Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Modern Internation Migration Tendencies: Migration Dynamics

International migration became a constant feature of human history. People have always moved in order to search for better living standards or to escape poverty, economic instability, political repression, human rights abuses or environmental degradations (Martin, 2001).
The purpose of that short overview of international migration is not simply to show that migration is not a new phenomenon. It is to analyze immigration statistics and present conclusions confirming or negating the hypothesis on the acceleration of migration.

The number of people movement has been changing for the last four centuries. Among events which had crucial influence on migration’s dynamics following should be mentioned: European expansion in the 16th century, the forced transportations of slaves in the 18th century, mass migration from Europe to the United States of America at the beginning of the 19th century and the II World War outbreak (Castles, 2009; Koser 2007). Some authors claim that international migration before 1945, especially mass migration to United States in the 19th century was as big as migration nowadays. It is true, but we have to bear in mind that international migration to the United States was of a transnational character, while the migrants’ flows after 1945 have become more diverse and complex and what is the most important, the flows are to affect every country on Earth (Klein Solomon, 2005).
It is important to explain where the above-mentioned diversity and complexity of migration come from. Migrant’s flows before 1945 divided the world into the traditional countries of immigration and the countries of emigration. Since the second half of the 20th century that dichotomy started to erode. European workers left countries in the southern part of the continent such as Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece and migrated to countries located in the north and west of Europe, to Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Sweden (Martin and Miller, 1980). Importing migrant workers from Middle East and North Africa was the answer to lack of labor force in Italy, Spain and Portugal(Massey, 2005). That process had profound consequences for migration phenomenon – for the first time traditional countries of emigration became also transit countries and countries of immigration. Migrant workers were brought to a new land as so called guestworkers - workers who would return to their country of origin when their contracts expired (Martin, 1991). However, when the economic conditions that forced the migrants’ requirement disappeared, gastarbeiterer refused to return home. Most of them not only preferred to stay in the receiving country, they also began to demand entry of their family members. (Martin and Miller, 1980).
Alike the countries in Southern Europe, also states located in the Middle East and so called ¨Asian Tigers¨ (Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia) wrestled with lack of labor force, imported work migrants and as a consequence experienced the same transformation in migratory patterns ( Birks and Sinclaire, 1980; Hugo, 1995).

The newest research on international migration number shows that the number of people living their country of origin to live abroad has grown sharply in the last three decades.
According to United Nations definition of migrant, it is a person who stays outside their country of origin for at least one year. The result of United Nations Population Division (UNPD) research shows that in 2010 over than 200 million people, or 3 per cent of the world’s population, lived outside the country of their birth for more than 365 days.


Source: UNDESA 2004, *UNDESA 2009

The analysis of numbers included in a table above shows that it is 15 million migrants more than five years ago, 39 millions of them more than ten years ago, 59 million more than twenty years ago and over 100 million more than thirty years ago. Today, approximately one out of 35 persons in the world is a migrant (Klein Solomon, 2005). It means that the number of people who stay outside their usual country of residence for at least one year more than doubled in just 30 years. It is import ant to bear in mind, however, that the numbers presented above also includes people who never moved, e.g. through the break-down of the Soviet Union, where inhabitants of former Soviet states became independent and counted independently .



Source: UNDESA, 2009

Currently the largest number of migrants are migrating to the United States (9.2 million between 2000 and 2009), to Europe (7.5 million between 2000 and 2009) and Asia (7.5 million between 2000 and 2009) (UNDESA, 2009).


Source: UNDESA, 2009

Nevertheless, taking under consideration past 29 years from 1980 till 2009, the majority of migrants chose Europe as their country of destination.


Source: UNDESA, 2009

About 20% of world’s international migrants live in United States. The countries with the largest number of migrants are also Russian Federation, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Canada, United Kingdom, Spain, India and Ukraine (International Migration 2009, United Nations Population Devision).


Source: UNDESA, 2009

There are many reasons to expect that the number of migrants is certain to increase in the foreseeable future. It can happen as a result of political and cultural changes. We should have in mind strong economic conditions in developed countries, widening income gap between developed and still developing countries, creation of new free trade areas as well as economical and political instability in many countries located in the Middle East, Central and Eastern Europe, Asia (Page and Plaza, 2005; Juss S.S., 2006). A big role of communication and transportation revolution should be emphasized. The revolution in transport refers to increasing numbers of options in international travel and the fact the passengers costs are still decreasing (Koser K., 2007).The revolution in electronic communication (e.g. internet, electronic bulletin boards, satellite television, cell phones), in turn, facilitates getting information on work and accommodation opportunities in other countries and is used in creating a migratory network linking a country of origin with a country of destination bringing about changes in both.

I would like to express my thanks to Ms. Susanne Melde, IOM Geneva, for all valuable advices and professional comments I received from her.




Bibliography:

1)Birks J. S., Sinclair C. A., 1980, International Migration and Developement in the Arab Region, International Labour Office, Geneva.
2)Castles S. and Miller M. J.,2009, The Age of Migration, International Population Movement in the Modern World, Guilford.
3)Hugo Graem J. 1995,Illegal Migration in Asia, in Robin Cohen, Cambridge Survey of World Migration, Cambridge University Press.
4)Juss S. S., 2007, International Migration and Global Justice, King’s Collage London, UK.
5)Klein Solomon M., 2005, International Migration Management Through Inter-state Consultation Mechanism, United Nations Expert Group Meeting on International Migration and Development, New York.
6)Koser K., 2007, International Migration, A Very Short Introduction
7)Martin P. L., 1995, The Unfinished Story: Turkish Labour Migration to Western Europe, Labour Ofice, Geneva.
8)Martin P.L., Miller M. J., 1980, Guestworkers: Lesson from Western Europe, Industrial and Labour Relations Review, No. 33.
9)Massey D., Arango J., Hugo G, Kouaouci A., Pellegrino A and Taylor E, 2005,World in Motion, Understanding International Migration at the End of the Millennium.
10)Page J., Playa S., 2005, Migration Remittances and Development, A Review of Global Evidence, The World Bank.


Sources:

1)World Economic and Social Survey: International Migration, United Nations Departament of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) 2004, http://www.un.org/esa/policy/wess/wess2004files/part2web/part2web.pdf, access: 6/25/2010
2)International Migration 2009, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) 2009, http://www.un.org/esa/population/, access: 6/18/2010

International Migration Theories

The article provides with a theoretical framework for understanding migration phenomenon. It appraises both the micro- and macro- levels theories.
Since the article is more of a descriptive character than all others coming in the nearest future, I shall do my best to focus on primary assumptions of the most popular theories of international migration and present them as synthetic as possible :-)

There is no single theory widely accepted by social scientists when it comes to migration phenomenon as research of migration is intrinsically interdisciplinary. It involves sociology, political science, law, economics, demography, geography, psychology and cultural studies (Brettel C. and Hollified J. F., 2000)

Ernest Ravenstein is regarded as the earliest migration theorist. Ravenstein used census data from England and Wales and examined them. The conclusions were presented in chapter Laws of Migration in Coming to America. He assumed that migration is closely connected with "push-pull" factors. Both push factors such as low wages, high unemployment rates, lack of health care and pull factors such as: high wages, low unemployment incline people towards leaving their countries of residence. In other words, the primary cause for migration is better external economic opportunities (Daugherty H. G and Kammeyer K. W.1995, Bodvarsson Ö,Van den Berg H. 2009).
Many theorists as Allen Jones in American Immigration, Alan Kraut in The Huddled Masses and Thomas Archdeacon in Becoming American followed Ravenstein’s conviction of new era in immigration history and started dealing with the question of how people came to the United States and how it influenced the population and society in the United States (Brettell C.B and Hollifield J. F., 2000).

The most important of current theories explaining why international migration begins are: the neoclassical economics theory, the new economics of migration theory, segmented labor market theory, historical-structural theory and the world system theory. Social Capital Theory is a theoretical model explaining perpetuation of International Movement.

Neoclassical Economics: Macro-Theory is probably the best-known approach presenting sources of international migration. It arose from the theoretical model explaining internal labor migration in the face of economic development (Corry 1996, Harris and Todaro 1970). According to the theory assumptions:
1) The main cause of labor migration are differences in wages between a sending-country and a receiving country. In other words, wage differentials elimination will end international migration of workers and migrants will not migrate if such differentials do not exist.
2) International labor migration is influenced by labor market mechanisms. It means that other kinds of markets (insurance market, capital market) do not have an important effect on the international flows of workers
3) The international labor migration can be controlled by the government through regulating labor markets in both sending and receiving countries ( D. S Massey, 2005)

Neoclassical Economics: Micro-Theory arose in response to a macroeconomic model.Following assumptions are characteristic of the above-mentioned theoretical model:
1) Rational individuals migrate because having calculated costs and benefits they come to the conclusion that they receive the positive net return from movement. In other words migrants estimate the cost and the benefit of moving and migrate to that country where expected net returns are greater than in the country of origin (Borjas, 1990).
2) Migrants estimate net returns in each future period by taking the observed earnings and multiplying them by probability of obtaining a job in the destination country to obtain ’expected destination earnings’
3) The policies that affect expected earnings in sending and receiving countries can influence the size of migration flows (D.S Massey 2005)

The New Economics of Migration is a theoretical model that has arisen in response to the neoclassical theory (Stark and Boom, 1985). According to that model:
1) Families, households and other culturally defined units of production and consumption are those who count in analysis for migration research (not individuals)
2) A wage differential is not a necessary condition for making a decision about migration to other country
3) International migration does not necessarily stop when differences in wages disappear. Conviction of migration rightness will exist if other markets in the country of origin such as: insurance market, capital market, consumer credit market ect. are absent or imperfect
4) Governments are able to change the size of migration flows through regulating labor markets and, in case they do not exist or are imperfect, all markets mention above.

Dual (or Segmented) Labor Market Theory shows the importance of institutional factors as well as race and gender in occurring labor market segmentation (Castle and Miller 2009). According to Michael Piore’s conclusions presented in the Birds of Passage: Migrant Labour and Industrial Societies the main cause of international migration is a structural demand within advanced economies for both highly skilled and lower skilled workers. Ipso facto migration is not caused by push factors in sending countries but by pull factors in receiving countries (Piore, 1979). According to the theorists:
1) International labor migration is largely demanded-based and takes its beginning from recruitment by employers in developed societies or by governments acting on their behalf
2) Because the demand for workers from other countries is structurally built into needs of the economy and is expressed through recruitment practice rather than wage offers, differences in international wages are neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for arising and existing migration of labor workers.
3) Governments are able to influence international migration but only through major changes in economic organization (Castles and Miller, 2009)

Alternative models of explanation international migration phenomenon are called Historical-Structural Theory and World System Theory respectively.
History-Structural theorists claim that international migration is caused by unequal distribution of political and economic power in the world economy (Castles and Miller).
The Worlds System Theory argues that penetration of capitalist economic relations into non-capitalist or pre-capitalist societies creates a mobile population that can easily make a decision to migrate (D.S. Massey, 2009).

The last theory to present is called the Social Capital Theory. It is a theoretical model explaining international migration through presenting a concept of migrant networks. According to this approach:
1) International migration expands until network connections are wide enough that all people who wish to migrate to that country can do so without difficulties
2) The correlations between wage differentials or employment rates and migration flows hardly exist
3) Controlling migration in the light of that approach is very difficult as migrants network are created outside the country and occurs irrespective of policies pursued (Casles and Miller, 2009).

In my articles I don’t adopt one theoretical model. I try to analyze international migration taking under consideration all above-mentioned perspectives as in my opinion, despite different assumptions and hypotheses, international migration theories are not contradictory.




Bibliography:
1) Bilsborrow R. E., Oberai A. S., Standing G.,1984, World Employment Programme, Migration surveys in low income countries: guidelines for survey and questionnaire design.
2) Bodvarsson Ö.,Van den Berg H., 2009,The Economics of Immigration: Theory and Policy.
3) Brettel C. B, Hollified J. F, 2000, Migration Theory: Talking Across Discpiplines.
4) Borjas G.J. 1990, Friends and Starnrers: The Impact of Immigration on the Economy
5) Corry D., 1996, Economics and European Union migration Policy.
6) Daugherty H. G., Kammeyer K. W.,1995, An introduction to population.
7) Harris J. R. , Todaro M. P, 1970, Migration, Unemployment and Developement: a two-sector analysis.
8) Piore M., 1979, Birds of Passage: Migrant Labour and Industrial Societies, Cambridge University Press.
9) Stalker P, 1994, The Work of Strangers: A Survey of International Labour Migration, International Labour Office, Geneva.
10) Stark O. , Bloom D. E. The new economics of labour migration, American Economics Review, 75:173-8.

Understanding Migration: An Introduction

International migration is one of the most controversial and most widely researched social phenomena nowadays. This stems from the fact that it is associated with numerous issues of substantial meaning for existence and efficient functioning of the countries worldwide. It regards to legal, political, economic, national security, culture, art, language and religious issues. These relationships require introducing such governing law and migration management system that will maximize benefits resulting from migration both for the countries accepting migrants, for the countries sending migrants and for migrants themselves.
In this study the most crucial migration-related issues will be analyzed. I will attempt to answer the question whether migration is an easily defined phenomenon. I try to analyze the major trends in modern migration, relationships between the free movement right and other human rights such as right to life, right to liberty, right to security and right to family reunification. Also the economic issues will be discussed - I will analyze the relations between an increase in migration and microeconomic and macroeconomic factors.
All pieces of writing will be consulted with the migration specialists who work within the United Nations and International Organization for Migration.
Should you have any questions, suggestions or content-related objections, please do not hesitate and contact me at alexandra.tomanek@gmail.com.