The main sources of migration figures are national censuses and the OECD Database on
immigrants and expatriates, Total population by nationality and country of birth (detailed countries
and Population 15+ by nationality, country of birth (detailed countries) and educational
attainment. These data are available for a single year, corresponding to the last census, 1999 for
France, 2001 for Italy and the UK. For Germany, figures are from the Microcensus, and cover the
years 1999-2002. The data on Italian emigrants are from AIRE (Registry Office of Italians Residing
Abroad). The data on bilateral FDI are taken from Source OECD International Direct Investment
Statistics - International direct investment by country Vol. 2005 release 01 for France, and from
UNCTAD WID Country Profiles and National Statistics for the other countries (for Germany,
“International Capital Links”, Special Statistical Publication 10, Deutsche Bundesbank, April 2005;
for the UK, Foreign Direct Investment - Business Monitor MA4, Office for National Statistics).
Data on GDP, on current prices, and per capita GDP are taken from the IMF - World Economic
Outlook Database, September 2006 Edition. Distance measures are the great circle distance in km
between capital cities, taken from the USDA-ARS United States Department of Agriculture -
Agricultural Research Service website (http://www.wcrl.ars.usda.gov/cec/java/capitals.htm).
Data on the share of Christian religion in each country and the governance indicators are
taken from the CIA World Factbook and from World Bank Institute, Governance & Anti-Corruption
- Aggregate Governance Indicators 1996-2005, respectively. Data on openness are from the A.
Heston, R. Summers and B. Aten, Penn World Table Version 6.2, Center for International
Comparisons of Production, Income and Prices at the University of Pennsylvania, September 2006.
Table 1 depicts some descriptive statistics. As expected, most of bilateral FDI tend to remain
within the group of developed economies. Figures are very similar for the four countries, about 98-
99% of inward stocks of FDI and 91-93% of outward FDI involve other OECD countries. On the
other hand, the composition of the stock of immigrants by groups of countries, OECD and non
OECD, varies substantially, 77% of total immigrants in Italy, 51% in France, 44% in the UK and
30% in Germany originate from non OECD countries.7 On the other hand, Italian emigrants live
prevalently in other developed economies (about 80% in the OECD) although their presence in
some developing countries, especially of Latin America, is also quite relevant.
The skills’ composition of the immigrant populations also shows a great disparity between
countries. Skilled immigrants are 33% of the immigrant population with 15 years or more in the
U.K., 17% in France and about 14% in Italy and Germany. The shares of skilled individuals in the
non-OECD populations of immigrants with 15 years or more go from the 34% of the U.K. to the
7 Most non-OECD immigration in Italy originates from African and East European countries, in France from African
and north-African countries (some are former colonies); in the U.K. from former British colonies and members of the
Commonwealth, in Germany from Eastern European countries.
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