World Migration Report 2020 - Snippets

     

International Organization for Migration released the World Migration Report for the year 2020; a 498 page dossier. I tried to break it down for better and quick understanding of the facts. Hope it helps you in some way.

There were 272 million international migrants in 2019 out of a global population of 7.7 billion: 1 in every 30 people.

Since 1970, the number of people living in a country other than where they were born has tripled.

The United States of America has been the main country of destination for international migrants since 1970.

India had the largest number of migrants living abroad (17.5 million), followed by Mexico and China (11.8 million and 10.7 million respectively).

52 per cent of international migrants were male; 48 per cent were female.

International remittances increased to USD 689 billion in 2018.

The United States remained the top remittance-sending country (USD 68.0 billion) followed by the United Arab Emirates (USD 44.4 billion) and Saudi Arabia (USD 36.1 billion).

The top 3 remittance recipients were India (USD 78.6 billion), China (USD 67.4 billion) and Mexico (USD 35.7 billion).

The global refugee population was 25.9 million in 2018. 52% of it was under 18 years of age.

20.4 million refugees were under United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and 5.5 million under United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in the Near East.

The number of internally displaced persons due to violence and conflict reached 41.3 million.

The Syrian Arab Republic had the highest number of people displaced (6.1 million) followed by Colombia (5.8 million) and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (3.1 million).

The number of stateless persons globally in 2018 was 3.9 million.

Bangladesh had the largest number of stateless persons (around 906,000). It was followed by Côte d’Ivoire (692,000) and Myanmar (620,000).

Hope the above was helpful.

Canada became the largest refugee resettlement country, resettling more refugees than the United States in 2018.

Thank you Coronavirus!

I know it must sound weird! Bu it is true. Things, no matter how bad, always teach us something. And the same is true of the current wave of Coronavirus too.

Just before Coronavirus took the world by storm, I along with my family (wife and kids) came to India, primarily for two reasons:

1. To attend my brother in laws long awaited marriage - which thankfully got done on 11 March 2020, just a couple of days before India suspended all tourist arrivals into the country 😬
2. To be with my parents and meet my relatives and friends (in that order) and to step foot on my erstwhile country after about 5 years. 5 LONG years.

Now that I have the purpose of visit sorted, let me tell you why we should (or may be "I" should) thank Coronavirus:

1. It has helped me spend more time with my loved ones and made me realize what is more important in life. Nothing is more valuable than your family - they are the only one's who care for you and should matter to you. Period.
2.  Thank you Coronavirus for forcing me take a break from this relentlessly "work till your last breath" mindset. We falsely assume that "If I don't work, I won't get paid; if I don't get paid, I can't feed my family and if I can't feed my family we all would die." It's not true. If you are earnest in your efforts, you will surely find a way to break out of this cliche. 
3. It has helped me realize that your work (job) is temporary. If you loose it, you will find another one. Do not falsely assume if you are not there, it (the job) won't get done. You are absolutely dispensable. You are paid to work, not to harbor emotions (sorry, I always make this mistake).
4. I have also learnt that no matter how hard I try, I would never come close to being Bill Gates or Jeff Bezos. In this pursuit to earn more money, I was losing out on personal and family time. If I work extremely hard 12-15 hours a day, 6 days a week, I may earn (at the max) a million dollars more! So? Am I closer to being Bill Gates?
5. I have always heard A is doing really well, s/he is earning X amount of money. I don't understand why is money considered an indicator of doing well in life? I believe life is measured by it's quality and money is one component of it. But there are other, equally or more important factors like: health, spirituality, family etc which determine how well a person is doing in life. So I have learnt to ignore people who judge how other's are doing in life by how much they earn and not by how they live their lives.
6. Though Coronvirus I learnt that we wrongly emphasis on "Saving the Planet". Well, you don't have to Save the Planet. You better save yourself. The planet can very well take care of itself and if there is ever a need, the planet has the capability of obliterating you completely from the face of this earth. A brief trailer is currently unfolding across the globe. Remember the invincible Dinosaurs?
7.  After the humans are gone, it would take the nature only days (not months or years) to recover and regain it's old glory. Don't believe me? Checked the pollution levels since all this lock-down began? March was the coldest month in Punjab in the last 10 years! You think this is a coincidence? Thank you Coronavirus. Without you, we would not have known that this is possible. 

So in a way, I am thankful to Coronavirus for teaching me so much in a very short span of time. It is also true that we have lost lives and jobs due to Coronavirus, but ever heard of the saying "Reap what you sow?" Does that ring a bell? If not, then nothing else will. I pray that everyone stays safe during these torrid times, but I also hope that Coronavirus knocks some sense into us humans and going forward we take this as a lesson from mother nature on our conduct.

Good luck everyone.