According to the results of a poll, the desire to migrate permanently has shown an upward trend and two of the most popular destinations are Canada and Australia. Canada was voted the second favourite destination followed by Germany, France and Australia ranked in the 5th position.
Gallup, who commissioned the survey, said that more and more migrants are leaving behind their home countries with no intention of ever returning there and have instead opted to create a life in their new country.
The survey was conducted over a two year-period from 2015 to 2018 and found that 15% of the world’s adults – or more than 750 million people – said that they would like to move to another country if they had the opportunity.
This is up from 14% between 2013 and 2016 and 13% between 2010 and 2012, but still lower than the 16% between 2007 and 2009.
Interestingly every year more and more people start their immigration process with nearly the same percentage of the world population looking for greener pastures overseas as did during the Great Depression when nearly 16% of the world population were driven from their home countries hoping to find work in financially stronger countries.
Researcher said the main migration drivers are still mostly economic but conflict, war violence and featured as the second most popular reason for migrating. Other factors which were important are education, quality of life, famine and disaster.
In 13 countries, at least half of the adult population said that they would like to move to another country if they had the chance.
These countries represent nearly every region of the world – except for Northern America and Asia – and most of them were going through or are still going through some sort of upheaval.
The countries where potential migrants say they would like to move – if they could – have generally been the same for the past 10 years.
In fact, roughly 18 countries attract two-thirds of all potential migrants worldwide, Gallup found.
Canada, Germany, France, Australia and the United Kingdom appeal to more than 30 million adults each.
The Top Ten Destinations for Permanent Migrants
1. USA
2. Canada
3. Germany
4. France
5. Australia
6. UK
7. Saudi Arabia
8. Spain
9. Japan
10. Italy
The survey is based on a rolling average of interviews with 453,122 adults in 152 countries and areas between 2015 and 2017.
Source: Businesstech