United Nations: India continues to be the largest country of origin of international migrants with a 17.5 million-strong diaspora across the world, and it received the highest remittance of USD 78.6 billion from Indians living abroad, the UN migration agency said.
The International Organisation for Migration said in its 'Global Migration Report 2020' that the number of international migrants in 2019 is now estimated at 270 million and the top destination remains the US, at nearly 51 million.
In its latest global report, the IOM noted that the overall figure represents just a tiny fraction of the world's population, although it is a 0.1 per cent increase on the level indicated in its last report, published two years ago.
"This figure remains a very small percentage of the world's population (at 3.5 per cent), meaning that the vast majority of people globally (96.5 per cent) are estimated to be residing in the country in which they were born," IOM's Global Migration Report 2020 said.
According to the UN agency, more than half of all international migrants (141 million) live in Europe and North America. An estimated 52% are male, and nearly two-thirds of all migrants are looking for work; that's around 164 million people.
