Work-related migration to wealthy countries fell by more than one-fifth last year, as labour markets weakened and countries including Australia and the United Kingdom tightened visa rules, according to new research by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
Data from the Paris-based organisation, which is made up of 38 wealthy and emerging economies, showed that work-related migration declined between 2023 and 2024, even before Donald Trump’s return to the White House reduced the number of arrivals into the United States.
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After several years of steady growth following the global COVID-19 pandemic, the number of people admitted for permanent work purposes across the OECD fell by 21 percent last year, dropping to roughly 934,000.
A portion of the drop stemmed from visa policy tightening – most visibly in the UK, where net migration fell by more than 40 percent in 2024. But even where there was no change in policy stance, labour migration fell in most European Union countries, dropping to below 2019 levels.
According to Jean-Christophe Dumont, who leads the OECD’s international migration division, the downturn can be chalked up to a “less favourable” global economic situation.
In April, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) cut its global growth forecast by 0.5 percentage points to 2.8 percent for 2025, citing President Donald Trump’s trade war as a limiting factor.
Meanwhile, other countries that had traditionally been among the largest recipients of migrants have toughened entry rules. Over the past two years, Canada, Australia and the UK have all brought in measures to limit work-related migration.
Elsewhere, Dumont noted that a large number of Ukrainians granted temporary protection in Europe had eased labour shortages in several sectors, reducing the demand for foreign workers.
According to the most recent data from the OECD, an estimated 5.1 million Ukrainians who fled their country following Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022 are now living in OECD member states, as of June 2025.
What about other types of migration?
The OECD recorded a 13 percent fall in the number of new international students arriving in OECD nations between 2023 and 2024. Tighter visa policies in the UK, US, Canada and Australia played a key role, driven by concerns about migration fraud as well as pressure on local housing markets.
By contrast, migration for humanitarian reasons has continued to climb. Asylum applications surged in the US in the final months of the Biden administration last year, and the UK has experienced a sharp increase in illegal small-boat arrivals from EU countries in recent months.
These increases mean that, despite the fall in labour and student migration, total permanent migration to advanced economies in 2024 dipped only slightly, by 4 percent, from a peak in the previous year.
Still, the 6.2 million newcomers to the OECD recorded in 2024 exceeded pre-pandemic levels by about 15 percent. Temporary labour mobility, involving visas which do not lead to permanent settlement, held steady at approximately 2.3 million. This remains above 2019 levels.
How have migration numbers changed?
A record 6.5 million people settled in OECD countries in 2023. That was an increase of almost 10 percent on the previous record of six million who moved in 2022 – the greatest rise was in the UK.
Roughly one-third of OECD countries experienced record levels of immigration in 2023, including Canada, France and Japan. The US received 1.2 million permanent legal immigrants and Donald Trump based his 2024 election campaign on curbing migration.
Despite the political debate, research by investment bank Goldman Sachs found that immigration drove most of the employment gains in Canada, New Zealand, Sweden, Germany and the UK in 2023, and added more than four million jobs in the US.
What does the future hold?
Dumont suggested that overall immigration to OECD countries may ease slightly in 2025, but it will remain historically high despite stricter US immigration policies. He also highlighted that the employment rate among migrants remains solid in labour markets.
In the UK, for instance, the employment rate among foreign-born workers stood at about 76 percent – a figure that slightly surpassed the rate recorded for people who were born in the country.
He attributed this partly to visa schemes geared towards higher-skilled roles and partly to the fact that lower-skilled migrants were willingly “filling gaps” in jobs UK nationals do not want.
Fabiola Mieres, a senior specialist in migration at the International Labour Organization, told Al Jazeera: “We need to rethink some of the issues around native labour shortages in areas like agriculture, construction and health [where migrant workers tend to be concentrated].
“Clearly, minimum wages and working conditions are part of the story.”
She added that “immigration will likely continue to form an important part of electoral politics around the world, especially in Europe and the US. It creates a lot of heated emotions.”
What is the OECD?
The OECD was founded in 1948 to coordinate the US Marshall Plan to rebuild Western Europe following World War II. At the time, it provided a forum for economic planning and the removal of trade barriers between its European members.
By the late 1950s, as European reconstruction neared completion, member states sought a more global framework for economic cooperation. In 1961, the OECD expanded its membership to include the US and Canada.
Over subsequent decades, the OECD widened its membership to include countries from the Asia Pacific, Latin America and Central and Eastern Europe, reflecting its evolution from a transatlantic group to a broader community of advanced and emerging countries.
By the late 20th century, the OECD had grown into a central hub for economic research, policy analysis and the development of governance standards. It became widely recognised for its work and research on education, labour markets and environmental policy.
In 2019, the OECD spearheaded a proposal to tax big multinational companies at least 15 percent to put an end to decades of tax competition between governments trying to attract foreign investment.
The rules, which were adopted by the G20 in October 2021, have made it harder for large international companies, including giants like Google, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft and Apple, to avoid taxation by establishing offices in low-tax jurisdictions.
