Immigration Around the World – Foreign-born population as a proportion of the total population in major cities

Globally, migration tends to ow towards cities that have a large population. The volume of movement decreases as the distance between the place of origin and the place of destination increases. Moreover, migration and urbanization are often interlinked processes. Migrants tend to remain in cities once they have arrived in their destination country, and become signi cant drivers of economic and urban population growth. As many as 92% of immigrants in the United States, 95% in the United Kingdom and Canada, and 99% in Australia live in urban areas. Immigrants are more likely to integrate when they join large numbers of fellow immigrants in communities where a familiar language is spoken and support groups can be found.

Figure 18 shows the foreign-born population as a proportion of the total population in major cities. Over 50% of the population of Dubai and Brussels is foreign-born due to their highly mobile workforces. The high proportion of migrants in these cities enhances their global character in terms of culture and social customs, even if these factors are not necessarily accounted for in city classi cation systems (International Organization for Migration, 2015, World Migration Report 2015).

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at  Migration and Its Impact on Cities | World Economic Forum