Addressing the Present, Preparing the Future

Not long ago, many OECD countries were looking to labour migration as one way to address labour shortages and the expected declines in the working-age population as a result of ageing. This was to be the new age of labour migration. High levels of migration were being recorded in the new migration countries of southern Europe and more widely, in the European Economic Area, following EU enlargement. At the same time, the traditional settlement countries (Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States) were also seeing their highest immigration levels in recent decades.