Immigration & Migration

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.

In 2016, 17.2% of U.S. immigrants ages 25 and older had a bachelor’s degree and another 12.8% had attained a postgraduate degree. Both shares are up since 1980.

There were a record 43.7 million immigrants living in the U.S. in 2016, making up 13.5% of the nation’s population.

Hispanics are more likely than the general U.S. public to believe in the American dream – that hard work will pay off and that each generation is better off than the one prior.

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.

At least 65 of the current voting members of Congress are immigrants or the children of immigrants. These members represent nearly half of U.S. states.

Americans and Western Europeans have broadly similar views on certain social and political issues. For example, majorities of Americans and Western Europeans see immigrants as beneficial to their economies and support certain rights for gays and lesbians.

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.

A record 276,500 foreign graduates received work permits under the Optional Practical Training program in the U.S. in 2017, up from 257,100 in 2016.

People with populist views in Western Europe are more likely than those with mainstream views to distrust traditional institutions. While populist attitudes span the ideological spectrum in Western Europe, populist political parties are relatively unpopular in the region.