According to the ILO's most recent estimates, there were an estimated 169 million migrant workers globally in 2019 (ILO, 2021). Over two-thirds of all migrant workers were concentrated in high-income countries and approximately 60.6 per cent were located in three subregions: 24.2 per cent in Northern, Southern and Western Europe; 22.1 per cent in Northern America; and 14.3 per cent in the Arab States (ibid.). The importance of these top three subregions in terms of the number of international migrant workers they host has not diminished over time. According to previous estimates, the same three subregions hosted the biggest shares of all migrant workers: 60.2 per cent in 2013 and 60.8 per cent in 2017 (ibid.).

The five OECD countries with the highest inflows of migrant workers in 2023 were United Kingdom (283,000, +48%), Canada (145,000, +7%), Germany (93,000, +4%), Japan (90,000, +14%) and United States (82,000, -43%) (OECD, 2024), The countries with the most significant increases in labour migration from 2022 to 2023 were the Republic of Korea (+129%), Greece, +110%), Australia, (+68%), Austria (+50%) and the United Kingdom (+48%). Those with the largest decreases were Lithuania (-55%), New Zealand (-46%), Italy (-43%), the United States (-43%) and Estonia (-37%) (ibid.).

Between 2010 and 2019, the number of international migrant workers in Africa increased from 9.6 million to 14.5 million respectively. The average annual growth rate among migrant workers (4.8%) is higher than that of the overall African population (2.7%) (African Union, 2024; African Union Commission and JLMP partners, 2021). In 2019, international migrant workers accounted for 2.8 per cent of the total labour force in Africa. Regionally 82 per cent of the migrant workers in Africa in 2019 were in East Africa (4.1 million), West Africa (4.3 million) and Southern Africa (3.5 million), 10 per cent in Central Africa (1.5 million) and Northern Africa hosted 8 per cent (1.2 million) (GMDAC calculations based on African Union Commission and JLMP partners, 2021).

Adults aged 25–64 constituted 86.5 per cent of all migrant workers (ILO, 2021). Approximately 10 per cent of all migrant workers in 2019 were between 15 and 24 years old (ibid.). The share of older workers (aged 65 and over) among migrant workers constituted 3.6 per cent (ibid.). In Africa, there were 6.7 million young international migrants (defined here as ages 15-35 years old), constituting 46 per cent of all international migrant workers that year, and 60 per cent of them were male (GMDAC calculation based on African Union Commission and JLMP Partners, 2021).

In 2019, the services sector was the main employer of migrant workers, employing 66.2 per cent of all migrant workers and almost 80 per cent of total female migrant workers worldwide in (ILO, 2021). A growing demand for labour in the care economy (including in health and domestic work), where the labour force is predominantly female, could partially explain the high share of women migrant workers in the services sector (ibid.). As for the remaining migrant workers, 26.7 per cent were in industry and 7.1 per cent in agriculture (ibid.). In Africa in 2019, the top three sectors in which migrants were employed were in agriculture, forestry and fishing (27.5%) followed by wholesale and retail trade; transport and storage; accommodation and food service activities (21.9%) and public administration and defence, education, human health and social work activities (21%) (African Union, 2021).

Migrant entrepreneurship is an important sector, having increased in the OECD, from 11 per cent of self-employed migrants in the OECD in 2006 to 17 per cent in 2022 (OECD, 2024). In two-thirds of OECD countries, immigrants are more likely to be self-employed han the native-born employed population (ibid.). In 2022, self-employment accounted for 13.8% of the foreign-born employed population in 37 OECD countries, compared to 13.4% among native-born. However, there are major variations between countries (ibid).

Migrant self-employment created almost 4 million jobs from 2011 to 2021 in 25 OECD countries, a 15 per cent growth in employment in these years. Through self-employment, a working-age migrant creates 0.2 jobs on average (ibid.). In some countries this number is noticeably higher, such as such as in Colombia (0.7), Czechia (0.3) or the United States (ibid.).

Based on Migration Governance Indicators (MGI) from 100 national and 69 local-level assessments, 39 per cent have measures to facilitate labour mobility, with countries more likely to have defined labour migration management programmes if they engage formally with the private sector for setting agendas and implementing policy regarding migration issues (MGI, 2024). Of the countries assessed, 33 per cent had measures to support international students to enter the labour market and monitored the labour market demand for migrant workers (ibid).