Annual new permanent migration flows represent less than 1% of the population in nearly all OECD countries ( 4.7). Only Switzerland and Luxembourg have, since many years, much higher rates, reaching 1.5% and 3.4% respectively in 2016. Permanent migration flows rose sharply in Germany and Sweden in recent years, giving both countries a spot in the top five OECD countries in terms of immigration as a proportion of the population. Within the EU, many permanent migrants come from other EU countries through the free mobility arrangements. The share of migrants coming from third countries to EU countries remains relatively low but has been rising from 0.22% in the period 2010-15 to 0.36% in 2016.
Across OECD countries, permanent migration flows increased by 15% in 2016. Two-thirds of the increase is due to increased humanitarian migration, particularly to Germany, and one-fourth is due to rising family migration, in particular to the United States. For other OECD countries, there were few changes in the numbers of new labour migrants or in the magnitude of migration movements within free-circulation areas. Preliminary figures for 2017 show a slight decrease in flows, the first decline recorded since 2011.
On average in the OECD, more than 10% of the population was foreign-born in 2017 ( 4.8). The share of foreign-born within the population was highest in Australia, Canada, Israel, Luxembourg, New Zealand and Switzerland, where at least one-in-five people were foreign-born. Nearly two-thirds of the OECD countries had an immigrant population exceeding one in ten of the population. Around two-thirds of the foreign-born are from non-EU countries. Over one-third of immigrants in the OECD live in the United States, where they make up almost 14% of the population. Luxembourg is the country with the highest share of foreign-born – over 46% of its population. With the exception of Israel and the Baltic States, the share of foreign-born in the total population increased in all OECD countries over the last decade. Over two-thirds of immigrants in the OECD have lived in their host country for at least ten years, while 16% have been residents for up to five years.
In the EU, interaction with immigrants occurs more often in the neighbourhood than at the workplace, with respectively 44% and 28% of the native-born population reporting an interaction with immigrants from non EU countries at least once a week ( 4.9). Countries where the native-born interact most with the non-EU-born in their neighbourhood are Southern European countries, Ireland and Austria. Interaction with immigrant colleagues is most common in Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands. For more information about immigrant civic engagement and social integration, see Chapter 5 in OECD/EU (2018), Settling In 2018: Indicators of Immigrant Integration.
