A profile of immigrant populations in the 21st centuty: data from OECD countries

Migration policies and the challenge of the integration of immigrants have risen to the forefront of the political agenda in many OECD countries. Migration flows around the world have grown rapidly in recent decades, and the immigrant population in OECD countries has more than tripled since the 1960s. At the same time, the links between migration and the economic development of sending countries are a topic of growing importance.

Design and implementation of sound migration policies needs to be backed up by relevant, reliable and comparative statistical analysis. Yet, little detailed cross-country comparable data are available on the socio-economic characteristics of the immigrants living in OECD countries. The OECD Database on Foreign-born and Expatriates, published in 2005, which contains information from census data on the level of educational attainment of the population of all OECD countries by place of birth, represented a first major step to filling this gap.

The new Database on Immigrants in OECD Countries (DIOC) goes a step further and provides, in a comparative perspective, comprehensive information on a broad range of demographic and labour market characteristics of the immigrants living in the OECD countries. The main sources of data for DIOC are population censuses and population registers, sometimes complemented by labour force surveys. The DIOC includes information on demographic characteristics (age and gender), duration of stay and labour market outcomes (labour market status, occupations, sectors of activity), educational attainment and the place of birth.

This report presents a digest of the information available in the database. Synthetic tables on each topic covered give a preview of the richness of the data. Together, they provide a unique comparative overview of the socio-economic characteristics of immigrants in the OECD area. Each thematic section includes a short analysis of a specific issue. New perspectives are offered on topics such as the gender dimension of the brain drain, the international migration of health professionals and the role of low-skilled foreign-born workers in domestic services, paving the way for further research and analysis.