The percentage of non-Jordanians residing in the Kingdom has climbed from 4.2% of the population in 1979 to 7.6% in 1994 and to 30.6 in 2015, according Higher Population Council (HPC) statistics.
HPC Secretary-General Abla Amawi said in a statement Saturday to mark International Migrants Day that the results of the 2015 General Population and Housing Census indicated that non-Jordanian residents of the Kingdom topped 2.918 million people, 57.5% of whom were males and 42.5% females.
The Syrian, Egyptian, Palestinian, Iraqi, Yemeni and Libyan nationalities accounted for 2,720,000 people, or 93.2% of the total non-Jordanian residents of the Kingdom, Amawi said.
Syrians had the largest portion of non-Jordanian inhabitants, at 43.4%, followed by Egyptians, at 21.8% and Palestinians at 21.7%, according to the figures, which also indicated that males were dominant in gender terms, with 135.5 males for every 100 females, which meant a large proportion of male expatriate workers in the Kingdom.
On the other hand, Amawi pointed out that overall out-migration rate in Jordan reached 4.1%, and the live migration rate 11%, according to the 2021-2030 National Population Strategy. The 2014 Jordanian International Migration Survey also showed that 63 per cent of Jordanians migrated for economic reasons, 26 per cent of whom seeking better job opportunities.
On this anniversary, which is being marked this year under the slogan “More than just migrants”, Amawi stressed the HPC’s vision that the population dimension is key to development and that this category is an integral part of its work.
The HPC seeks to shine light on the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, which provides an effective framework for international cooperation on the governance of international migration in all its aspects, and works to guarantee the protection of the rights of migrants everywhere and their fair treatment, she said.
Source: Jordan News Agency