The Countries That Attract the Most Migrants

The United States has been the main destination for international migrants worldwide since 1970, according to the World Migration Report 2022. In fact, the number of foreign-born people in the country has increased more than fourfold, from fewer than 12 million in 1970 to more than 50 million in 2020. The biggest groups of migrants came from Mexico (10,853,105), India (2,723,764), China (2,184,110), the Philippines (2,061,178) and El Salvador (1,410,659).

As the following chart shows, Germany comes in second place in the ranking of countries with the most international migrants. It too has seen numbers skyrocket in recent years, with nearly double the number of people who were born abroad residing there between 2000 and 2020 - from 8.9 million to 16 million. In 2020, its biggest groups of people born elsewhere were from Poland (2,141,722), Turkey (1,837,282), Russia (1,198,831), Kazakhstan (1,128,201) and Syria (707,457).

Saudi Arabia rounds up the top three with 13.5 million recorded international migrants in 2020, rising from rank 8 in 2000 when it had 5.3 million. The biggest groups here hail from India (2,502,337), Indonesia (1,709,318) and Pakistan (1,483,737). The kingdom attracts many of its international migrant community for its job opportunities and comparatively higher salaries compared to those in the destination countries.