Asylum applications in OECD countries increased by 91% last year compared to 2021, reaching a record number of 2,091,385 people, mainly due to a massive influx of Latin American refugees to the USA, but also to Costa Rica, Mexico or Spain is attributable.
In its annual report on international migration published this Monday, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) points out that even compared to 2019, the last year before COVID, which interrupted many of these migration flows, the increase is 62%.
The United States largely explains this development, since the 730,400 asylum applications it received last year are not only almost quadruple the 188,860 of the previous year and 2.4 times higher than those of 2019, but practically amount to the total of asylum applications of the next five countries.
More than 40% of the applications formalized in the United States were submitted by Cubans (157,000) and Venezuelans (139,000), whose numbers increased twelvefold in the case of the former and fivefold in the case of the latter.
Cubans come to the USA via Nicaragua
Arrivals of Cubans were the highest in decades and many of them reached United States territory after passing through Nicaragua, which has no longer required visas for citizens of the Caribbean island since 2021.
The main nationalities of asylum seekers in the United States were Hondurans, Haitians, Guatemalans, Nicaraguans and Colombians, with numbers varying between 43,000 and 32,000 each. In 2022 there were six times more Nicaraguans than in the previous year.
Although the number of Afghans was lower after the Taliban returned to power, it increased from a few hundred in 2021 to 25,000 in 2022.
The second country with the most asylum applications was Germany with 217,775, 47% more than in 2021 and 53% more than in 2019. They were mainly Syrians, Afghans and Turks.
In France, the highest number of applications for refugee status were Afghans, Bangladeshis and Turks, with 137,605.
Costa Rica and Mexico ranked fourth and fifth respectively, as was the case with the United States, in terms of flows from other Latin American countries.
In Costa Rica, the number was mostly Nicaraguans, Venezuelans and Colombians, at 129,480, up 19% in a year and 119% since 2019.
Costa Rica has the highest rate of asylum seekers
It is that Costa Rica is the OECD country that has had the most asylum applications in relative terms, with 25,059 per million inhabitants, a big gap to the second country, Austria with 11,851, not to mention 1,519 per million compared to the average overall so-called “Club of the Developed World”.
Mexico had 118,735 applications last year, 10% less than in 2021 but 69% more than in 2019, and they came particularly from Hondurans, Cubans and Haitians.
In Spain, the 116,150 claims represented an increase of 87% compared to the previous year and 1% compared to 2019. They came mainly from Venezuelans, Colombians and Peruvians.
Across the OECD in 2022, Venezuelans were the first nationality among asylum seekers (221,000), followed by Cubans (180,000), Afghans (170,000), Nicaraguans (165,000) and Syrians (126,000).
The number of Venezuelans tripled in a year and Cubans moved from twelfth to second place. The number of Colombians (88,000) and Turks (72,000) has also tripled compared to 2021.
Given the trends of recent months, the OECD expects asylum applications in the European Union to reach a new record this year, exceeding the historical ceiling of 2015-2016.
And based on last year’s demands, it is also assumed that the maximum number of refugee titles will be granted.
Spain is the fourth country to accept immigrants
In 2022, Spain became the fourth OECD country to receive the most legal permanent immigrants, behind only the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom, in a year in which these additions to the “developed world club” were unprecedented level reached.
In its annual report on international migration released on Monday, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said 6.1 million legal immigrants arrived in its member countries last year, 26% more than in 2021 and 14% more than in 2019 last year before the COVID stop.
The end of many pandemic-related restrictions explains the jump in 2022 compared to the previous year, but the main factor is the increase in the number of asylum titles granted and also the entry of workers for certain needs.
Fifteen of these countries, including Spain, France, the United Kingdom, Canada, Belgium, the Netherlands, Finland and Switzerland, reached levels not seen in at least three decades.
Without surprises, the United States was the one that welcomed the most immigrants (it has by far the largest population), with 1,048 million, with an increase of 25.5% in a year (+1.7% since 2019).
This was followed by Germany with 641,100 and an increase of 20.6% (+3.3% since 2019) and the United Kingdom with 521,200 and an increase of 35.1% (+37.9% since 2019), largely due to the The impact of Brexit led to many Europeans living there returning to their countries and creating an enormous labor deficit that has not yet been covered.