Majority of U.S. Public Supports High-Skilled Immigration
Many Americans support encouraging high-skilled immigration into the United States. But the U.S. trails other economically advanced nations in its share of immigrants with high skills.
Many Americans support encouraging high-skilled immigration into the United States. But the U.S. trails other economically advanced nations in its share of immigrants with high skills.
As the number of international migrants reaches new highs, people around the world show little appetite for more migration – both into and out of their countries.
A majority of people in several European countries support taking in refugees. Yet there is widespread disapproval of how the EU has handled the refugee issue.
The paths migrants have taken across the Mediterranean Sea to Europe have changed over time. So far in 2018, the Morocco-to-Spain corridor has been the most traveled among the three major sea routes used by migrants to reach Europe.
More than 22.4 million people applied in 2017 to a U.S. visa program that provides 50,000 green cards each year through a lottery system. The number of applicants nearly matched the record 23 million applicants received in 2016 and came as the Trump administration and some members of Congress have sought to eliminate the program – the only one of its kind globally.
The number of people living in sub-Saharan Africa who were forced to leave their homes due to conflict reached a new high of 18.4 million in 2017, up sharply from 14.1 million in 2016 – the largest regional increase of forcibly displaced people in the world.
The U.S. has taken in 3 million of the more than 4 million refugees resettled worldwide since 1980. But in 2017, the U.S. resettled 33,000 refugees, the country’s lowest total since the years following 9/11.
The number of Muslim refugees admitted to the U.S. in the first half of fiscal 2018 has dropped from the previous year more than any other religious group.
Sub-Saharan immigrants in the United States are also more highly educated than the U.S. native born population.
More people sought asylum in Canada in 2017 than at any point in at least a quarter-century. Furthermore, the 50,420 asylum applications Canada received in 2017 were more than double the number in 2016.