Economics

Migration Plunges in Covid Crisis, Raising Global Economic Risks

  • OECD says migrants are key for growth and labor markets
  • Migrants are disproportionately exposed to crisis: OECD
Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
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International migration plummeted to an unprecedented degree during the Covid crisis, the OECD said, raising concerns over the longer-term outlook for a key driver of the global economy.

Issuance of new visas and permits by the organization’s 37 members fell 46% in the first half of 2020 compared with a year earlier, and the OECD warned that prolonged restrictions and more remote working and studying mean mobility will not return to pre-crisis levels for “some time.”