The European Parliamentary elections are around the corner. International migration is an important but very complex topic. It’s not easy to get a glimpse of which countries people are moving from and to, and how trends change over time (new insights here). The complexity of migration flows paired with a lack of adequate data and insightful research reports resulted in migration becoming a politically-contentious topic.
It’s no secret that migration flows to Western and Southern Europe increased substantially in the last decade. The size of immigrant populations (measured by the United Nations as those who were born in another country) grew hand-in-hand with concerns about jobs, public welfare, crime et cetera.
But looking at immigrant populations tells only one side of the migration story!
United Nations data show that many European countries have sizeable populations of nationals living abroad, and in many cases the numbers increased between 1990 and 2010. Take a look at Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands and the UK in the chart below!
Let’s take one step forward by treating immigrants coming to your country as you would want other countries to treat your fellow nationals (or yourself!) living abroad!
Treat immigrants as you would want others to treat your fellow nationals living abroad was originally published on 18 May 2014