12, Dec 2018

Increasing poverty and conflict have spurred a 20% spike in the number of international migrants in a four-year period, according to a report from the United Nations’ International Labour Organization (ILO), the Guardian reported. The ILO report indicated that “the number of people who left their home country in search of work, to join family, or to flee conflicts and persecution” rose from 232 million in 2013 to 277 million in 2017, the Guardian said, adding that per the ILO, rising inequality was considerably affecting migration, and that governments could not disregard this by putting in place populist policies. Manuela Tomei, who heads the ILO’s conditions of work and equality department, said that scapegoating migrants and implementing more stringent border controls would not solve issues posed by increasing migration. The Guardian noted that the increased number of migrants could partly be attributed to the rising population, and also to the better quality of data used by the ILO, but added that the agency did “single out” the effect of inequality and conflicts. Of the 277 million international migrants in 2017, 19 million were refugees, 164 million were workers, and 234 million were aged above 15.