More and more migrants are employed
OECD countries strengthen labor market with record immigration
October 23, 2023, 10:11 p.m
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Migration is the topic of the moment. The number of people leaving their homes is rising to a record high in OECD countries. And according to the 2022 annual report, the states benefit from it: the employment rate of migrants is higher than it has been in 20 years.
According to the OECD’s new migration report (pdf) the labor market. The increase in labor migration and the employment rate of migrants is linked to the fact that there is a shortage of workers in many OECD countries, said the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development in Paris. Labor migration has therefore moved high up on the political agenda and countries such as Germany and Australia are therefore planning to change the framework conditions for immigration. Other countries have increased the number of migrant workers they want to attract.
With more than six million permanent immigrants to the OECD countries, the influx in 2022 will have reached an unprecedented level, the OECD said. Refugees from Ukraine are not included in these figures. The OECD expects there to be 641,100 permanent immigrants in Germany in 2022.
According to the report, a third of all 38 OECD countries recorded their highest immigration numbers in 15 years in 2022, including France with 301,000, Spain with 471,000 and Belgium with 122,000 arrivals. According to OECD figures, absolute highs were reached in Great Britain and Canada. The influx of foreign workers rose by 21 percent and is now at the same level as immigration for humanitarian reasons.
More asylum applications than in 2015/16
Asylum applications in OECD countries also reached a record high in 2022. Over two million new applications were submitted – the highest number recorded so far, which is well above the previous record from 2015/16 and twice as high as in 2021. In the USA in particular, the number of asylum seekers rose sharply compared to the previous year it in the OECD report.
According to OECD data, the number of asylum seekers in Germany rose by 47 percent to 218,000 in 2022 compared to the previous year. Most of the applicants came from Syria, Afghanistan and Turkey. The number of naturalizations rose to a record 2.8 million across the OECD.
Meanwhile, in more than half of OECD countries, migrant employment rates have risen to their highest level in more than two decades. In Germany it increased by 1.5 percentage points to 69.8 percent within a year.
4.7 million Ukrainians on the run
There was an increase last year in all OECD countries except Poland, which has seen a high influx of Ukrainian refugees. Two thirds of them found work in Poland, a significantly higher proportion than in other countries where Ukrainians sought refuge. There are currently around 4.7 million Ukrainian refugees in OECD countries, most of them in Germany, Poland and the USA.
The participation of migrant women in the labor market improved particularly significantly, which reduced gender gaps in many countries. However, according to OECD figures, long-term unemployment among female migrants remains higher than among immigrant men. In EU countries, long-term unemployment among migrants fell to 3.7 percent last year after 4.6 percent in the previous year.