The wake of the global economic downturn is having the most severe impact on the employment of migrant workers, it has been claimed.

A report for the BBC World Service showed that there has also been a steep drop in levels of illegal immigration into the European Union between 2008 and 2009, while a similar situation was also recorded at the US border with Mexico.

According to the study by the Washington-based Migration Policy Institute (MPI), those individuals who have relocated to developed nations are more likely than the indigenous population to be out of work and there has been a fall in legal immigration as a result.

In addition, the news source notes that fewer migrants took up US work visas during 2009 as the recession hit, part of a sharp slowdown in immigration to developed states.

The report stated the decline brings "to a virtual halt the rapid growth in foreign-born populations over the past three decades".

Figures from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development recently indicated that September 2010 saw the unemployment rate across the region remain steady at 8.5 per cent compared with August, with slight increases in jobless totals in the US and Canada.

Posted by Lee Thrace