Migration data in Northern America

COVID-19

From March 2020 onwards, the COVID-19 pandemic has generated a strong impact on human mobility and migration trends in the region, due in part to numerous border closures and other restrictions imposed to contain the spread of the virus. For example, the number of international arrivals of foreigners registered in the United States decreased by 76 per cent from 2019 to 2020, from 79.44 million to just 19.45 million (United States National Travel and Tourism Office (NTTO), 2021). Arrivals of foreigners and nationals to Canadian territory decreased by 78 per cent between 2019 and 2020, from 55.2 million to just 22.9 million (Statistics Canada, n.d. [12 Jun. 2021]).

There are also indications that the pandemic has impacted migrant arrivals to both countries. For example, the number of immigrant and non-immigrant visas issued by the United States in 2020 reached just 4.25 million, a decrease of 54 per cent compared to the 9.2 million issued in 2019, a decrease of 56 per cent compared to the 9.6 million issued in 2018 and a 58 per cent decrease compared to the 10.2 million issued in 2017 (United States Department of State, Bureau of Consular Affairs, 2021). In Canada, the number of applications and extensions approved for temporary residents dropped from 2.42 million in 2019 to 1.26 million in 2020, a decrease of 38 per cent, while authorizations and visas issued for permanent residents declined from 343,297 in 2019 to just 176,259 in 2020, a decrease of 49 per cent (Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), n.d. [12 Jun. 2021]).

Apprehensions of migrants recorded at the southwest United States border with Mexico also appeared to be affected, at least temporarily, during the pandemic. During 2020, a total of 547,825 apprehensions were recorded at the southwest United States border, a decrease of 68 per cent compared to the 921,812 apprehensions recorded in 2019 (United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP), n.d. [11 Jun. 2021]. The most significant drop in monthly apprehensions witnessed in 2020, compared with years prior, appeared to take place during the first five months of the pandemic (March-July) (Ibid) (it should be noted, however, that apprehensions in 2019 were at their highest levels since 2007) (Pew Research Center, 2019).

During the first months of 2021 there has been a reversal of certain dynamics seen in 2020. For example, there were 711,784 apprehensions registered at the southwest United States border during the first five months of 2021 – including a high presence of unaccompanied and separated children from Northern Central America – thus already exceeding the total number of apprehensions registered in 2020 (United States CBP, n.d. [11 Jun. 2021]. Data also show that international arrivals to the United States are also on the rise in 2021 (United States NTTO, 2021).

The importance of migrants in supporting economies and social infrastructures in the region also became increasingly more evident during the pandemic, highlighted by their representation in essential sectors. In the United States, for example, it was estimated that by 2018 more than 2.6 million immigrants were employed as health workers, constituting 18 per cent of the 14.7 million total health workers that year (MPI, 2020). Approximately 70 per cent of migrants in the United States work in critical infrastructure sectors (Center for Migration Studies, 2020). On average, between 2014 and 2016, 73 per cent of agricultural workers in the United States were migrants (United States Department of Agriculture, n.d. [12 Jun. 2021]). Due to their importance in certain sectors, the United States also made exemptions in entry restrictions for certain temporary migrant worker categories during the pandemic – for example, the number of H-2A visas for temporary agricultural workers issued in calendar year 2020 reached 216,389, an increase over numbers witnessed in 2019 (207,467) (United States Department of State, Bureau of Consular Affairs, 2021).

Immigration

Northern America serves overwhelmingly as a destination region for international migrants from every region of the world. About one in five (58.71 million) of the 281 million migrants in the world lived in Northern America in 2020 (UNDESA, 2020). Specifically, the United States both currently and for many decades has been the main destination country for international migrants worldwide, topping the list of destination countries since UNDESA began to collect and publish statistics on the global stock of international migrants in 1960 (Ibid). As of 2020, a total of 50.63 million migrants were living in the United States, constituting 86 per cent of the total foreign-born population in the region in this year (the other 14 per cent were located in Canada) (Ibid).

The main regions of origin of migrants in Northern America are Latin America and the Caribbean (25.4 million or 43.2% of the total migrant population), followed by Asia (17.55 million, or 29.9%), Europe (6.87 million, or 11.7%) and Africa (3.27 million, or 5.6%) (Ibid). Of the 25.4 million migrants from Latin America and the Caribbean living in the region in 2020, 85 per cent (or 21.7 million) were from Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean (Ibid). The top five countries of origin for international migrants residing in the United States as of 2020 (excluding overseas territories) were: Mexico (10.94 million), India (3.44 million), China (2.88 million), the Philippines (2.70 million) and Viet Nam (1.59 million) (Ibid). Migrants from these five countries together accounted for nearly 43 per cent of the total migrant population in the United States in 2020 (Ibid). In Canada, the top five countries of origin as of 2020 were: India (720,083), China (699,190), the Philippines (633,547), the United Kingdom (537,504) and the United States (273,226), altogether accounting for 30 per cent of the total migration population in Canada in 2020 (Ibid).

Among the 58.71 million migrants in North America in 2020, 48.2 per cent were men and 51.8 per cent were women (Ibid). The sex distribution among migrants in the region has remained relatively the same during the last three decades (Ibid). In terms of age, in the same year, five per cent of the migrant population in the region was between 0-14 years, while 18 per cent were between 15-29 years, 29 per cent between 30-44 years, 27 per cent between 45-59 years and 22 per cent over 60 years of age (Ibid).

Since 2009 the immigration rate of immigrants from Asia has exceeded that of Latin America and the Caribbean in the United States (driven by high rates of immigration from China, India and the Philippines in particular). On the other hand, although the absolute number of migrants from Latin America and the Caribbean continues to increase, the rate of immigration of migrants from Latin America and the Caribbean has slowed (Pew Research Center, 2020). This is mainly due to the decrease in the number of arrivals of Mexican migrants to the United States together with notable return migration of a greater number of Mexican nationals from the United States to Mexico in this period. Between 2010 and 2020, the population of Mexican migrants in Northern America overall decreased from 12.24 million to 10.94 million (Pew Research Center, 2020; Pew Research Center, 2015; UNDESA, 2020). Despite the decline in immigration of Mexican migrants to the United States, there are several countries of origin in Latin America and the Caribbean that have seen an increase in the number of their nationals living in the United States in recent years, including, among others, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, with an increase of 114 per cent (from 236,000 to 506,000) between 2015 and 2020, Honduras, with an increase of 27 per cent (from 607,457 to 773,045) in the same period, Guatemala, with an increase of 17 per cent (699,399 to 817,604) and Cuba, with an increase of 14 per cent (1.06 million to 1.21 million) (UNDESA, 2020).

Migration to the United States and Canada occurs under an extensive variety of modalities, both temporary and permanent, voluntary and forced, consisting mostly of migration for economic reasons, but also family reunification, international student migration as well as asylum seekers and refugees (Council on Foreign Relations, 2020; IRCC, 2020; Pew Research Center, 2020; IOM, 2020).

Irregular Migration

Migration in the region also occurs through regular and irregular channels. As of 2018, according to different estimates by the Pew Research Center, MPI and the United States government, it was estimated that there were between 11 and 11.4 million migrants residing in the United States in an irregular situation, approximately half from Mexico, while the occurrence of irregular migration in Canada is estimated to be significantly lower (IOM, 2020; United States Department of Homeland Security, 2021; MPI, 2020; Pew Research Center, 2021).

Refugees and asylum seekers

According to UNHCR data, it is estimated that by the end of 2020 the United States hosted more than 1.27 million refugees and asylum seekers while Canada hosted more than 205,000 (UNHCR, n.d. [10 Jun. 2021]). Both historically and currently the United States and Canada have been the two principal refugee resettlement countries in the world, with a total of 803,527 refugees resettled to both countries since 2003 until the end of April 2021 (UNHCR, n.d. [10 Jun. 2021]). By the end of 2020, the top five origin countries of refugees in the United States were: China (77,814), El Salvador (27,249), Guatemala (21,898), the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (17,338) and Honduras (15,882) (UNHCR, n.d. [10 Jun. 2021]). The top five origin countries of asylum seekers were: Guatemala (129,751), El Salvador (120,103), the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (119,567), Mexico (97,955) and Honduras (93,140) (Ibid).

In Canada, the top origin countries of refugees as of the end of 2020 were: Nigeria (7,604), Haiti (6,687), China (6,289), Turkey (6,167) and Pakistan (5,454), while the main countries of origin of asylum seekers were: Nigeria (11,088), India (10,475), Mexico (7,523), Haiti (5,493) and Colombia (4,828) (Ibid).

Emigration 

Northern America has experienced very low levels of emigration – only 4.33 million nationals of Northern American countries were living outside of their country of origin in 2020 – and among these 4.33 million, the majority (3.24 million, or 75%) were living outside the region, mainly in Latin America and the Caribbean and Europe (Ibid).

Displacement

Since IDMC began measuring and publishing global data on displacement in 2008, and until the end of 2020, a total of 10.33 million new internal displacements caused by disasters have been recorded in Northern America, including 1.74 million recorded in 2020 (IDMC, 2021). Of these 10.33 million, 9.93 million (96%) were registered in the United States (Ibid).