The UN estimates that the global stock of migrants is now more than 200 million, even excluding temporary, irregular and illegal migrants. Most of these migrants hail from developing countries: in the developed world (excluding the former USSR) the share of migrants in total population more than doubled between 1960 and 2005, from four percent to nearly ten percent, while it has declined in less developed countries. As the crisis unfolded, there was fear that international migration and associated remittances would be among the first casualties.