The Migration Ledger

The People Flows

Who moves, where to, and what they send home. Live World Bank remittances / migrant stock / refugees data joined with UNHCR refugee crises, KNOMAD corridors, EU asylum flows, brain-drain rankings, and the Missing Migrants Project.

Updated livesource: World Bank
Updated 11 mo agosource: Curated
curated
Top receiver
WB BX.TRF.PWKR.CD.DT
Global remittances
tracked-world · annual
Refugees (top-14 origins)
34.8M
UNHCR · mid-2025
Top-25 corridors
$294B
combined USD flow · 2024
Live: World Bank migration series (BX.TRF.PWKR.CD.DT remittances, SM.POP.TOTL migrant stock, SM.POP.REFG.OR refugees by origin, SM.POP.NETM net migration). Curated: UNHCR refugee stocks, KNOMAD remittance corridors, UN DESA migrant share, Eurostat EU asylum, OECD talent migration, IOM Missing Migrants.
Chapter 1

The People Flows

Every year hundreds of millions of dollars flow home from workers overseas to their families. The ticker names the top receivers — India, Mexico, the Philippines dominate, but small island states depend on remittances for a quarter of GDP.

Chapter 2

Refugees & Displacement

Fourteen countries generate three-quarters of the world's refugees. Syria, Ukraine, Afghanistan, Venezuela — each 5-6M — then Sudan, DRC, Myanmar. Numbers as of UNHCR mid-2025.

Chapter 3

Remittance Corridors

The USA-Mexico corridor alone moves $65B a year — more than any bilateral trade flow outside oil. The Gulf-India axis dwarfs everything else combined.

Chapter 4

Migrant Stocks

Where the foreign-born actually live. UAE is 88% foreign-born; Japan is 2.4%. Filter by category to see the four archetypes: Gulf labour, OECD immigration, city-state, and OECD emigration.

Chapter 5

Asylum Flows

EU-27 first-time asylum applications. The 2015 refugee crisis (1.25M) has never quite returned to pre-2015 levels; 2023 nearly matched it, then 2024 dipped as arrivals slowed.

Chapter 6

Brain Gain / Brain Drain

One-third of tertiary-educated Irish adults live abroad — the highest of any OECD member. The US, Canada, Australia are net beneficiaries. India and China lose a small % of graduates but the absolute numbers dominate global tech.

Live World Bank migration data via API proxy. Curated snapshots refreshed 2025-09-15. UNHCR Refugee Data Finder, KNOMAD remittance matrix, UN DESA International Migrant Stock, Eurostat asylum data, OECD talent migration, IOM Missing Migrants Project.