Debunking the myth of immigrant assimilation
There are approximately 260 million immigrants in the world. An immigrant is defined as someone residing in a country other than their place of birth. Of that number, roughly 50 million are “illegal immigrants” who lack official authorization to reside in their host country.
In 2017, roughly 3.4 percent of the world’s population of 7.7 billion people were classified as immigrants. In high-income countries, immigrants (legal and illegal) represent an average of 14 percent of the population. The percentage varies dramatically. In countries with large expatriate communities, like the Emirates, immigrants make up more than 80 percent of the population, although most will only be there for a short time and return home.
In Canada, immigrants comprise 21.9 percent of the population. In the U.S., the number is 14.3 percent. The U.S. has the largest number of immigrants of any country, at 46.6 million people; roughly a quarter of them lack official status. In Germany, immigrants comprise 14.9 percent of the population, compared to 13.2 percent in the United Kingdom and 11.1 percent in France. Japan’s immigrant population, by comparison, is a minuscule .63 per cent.
In recent years, a variety of commentators have expressed concern that large-scale movement of predominantly Muslim immigrants into Europe is creating Islamic ghettos like Sint-Jans-Molenbeek in Brussels or Saint Denis in Paris. These communities are often described as no-go zones where police and civil administrators dare not enter; areas where civil law has often been unofficially replaced by Sharia law.