This paper discusses broad trends in the rates and levels of international migration over the past three
decades, the places that migrants leave from and the destinations they choose; and some of the
demographic and policy implications of these trends. It raises some features of international mobility
trends over the past three decades that are, superficially, somewhat contradictory: stable rates of emigration
but growing numbers of emigrants; and an apparent dynamism in the flow but a stable concentration of
migrants going to more developed nations. On the one hand, these facts can be somewhat simply resolved
by reference to the demographic divide between the less and more developed world. On the other hand,
these facts hold implications for the past and future impacts of admission policies on international
mobility.
