Why developed countries need immigrants

Today it is 3. And even with current levels of migration it is set to fall to 2 by In , the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs ran a detailed simulation to see how many immigrants would be needed to support the population over 65 in developed countries. To maintain overall numbers, the EU needs , immigrants per year — for comparison, the net migrant number from outside the EU in was , However, to keep the working-age population from falling, it needs nearly double that: 1.

Even then, the dependency ratio would be just over 2. The US fares better — current and expected migration kept its dependency ratio at 3.

Germany, which has a shortfall of 1. In , the government tried to bring in 20, foreign high-tech workers , but this was met with strong opposition from the public.

Some countries are responding positively to such arguments, embracing the benefits migrants can offer to their economies. Others — African countries among them — are far behind the curve. Many developing countries are immigrant-sending countries which can have some negative effects.

In my research on migration I have found that countries like Vietnam, India and China are actively trying to recruit people from their diasporas — those living outside the region where they or their ancestors were born — to help build their economies. Among them are increasing numbers of frontier return migrants who were born and raised in one country, leave it for some time but are now opting to return home. Researchers used to assume that once people migrated to the West, they and their children would stay there.

But this is increasingly not the case. Another category I focus on are frontier heritage migrants; those raised in the diaspora who return to the land of their ethnic heritage. Globalisation has spurred increasing numbers of all types of frontier migrants. One of the unexpected consequences is that developed countries might lose out as more and more frontier migrants set their sights on emerging market economies.

Before , most of these sorts of graduates would remain in the US after completing their degrees. India and China, meanwhile, have also realised the value of attracting their own diasporas back home, and drawing talent from elsewhere in the world.

A number of other initiatives have also been introduced to entice skilled migrants to China. China and the US are in a battle over which nation will dominate the 21st-century technologically and immigration is at the heart of this battle. However, it is not only technology migrants who add value to an economy.