Last year, he published a map showing the current state of immigration in Europe. However, data from the UN study from 2015 can be analyzed differently – instead of numbers and the most common countries of origin for immigrants, a map can be created showing the number of emigrants and the most common destinations to which they emigrate, writes Marian.
The map below shows the number of people who have emigrated from a specific country, as a percentage of the current population (or more precisely, the population in 2015). Let’s clarify with an example: The population of Poland in 2015 was approximately 38,612,000, according to the UN, and the number of people born in Poland who lived in another country was 4,450,000, resulting in the figure 4,450,000/38,612,000 ≈ 11.5%:
For example: That number for the United States is only 0.9 percent. Although high percentages are shown in red on the map, high numbers are not necessarily bad (if emigration is suppressed by a high birth rate or immigration, as in the case of Ireland and Portugal). However, most ‘blue’ and ‘red’ countries on the map have been losing population for several decades.
It is also important to note that UN data is based on place of birth, not citizenship or ethnicity. This means, for example, that a German citizen born to a German family living in Poland, but who later moved to Germany, is counted as an emigrant from Poland, even though they were never a Polish citizen.
With this in mind, take a look at the following map, which shows the most common destinations for emigrants, i.e., countries with the largest immigrant population from each individual country:
Some results may seem surprising. Russia is certainly not a destination chosen by ethnic Estonians and Latvians, but both countries historically had a large Russian minority, which significantly increased during the Soviet era and then began to decrease, so the trend we see on the map is a result of ethnic Russians returning to Russia, rather than ethnic Estonians and Latvians emigrating. Excluding emigrants to Russia, Estonians mostly emigrate to Finland, and Latvians to the United Kingdom.
Similarly, most emigrants from Bulgaria and Macedonia to Turkey are ethnic Turks. If we exclude emigrants to Turkey, most Bulgarians emigrate to Spain, and most Macedonians to Switzerland.
The pattern observed in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus is expected, considering that these countries were one state with a distinctly mixed population until 1990. If we exclude all post-Soviet states, Russians mostly emigrate to Germany, while Ukrainians and Belarusians go to the USA.
