Family Ties Dominate Migration to North America

The OECD has announced a new record of permanent migration to member countries in 2022 at 6.1 million. The data shows that across the OECD, only 11 percent of immigrants found a new permanent home due to humanitarian reasons, like a successful asylum application, while new permanent migrants admitted though family ties dominated the picture. 40 percent of new permanent migrants across the OECD qualified through family ties - either to a citizen, permanent resident or a work-visa holder. This number was as high as 69 percent in the United States and almost 50 percent in Canada.

In the EU, only 26.4 percent of permanent immigrants came to the bloc through family ties, while 37.5 percent took advantage of the EU's area of free movement. Humanitarian admissions to the EU were only slightly above average last year at 11.8 percent of all permanent immigrants. The number was as high as 17 percent in Canada, which admits asylum seekers by sponsorship, among other avenues. The humanitarian quota was just 8.8 percent in the U.S.

Another area where Canada stood out was the high number of work-visa holders - making up 31 percent of permanent new immigrants as compared to 13.9 percent in the U.S. and 19.4 percent in the EU.