Migration has provided millions with an escape route from poverty or oppression, ensuring the survival, even prosperity, of individuals and their families. New currents of human migration, triggered by ethnic cleansing or climate change or economic need, are appearing all the time and immigration has become one of today's most contested issues. This compelling new atlas maps contemporary migration against its crucial economic, social, cultural and demographic contexts. Drawing on data from one of the largest concentrations of migration research, the atlas traces the story of migration from its historical roots through the economic and conflict imperatives of the last 50 years to the causes and effects of flight today. Issues covered include:

• Refugees and asylum seekers
• Diasporas
• Remittances
• The 'brain drain
• Trafficking
• Student, retirement and return migration.