"Perhaps more than any other issue, international migration puts into stark relief the enormous social, political, economic and cultural transformations now occurring in a world divided between excess and need," Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, executive director of the U.N. Population Fund, told the opening session Monday of the week-long U.N. Commission on Population and Development meeting at U.N. World Headquarters in New York.

Obaid and others are discussing the status and condition of millions of migrants worldwide in preparation for a U.N. General Assembly meeting on migration in September. Dozens of speakers including Obaid weighed the pros and cons of migration, pointing out migration serves as a source of labor and eases the pressures of population decline and dwindling tax base for industrialized countries while reducing poverty and relieving unemployment and population pressure for developing countries.

One in every three migrants lives in Europe and one in every five lives in the United States, said the Population Division's "Report on World Population Monitoring." Three-quarters of all migrants are concentrated in 28 countries and 61-percent of migrants reside in developed countries including the United States, Germany, France and Australia.

The increase in migration has been small in developing regions but the number of migrants has dropped in some parts including Central America, which had 1.2 million refugees in 1990 but a successful peace process led to their full repatriation over the decade, said the report.

In all, 21 million refugees were able to return home with the help of the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees between 1990 and 2004, said the 48-page report.

The decline in growth rate of international migrants in developing countries has led to the slowdown in the number worldwide.

The number of refugees under the mandate of UNHCR has dropped from 15.9 million in 1990 to 9.2 million in 2005.

The report said countries such as the United States, which is hosting 20-percent of the world's migrants, can gain from the skills migrants bring. The report cited the need for workers, regardless of their skill level, as one of the factors driving up migration levels in the developed world.

People are also migrating in increasing numbers to study abroad and the destinations of choice are developing countries, with the United States leading the way with 583,000 foreign students in 2002, said the report. The majority of foreign students studying in the United States are from Asia and Europe and a high proportion completing doctoral studies intend to stay after graduation.

Some of the effects of long-term mass migration are starting to be felt -- both positively and negatively. The report said that in North America, migration has been contributing to population growth. Net migration accounts for 44 percent of population growth there and by 2045-2050, it is forecast to reach 78 percent, meaning the growth in population will be mainly from migrants instead of natives.

Migration can also reduce population growth. In 48 countries with growing population, which includes countries in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, net emigration reduced population growth by more than 15 percent as people left for other countries.

The report found the economic impact of migrants to be small since most migrants do not compete against non-migrants for jobs. In the medium- to long-term, migrants compliment the labor market because low-skilled migrant workers tend to work in occupations that non-migrants are not always attracted to, particularly lower wage positions like manual jobs in agriculture and mining and low-paying service jobs like childcare and cleaning. Immigration increases the labor supply and contributes to job creation, according to the report, but there can be some residual negative effects.

"The emigration of skilled personnel can harm the development prospects of countries of origin, especially small developing countries losing high proportions of skilled citizens," said the report. "But skilled migrants who maintain ties with their countries of origin may stimulate the transfer of technology and capital. Return migration may increase the positive effects that migration can have on development."

Receiving countries are not the only ones to see positive changes in their economies. Sending countries also reap benefits when migrants send remittances to their families back home.

According to the report which cites the World Bank's statistics, some $226 billion was sent back home in 2004, of which $145 billion went to developing countries.

While migration appears to be slowing down, the report said the number of countries implementing programs and policies to reduce migration declined from 40 percent in 1996 to 22 percent in 2005, the report said.

"The trend away from restricting immigration is more pronounced among developed countries," said the report, citing 12 percent of developing countries which wanted to lower immigration in 2005 as oppose to 60 percent in 1996. Denmark, Estonia, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Romania are the only developed countries which want to reduce migration while Australia, Canada, the Czech Republic and the Russian federation are actively promoting immigration.

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