How recession has affected migration

The BBC has commissioned a special report on the impact that the global recession has had on flows of migrants workers in the world economy. Deteriorating employment prospects in many of the advanced rich economies has stemmed the inflow of migrants - Spain and the UK are two good examples here. But the ripple effects of the credit crunch have hit virtually every economy. Although much migration appears to be cyclical (and in many cases, seasonal in nature) many migrants have decided to stay put in their new country of residence in the hope of weathering the economic storm or because their chances of finding viable work in their home country have diminished too. One thing is sure, the scale of migrant remittances has fallen sharply and is likely to do so again in 2010 - remittances form a high percentage of GNP for many of the world’s poorest nations. This BBC report contains some very useful graphics that might be used to aid classroom discussion.