Friday, May 31, 2013

Big data to visualize migration

Looking at my linkedin updates from my contacts, I came across this fascinating example of using Big-data posted by a former colleague, Jai Ganesh, on his blog. The blog on “Networks of Global Migration” makes for an interesting read, and is topical: The debate over immigration in the US is reaching a crescendo!

 
A few insights from the blog worth mulling over
  • According to the International Organization for Migration there are about 214 million international migrants across the world (about 3% of the global population), which is a significant increase over the year 2000 number of 150 million.
  • According to IOM, countries with a high percentage of migrants include Qatar (87%), United Arab Emirates (70%), Jordan (46%), Singapore (41%) and Saudi Arabia (28%) and countries with a low percentage of migrants include South Africa (3.7%), Slovakia (2.4%), Turkey (1.9%), Japan (1.7%), Nigeria (0.7%), Romania (0.6%), India (0.4%) and Indonesia (0.1%).
  • Global fund remittances by migrants were $529 billion in 2012. Remittances sent by migrants to developing countries were estimated at $401 billion in 2012. According to the World Bank, the top recipients of officially recorded remittances in 2012 were India ($69 billion), China ($60 billion), the Philippines ($24 billion), and Mexico ($23 billion). Other large recipients are Nigeria, Egypt, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Vietnam and Lebanon.
 
Female Migration Inflow clusters

Female Migration Inflow clusters.jpg
Male Migration Inflow clusters

Male Migration Inflow Clusters.jpg
Bottomline: If picture is worth a thousand words, use of Big-data to tell the story of migration can substitute for reams of reports or powerpoints!

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