Sharp increase in OECD migration

Switzerland and New Zealand had the highest inflow of foreign nationals as a proportion of their population.

But the US received the highest number of foreigners, nearly a million people, followed by the UK where more than 300,000 foreigners entered.

The UK was the only country where outflows of foreigners fell.

'Family reasons'

Boosted by high immigration, population growth rates in Australia, Canada and New Zealand have been the fastest of all OECD countries over recent years.

But the populations of the Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic dropped amid lower birth rates and people departing the countries to seek work abroad.

Family-related reasons, such as family reunification or formation and family members accompanying workers, were the biggest causes of people migrating.

In the US, the number of green cards granted rose by nearly a quarter of a million in 2004.

Processing a backlog as a result of constraints introduced after 9/11 may have been the reason behind this sharp increase, the OECD said.

Asylum seekers

Since 2003, France has replaced the US as "the most important destination country for asylum-seeking", the OECD survey said.

Regional conflicts increased the number of asylum-seekers throughout the OECD area in 2001 and 2002.

But since then, the number of asylum-seekers arriving in OECD countries has shown a downward trend, dropping about half since 2001.

More than 50,0000 asylum-seekers entered France in 2005, followed by 48,000 moving to the US and 30,000 entering the UK.

Educational attainment of immigrants increased and the OECD predicted this trend would continue as countries implemented policies to favour more highly-educated immigrants.

Candidates for entry are assigned points based on characteristics such as education and occupation in some countries, including Australia and Canada.

In most other countries, employers select immigrant workers based on their labour needs and constraints imposed by governments.

RELATED INTERNET LINKS
OECD
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites