The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) defines net migration rate as the difference between the immigration and emigration rates in a country during a given timeframe, usually a year. Also, the World Bank defines it as “the number of immigrants minus the number of emigrants, including citizens and noncitizens”. Typically, a country’s net migration rate is negative if the number of emigrants exceeds the number of immigrants. In other words, the net migration is negative when more people relocate from a country compared to those moving to the country. On the flip side, net migration is positive when more people are immigrating to a country than those emigrating from it. For better clarity, consider the quote below from Statista. “The positive net immigration rate also indicated that the number of international migrants coming to South Sudan was higher than that of South Sudanese people leaving the nation. On the other hand, Eritrea had a net migration of minus 10.1 per 1,000 inhabitants. The negative rate indicated a number of emigrants higher than that of immigrants.” The net migration rate for the entire African continent in 2022 is -0.369 per 1000 inhabitants.
SOURCE: BUSINESS INSIDER