IOM - World Migration Report 2008

People are becoming increasingly mobile within and across borders to meet the social and economic challenges of globalization with the search for employment at the heart of most movement in the 21st century, says the World Migration Report (WMR) 2008 launched today by the International Organization for Migration (IOM). The report, focusing on the theme of Managing Labor Mobility in the Evolving Global Economy, argues that demands for increased efficiency in production as a response to fierce global competition has meant that workers, independent of their geographical location, are increasingly living in an inter-connected world of work, resulting in greater labor mobility. With more than 200 million international migrants in the world today, two and a half times the number in 1965, and most States simultaneously being countries of migrant origin, transit and destination, WMR 2008 states that human mobility has become a life choice driven by disparities in demography, income and employment opportunities across and within regions.