If migration continues at the same pace as in the last 20 years, there would 405 million migrants by 2050 around the world who will bring enormous benefits to local economies, the UN said Thursday, dpa reported.
The statement was issued in advance of Saturday's observance of International Migrants Day.
The International Organization for Migration said the steep rise in the migrant population is in response to an expected 25-per-cent decline in population in industrialized nations.
At the same time, demand for migrant workers will increase as the labour force in developing countries will grow from 2.4 billion people in 2005 to 3.6 billion by 2040.
The IOM said native-born US citizens gained an estimated 37 billion dollars a year from immigrants' contributions to their economy, according the US president's Council of Economic Advisers. It said one in 10 self-employed business people in the United States is a migrant.
Yet some Americans have reacted negatively against migrant workers, IOM said.
"Unfortunately, many of these discussions are based on emotions and myths and not on social and economic reality," IOM director William Lacy Swing said. "Migration now and in the future will be driven by global economic, social and demographic trends that can no longer be ignored."
The IOM, which recently issued a fresh report on world migration, cited an earlier study by the University College London, which showed that Eastern European migrants paid 37 per cent more in taxes than they received in benefits and public services in Britain in 2008-09.
Migrants work as doctors, nurses or cleaners in the British national health services.
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