From immigration to integration

de Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

The integration of immigrants at the local level is a topic of significant interest for OECD countries. The growing importance of the knowledge economy means that the battle for talent is becoming as important as the battle for inward investment, and skilled migrants can offer a significant comparative advantage to local labor markets, as long as their potential is harnessed. Unskilled migrants are also in demand, particularly where rising living costs make lower paid jobs unattractive to the native population, and where demographic change and population movement combine to reduce the self-sufficiency of local labor markets. For the potential advantages of migration to be maximized, however, it is crucial that immigration is accompanied by integration, that is, effective mechanisms for ensuring immigrants are effectively incorporated into local labor markets. Paradoxically, at the same time that migration is increasing in global importance, there is worrying evidence that integration results do not seem to be as favorable in a number of countries as they were in the past.--Publisher summary