Asylum requests in OECD reach record level by Latin Americans

Asylum requests in OECD countries skyrocketed by 91% last year compared to 2021, reaching a record number of 2,091,385 people, which is explained above all by a massive influx of Latin American refugees to the United States, but also to Costa Rica, Mexico or Spain.

In its annual report on international migration published this Monday, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) points out that even when comparing it with 2019, the last year before COVID that interrupted many of these flows, the increase is 62 %.

The United States largely explains this evolution, since the 730,400 asylum applications it received last year not only almost quadruple the 188,860 of the previous year, and are 2.4 times higher than those of 2019, but practically add up to those of the next five countries together.

More than 40% of the claims formalized in the United States were made by Cubans (157,000) and Venezuelans (139,000), whose number in one year multiplied by 12 in the case of the former and by 5 in the case of the latter.

Cubans arriving in the US through Nicaragua

The arrivals of Cubans were the highest in decades and many of them reached the United States territory after having passed through Nicaragua, where since 2021 a visa is no longer required for citizens of the Caribbean island.

Next, the main nationalities of asylum seekers in the United States were Honduran, Haitian, Guatemalan, Nicaraguan and Colombian, with figures ranging for each of them between 43,000 and 32,000. Nicaraguans were six times more in 2022 than the previous year.

Although with a smaller volume, Afghans went from being a few hundred in 2021 to 25,000 in 2022 after the return to power of the Taliban.

The second country in which there were the most asylum requests was Germany, with 217,775, 47% above those of 2021 and 53% more than in 2019. They were mainly Syrians, Afghans and Turks.

In France, with 137,605, those who most requested refugee status were Afghans, Bangladeshis and Turks.

Costa Rica and Mexico occupied fourth and fifth position respectively, and as in the case of the United States, for flows from other Latin American countries.

For Costa Rica, with 129,480 and an increase of 19% in one year and 119% since 2019, they were mainly Nicaraguans, Venezuelans and Colombians.

Costa Rica, the highest rate of asylum seekers

It so happens that Costa Rica is the OECD country that had the most asylum requests in relative terms, with 25,059 per million inhabitants, a huge distance from the second, Austria with 11,851, not to mention if compares with the average, of 1,519 per million in the whole of what is known as the “developed world club”.

Mexico had 118,735 applications last year, which represents 10% less than in 2021, but 69% more than in 2019, and they came in particular from Hondurans, Cubans and Haitians.

In Spain, the 116,150 demands represented an increase of 87% compared to the previous year and 1% compared to 2019. They came mainly from Venezuelans, Colombians and Peruvians.

In the OECD as a whole, Venezuelans were the first nationality among asylum seekers in 2022 (221,000), followed by Cubans (180,000), Afghans (170,000), Nicaraguans (165,000) and Syrians (126,000).

The number of Venezuelans tripled in one year and Cubans went from twelfth to second place. The number of Colombians (88,000) and Turks (72,000) also tripled compared to 2021.

With the trends of recent months, the OECD anticipates that asylum requests will reach a new record this year in the European Union, above the historical ceiling reached in 2015-2016.

And based on last year’s demands, it is also assumed that the granting of refugee titles will be at a maximum.

Spain, fourth country receiving immigrants

In 2022, Spain became the fourth OECD country that received the most legal permanent immigrants, only behind the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom, and that in a year in which these entries in the “club of the developed world reached unprecedented levels.

In its annual report on international migration published this Monday, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) indicates that last year 6.1 million legal immigrants arrived in its member countries, 26% more than in 2021 and 14% more than in 2019, the last year before the COVID stoppage.

The end of many restrictions that were in force due to the pandemic explains the jump that occurred in 2022 compared to the previous year, but the essential factor is the increase in the asylum titles that were granted, and also the entry of workers for certain needs. of unprecedented manpower.

In fifteen of these countries, such as Spain, France, the United Kingdom, Canada, Belgium, the Netherlands, Finland and Switzerland, figures were reached that had not been seen in at least the last three decades.

Without surprises, the United States was the one that welcomed the most immigrants, 1,048 million (it has the largest population by far), with an increase of 25.5% in one year (+1.7% since 2019).

Germany followed, 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), which is largely due to the effect of Brexit, which had led many Europeans residing there to return to their countries and generated an enormous deficit in labor that has not yet been covered.