The Phenomenon of Migration and the Magisterium of the Church: Notes for Further Development of Catholic Social Thought

According to Cohen1 during the next 50 years international migration is likely to remain an important component of population dynamics. In the mid–1990s, about 125 million people (2% of world population) resided outside of their country of birth or citizenship. In 1990, only 11 countries in the world had more than 2 million migrants and they collectively had almost 70 million. The larger number of migrants were found in the US (19.6 million), India (8.7 million), Pakistan (7.3 million), France (5.9 million) and Germany (5 million). The countries with the highest percentage of international migrants in the total population were countries with relatively small populations. In the United Arab Emirates, Andorra, Kuwait, Monaco and Qatar, 64-90% of the population were immigrants.