All through history, people have left their homes and travelled to other countries in order to settle and work there. This process of international migration increased during the nineteenth century as Europeans emigrated to the Americas, but the most rapid increase in the numbers of migrants occurred during the twentieth century, particularly after the second world war. Since 1945, the types of migrants, their countries of origin, their destinations and the patterns of their movement have diversified and undergone a series of changes. …
