skilled labor force of the native-born America has been less willing to take. Many unauthorized immigrants and their families have also had children in the United States. Indeed, it is estimated that more than 4 million children born in the United States, and therefore US citizens, have at least one unauthorized father or mother (Passel and Cohn 2009). Irregular migration has therefore also contributed to an increase in the non-immigrant population.

While the United States in recent decades has continued to be a magnet for potential immigrants from the Americas, a large number of other countries, as we have seen, have experienced large increases in their own immigrant populations, leading to the question of what of these new immigrants.

Table 9 provides a summary of the origin of immigrants for each country in the Americas.

Table 9. Distribution of immigrants in the Americas by region or continent of origin, 2013