ABSTRACT

The past few decades have witnessed both an expansion and a transformation of international immigration flows. According to a recent OECDAnnual Report, the number of permanent migrants, for instance, has risen from an average of 790,000 persons per year between 1956 and 1976 to 4.3 million in 2009 (OECD 2011). What is more, since the 1970s, Asians, Africans and Latin Americans have replaced Europeans as the major immigrant population (Castles and Miller 2003). China, the top source country for immigration into OECD countries, accounted for almost 10% of all inflows in 2009 (OECD 2011). While many of the immigrants are displaced by war and environmental disasters, the movement of others is often induced by calculated immigration policies to fill in the labour shortages in the developed West.