The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) say last year a total of five million migrants flowed into industrialised countries – and those countries should be prepared for the migrants to stay.
The organisation said the total number of migrants who came to its list of 35 industrial countries in 2016 was around five million, up from 2015’s figure of 4.7 million. The OECD added they do not expect many – if any – of the migrants to return to their countries of origin in the near future, France24 reports.
Stefano Scarpetta, OECD Director for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs, wrote in the report that countries “should focus on helping refugees who are likely to stay in the host country settle and integrate in the labour market and society”.
“This calls for a rethinking of both domestic policies and international cooperation,” he said.
Half of the requests for asylum in 2016 came from three countries: Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Around 1.6 million people requested asylum in OECD countries with Germany taking the most for a European country with 675,000 people requesting asylum.
The OECD also noted that migrants originating from different countries would seek out specific countries to claim asylum in. Many of the Sundanese attempted to get to France whilst many Nigerians chose to remain in Italy, which has seen the most migration in the first half of this year.
Earlier this week Italy saw 13,500 migrants arrive on its shores within a 48 hour period. Officials say around 73,380 migrants have come to Italy in the first six months of 2017.
The increase has led to the Italian government threatening to close ports to NGO migrant rescue ships who often pick up the migrants just off the coast of Libya. Maurizio Massari, Italy’s ambassador to the European Union (EU), has reportedly handed a letter to the bloc stating that Italy simply cannot handle the influx.
“The ambassador highlighted that Italy’s efforts have been enormous and well beyond international obligations, and under the current circumstances it is difficult for our authorities to allow further disembarkations of migrants,” an Italian diplomat said.
Whilst the OECD has called for further steps to integrate migrants, many countries like Germany and Sweden are finding the process increasingly difficult. Germany has so far had few migrants entering the labour force with 74 per cent estimated to only be fit for menial labour.
A lack of integration has also led to a rising surge of sex crimes across countries who have taken large numbers of migrants like Austria where migrant sex crime increased 133 per cent in 2016.
Mass migration is also starting to affect the demographics of European cities like Frankfurt where native Germans are now, for the first time, a minority.
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