Migration and Demography

This article explores the main demographic differentials in positive tested COVID-19 cases and excess mortality during the first wave in 2020 for a large number of countries in the European Union (plus the United Kingdom). The study pinpoints differences at territorial level, where population density and size play a main role in the diffusion and effects of the disease in terms of morbidity and mortality.

In the EU agricultural sector, migrant workers have steadily increased their share of total employment over time, but immigrants in rural areas tend to fare worse compared to the local population and to migrants living in cities and towns. This scientific paper offers an EU-wide overview of immigrants' integration in the agricultural sector.

The Atlas of Demography is a new interactive knowledge management tool that enables users to observe, monitor and anticipate demographic challenges. The tool is publicly available and can support activities for a variety of policy areas, including health, employment, education, access to services, as well as territorial and cohesion policies.

This JRC Technical report offers insights on how attitudes and political behaviour across Europe relates to the underlying socio-demographic and economic situations on the ground. It examines the existence and nature of a rural-urban divide in attitudes towards the EU and national governments, and looks at a series of issues considered to be particularly divisive in the recent European public discourse.

New data and detailed analyses reveal a diverse picture of population growth, decline and ageing in Europe. The gap between regions of population growth and regions of population decline is set to get wider in the coming decades, according to the JRC Science for Policy report.

JRC studies demonstrated that one way to contain future virus outbreaks would be to apply mobility restrictions to areas defined by human mobility patterns, rather than on administrative borders such as regions or provinces. To support the identification of these mobility patterns, the JRC created a Mobility Visualisation Platform and a Mobility Change Tool, which national health authorities and Member States can use to explore mobility patterns and monitor the effectiveness of mobility restrictions.

Both in Europe and in the US, the COVID-19 pandemic arrived earlier and recorded higher Rt values in urban regions than in intermediate and rural areas. A similar gap is found in the data on excess mortality. This article explores the territorial differences in the onset and spread of COVID-19 and the excess mortality associated with the pandemic, across the European NUTS3 regions and US counties.

A JRC report on healthcare, long-term care workforce and demographic challenges concludes that the EU's health and long-term care workforce will need to grow by 11 million workers between 2018 and 2030 to meet the demands of an ageing society. Much of the demand is being met by domestic education and training, while migration and intra-EU mobility play an increasingly important role.

Part of the JRC’s Climate Change Induced Migration (CLICIM) project, this Technical report identifies two mainstream variables (terrestrial air temperature and terrestrial precipitation) as well as 35 additional climate extreme indices that could be potentially influence, directly or indirectly, the drivers of migration.

Part of the JRC’s Climate Change Induced Migration (CLICIM) project, this Technical report analyses the relationship between climate change, population and migration in a selected territory within the Sahel, where climatic factors have contributed to shape migration and the mobility of the populations since the 1970s.

Remittances represent an important tool for economic growth and poverty alleviation by ensuring a flow of financial resources from migrants and diasporas to households and communities in other countries. Remittances can potentially be particularly significant as a connection between diasporas and communities of origin, a resource for development and a means to respond to and recover from crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. With this in mind, this report examines the sources, scale and significance of international remittances for Algeria, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia over time and in the context of COVID-19.

The illegal entry and stay of third country nationals on the territory of EU Member States is a lose-lose-lose outcome for the third country national, the EU Member State, and the third country. Returns involve persons with no right to stay in the EU Member States: a functioning return system is an essential component of a well-managed and credible migration policy. This report focuses on return effectiveness – which is considered as one dimension of the wider concept of return performance - and on the methods for measuring it.

Working together with African countries is a priority for the European Union. During Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s first official visit to Ethiopia, she stressed the importance of a partnership of equals, and moving past decades of donor country-aid recipient relations.

New studies published today by the JRC explain the relationship between human mobility and the spread of coronavirus, as well as the effectiveness of mobility restriction measures to contain the pandemic. The findings, based on aggregated and anonymised mobile phone location data, will support policymakers in formulating the best data-driven approaches for ending confinement, mapping the socio-economic effects of lockdown measures and informing early warning systems for potential new outbreaks.