Lack of opportunity has encouraged the migration of numbers of people to the UK, US, and occasionally to other places abroad. In 1990 there were 119,000 people in the US who had been born in Trinidad and Tobago, up from 66,000 in 1980. This movement, however, has been counterbalanced by immigration from other islands in the Lesser Antilles, mainly from Grenada and St. Vincent, where lack of opportunity is far more critical. Some of this immigration has been legal, some not. Migration from Tobago to Trinidad is common.
As of 1999 Trinidad and Tobago did not host any refugees or asylum-seekers. However, the lack of a national refugee law is a cause for concern as Trinidad and Tobago are likely to experience increased numbers of asylum-seekers due to increased extra-regional migration and migrant trafficking through the Caribbean. In 2000, the net migration rate was -3.1 migrants per 1,000 population. The number of migrants in 2000 was 41,000. The government views the migration levels as satisfactory.