Migration flows are falling in developed countries, but increasing by 9% in France, according to the OECD

For the second consecutive year, migratory flows towards developed countries fell in 2025 by 1.6% compared to 2024, with the exception of a few countries such as France where regulated arrivals increased by 9%, an OECD report revealed on Thursday, November 12.

In 2025, the 38 countries of the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) recorded 6.1 million new “permanent” immigrants (regulated arrivals of foreign nationals considered to settle permanently in the country of destination), writes in its annual report the organization responsible for guiding countries in their public policies. In 2024, there were 6.2 million.

Despite this decline, these arrivals remain at historically high levels, exceeding by 12% those observed in 2019, before the arrival of Covid which had dried up travel. France is among the dozen countries in which the entry of new “permanent” immigrants is increasing: in 2025, it welcomed 334,000 people compared to 306,000 in 2024.

This progression, however, remains much less compared to the three countries of Southern Europe: Portugal (+139%) where the increase is explained by the approval with a deferred effect of pending residence permits, Spain (+25%) and Italy (+46%).

Conversely, the United States (-14%), the United Kingdom (-32%), Canada (-19%) and Germany (-6%) have experienced notable declines in arrivals of “permanent” immigrants, even if the United States remains by far the main country of immigration. The country recorded 1.232 million arrivals, ahead of Germany (+538,000), Spain (+460,000), Canada (+394,000) and France (+334,000).

In 2025, OECD countries had an average of 8.5 new permanent immigrants per 1,000 inhabitants. A proportion of 5 per 1,000 concerns France. Despite a sharp decline, India remained the leading country of origin of migratory flows towards the OECD in 2024, ahead of China and Colombia, according to the latest available figures. In France, Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia were the top three nationalities of new arrivals.

The share of men in these migratory flows remains preponderant. In 2024, according to the latest available data, the average share of women among new immigrants stood at 46%. The only OECD countries that have welcomed significantly more women than men are the United States, with 54% female immigrants, Ireland (54%), Sweden (53%), Israel (52%), Chile (52%), Australia (52%) and New Zealand (52%). In France, women represented 50.5% of new arrivals.

On the employment side, the OECD notes that “despite the signs of economic slowdown observed in some countries, the situation of immigrants on the labor market remained favorable in 2025”. On average in developed countries, nearly 71% of immigrants are employed (68% at EU level and 62.8% in France), although the OECD notes, unemployment rates for immigrants have increased in a majority of countries to stand on average at 8.3% (9.7% at EU level and 11.9% for France).

“Immigrants now represent 16% of employment in the OECD, or 3 percentage points more than around ten years ago,” observes Mark Pearson, interim director of the OECD. “In half of the countries, immigrants accounted for at least 50% of employment growth in the decade ending in 2024,” he points out.