Ahmadi Refugees from Pakistan

Dear Colleagues,

Before publishing my next essay on female migration I have great news to share. On August 8, 2011 the Polish Humanitarian Action (PAH) published my research paper on Ahmadi refugees at: www.refugee.pl.

The text can be found at: http://refugee.pl/?mod=knowbase&path=3740

Should you have any comments, please contact me.

Modern Trends in International Female Migration - More Developed Countries

In previous post I mentioned that for a long time most scholars assumed that men constituted the lion share of the world’s international migration and that women were merely on the move as wives and daughters who followed their husbands and fathers. In reality in Europe, Northern America and Oceania migrant women outnumbered male migrants for at least two decades. In 1960 female migrants accounted for nearly 48 per cent of all international migrants in those regions. Since then the female migration index increased slowly but steadily to reach 50.8 per cent in 1990 and 51 per cent nineteen years later, in 2009 (Zlotnik, 2003).
The reasons for the acceleration of female migration should be sought in changes in the global economy, in new labor market needs arising due to growing participation of women in the workforce, reduced social services and services for children and older people, in changing immigration policies of more developed countries, in relaxation of their family reunification policies, in political and economic changes in Eastern Europe in the late 1980s and in the creation of the European Community and the European Union (Zlotnik 2003, Kofman 2003).
Female migrants have entered more developed countries through four major channels: (A) as foreign workers, (B) as family members, (C) as students or (D) as asylum seekers or refugees.

A. Labour migration
International mass labor migration began in the late 1950s. It was caused mainly by the economic boom after World War II. During the first years after the end of the war the leading economic strategy of large-scale capital was based on the idea of concentration of investment and expansion of production in the existing more developed countries (Castles and Miller, 2009). Demographic insufficiency forced governments to start recruiting foreign-born men and women, first in the United States, then in Europe and Oceania. New migrant workers came to the developed countries mostly as participants of ‘guest worker programs’ or as colonial workers. Their social rights were limited. They had no right to family reunion. According to the OECD statistics, between 1956 and 1976 net migration to developed countries reached 790 000 per year (Martin J., 2008). Female migration accounted for a significant minority among this group (Castles and Miller, 2009).
The situation changed in late 1970’s as a result of a fundamental restructuring of the world’s economy after the oil crisis in 1973. In Castles’ and Miller’s opinions three factors may be helpful to explain changes in proportion between male and female migrant workers.
The first factor is connected with changes in global investment patterns. Developed countries started to move their manufacturing industries to some previously underdeveloped areas such as Asia and Latin America, which became main economic centers. The second factor is connected with changes in sectors of industry that were traditionally dominated by men. The micro-economic revolution which eliminated the need for manual workers in manufacturing, as well as the erosion of traditional skilled manual occupations in more developed countries resulted in rising male unemployment and in an increased burden being placed upon women, who became main income earners. The third factor is seen in increased differentiation of labor forces on the basis of gender, age and ethnicity and increasing demand for so called female jobs.
In the face of new market needs the governments of more developed countries started to change their immigration policies. New immigration policies allowed female migrants to enter their territory, but by providing different rights and entitlements in favor of migrants who were considered valuable to the economy, these policies brought about polarization between skilled and unskilled female migrants (Piper, 2005).
According to data presented by the OECD, highly skilled migrants come mostly from the Philippines, the United Kingdom, the former USSR, Germany, China, Poland, Mexico, the United States, France, Japan and Vietnam (OECD, 2002). Skilled women tend to work as teachers, nurses, scientists, and technicians. For the last 10 years over one quarter of employed migrant women who entered Finland, Sweden and the United Kingdom have been working in the education and health sector (UNRISD, 2005). Over 90 per cent of migrants in the nursing sector are women. 25 per cent of all nurses working in big cities in the United States were born outside the USA. In New Zealand in 2002 23 per cent of nurses came from other countries. In Singapore, 30 per cent of the nurses are foreign born. All of the foreign-trained nurses working in the United Kingdom come from Africa, Asia and India (UNFPA, 2006).
While very well educated migrants enjoy the benefits of migration, barriers for poorer migrants are still increasing. A huge number of unskilled workers have been working in “3D jobs” (dirty, dangerous and degrading). They have worked as domestic workers (garbage collectors, cleaners, baby-sitters, care-takers), in sweat shops or as entertainers. In 2004, the United Kingdom records showed that ‘entertainment and leisure’ is the second largest category of work permits applications (5,908 applications). Moreover additional 4,627 applications were submitted for “hospitality and catering” and “other occupations”. In Canada over 1000 temporary work permits were granted to exotic dancers in the mid-90s. In 2004 nearly 65000 women entered Japan on entertainment visas. The majority of them came from the Philippines (UNFPA, 2006).

B. Family reunification
Despite the fact that today the number of women who migrate as the main economic providers for their households has increased, family reunification remains the largest migration channel out of the four mentioned above. We should not forget, however, that these two modes of entry are closely connected. The majority of migrant women have come to developed countries as dependants but foreign workers movement has been the first link in the migratory process (Castles Miller 2009).
Raising number of migrating family members was an effect of the new Immigration Act introduced in the United States, the introduction of the White Paper in Canada, abandonment of the White Australian Policy in Australia and the introduction of new family reunification law in Europe, especially in the United Kingdom, France and Switzerland. Today, family related migration is a main source of permanent migration accounting for 65% of permanent immigrants into the European Union (Kofman, 2003), over 60% of permanent immigrants into the Unites States (IOM, 2008) and 37% in Oceania (IOM, 2008).

C. Education
Access to education has always been a crucial magnet for migration to developed countries. According to the latest report realized by the OECD, the United States continue to top the list of destination countries for international students seeking a university education. (O’Malley, 2007). Other countries with the biggest gains in recent years include the UK with 235 110 foreign female students, Australia with 125 488 foreign female students in 2008, France with 123 135 foreign female students, Germany with 124 905 foreign female students and New Zealand with 31 309 foreign female students (OECD, 2008). In other words women and girls have accounted for 51 per cent of all students in the United Kingdom, 49 per cent in Australia, 51 per cent in France, 51 per cent in Germany and 52 per cent in New Zealand.

In the next post I will make an attempt to present areas with the biggest increase in female migration between 1960 and 2010.

I would like to thank Ms. Sarah Rosengaertner, UNDP New York, for her valuable comments.

Modern Trends in International Female Migration - Introduction

Until the late 1970’s most scholars assumed that men constituted the lion share of the world’s international migration and that women were merely on the move as wives and daughters who followed their husbands and fathers. In contrast to that general assumption statistics on female migration, provided from the late 1990’s by organizations dealing with human migration such as the United Nations, the International Organization for Migration and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, have shown that women have been a huge part of the world’s international migration for at least six decades. They have always taken part in a range of globalized movements, e.g. as skilled or unskilled workers, students, within family reunification, for marriage or as asylum seekers and refugees (Kofman 2003).

Female migration deserves attention not only because it’s presence has finally been noticed. The recognition of the role of women in global movements is bound to lead to significant changes in international migration studies, which for a long time were based on a belief that international migration is a ‘gender neutral’ phenomenon. Women on the move present different migratory behaviors than men, face different opportunities and they have to deal with different risks and challenges such as gender inequalities, abuses of their human rights, exploitation, trafficking, gender discrimination and specific health problems. Their crucial contribution to economic development and poverty reduction in their countries of origin and countries of destination should not be omitted, either.

According to the United Nations statistics (UNDESA, 2005) in 1960 women and girls accounted for nearly 47 per cent of the total number of international migrants. Since then the number of migrant women has been increasing steadily to 47.2 per cent in 1970, 47.4 per cent in 1980, 47.9 percent in 1990 and 48.8 per cent in 2000. Today female migrants account for 49 per cent of all international migrants, representing a group of hundred million women (IOM, 2010). The data presented above allow drawing the conclusion that the number of female migrants has increased 0.2 per cent every 10 years.


Source: Hania Zlotnik, 2003

In this paper I will try to find out whether that overall picture of stability hides trends at a regional level and if it does I will make an attempt to identify them.

In my analysis the UN, the IOM and the OECD statistics will serve as a source of information. Reports on International Migration in Thailand (IOM 2005, IOM 2009) will play a significant role while searching for regional trends in female migration within South, Southeast and East Asia.
It is important to keep in mind that studying international migration requires using data that never fully mirror reality. Neither the United Nations statistics nor data provided by other international bodies examining the phenomenon of international migration are able to present exact data on international migrants. Three factors may be helpful to explain that fact.
First of all, there are plenty of women who entered foreign countries in order to work illegally (either without or after expiry of a work permit). A huge number of them are engaged in jobs as cleaning ladies, housekeepers, babysitters or caretakers in private households, to which researchers have very limited access. Another group is constituted by those who have been involved in activities that are against the law and/or public order (prostitution, pornography, street crimes). Precise estimates are very hard to come by (Piper 2005, Aryan and Roy 2006).
Second of all, there are countries, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, that neither publish official data on international migrants that enter their territory nor keep records on people leaving their territories. Even in more developed countries such as the United States or the United Kingdom and France the number of migrants is estimated based on population censuses.
Last but not least, hundreds of women make decisions to migrate every day. The number of international female migrants has been increasing at a different pace depending on the world region. That means that the data derived from official statistics may be considered just as approximate numbers.

In my next post (that will be posted within 14 days) I will make an attempt to answer a question whether the number of migrant women is equal in every part of the world or there are areas where migrant women constitute a larger proportion than men. If I succed in identifing the regions where migrant women over-represent men I will try to explain reasons why women choose some part of the world over the other.



Sources
1. 1. Arya S. and Roy A., Poverty, Gender and Migration, SAGE, New Delhi 2006
2. IOM, Word Migration Report 2010. The Future of Migration: Building Capacities for Change, http://publications.iom.int/bookstore/free/WMR_2010 _ENGLISH.pdf, Access 2/27/2011
3. IOM, International Migration in Thailand 2005, http://www.iom.int/jahia/webdav/site/myjahiasite/shared/shared/mainsite/published_docs/books/iom_thailand.pdf, Access 1/30/2011
4. IOM, International Migration in Thailand 2009, http://www.un.or.th/ , Access 24/2/2011
5. Kofman E., Women migrants and refugees in the European Union, OECD, http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/15/2/15515792.pdf, 2/15/2011
6. Piper N., Gender and Migration, Global Commission on International Migration, http://www.gcim.org/attachements/TP10.pdf, Access 11/27/2010
7. UNDESA, 2002, International Migration Report, http://www.un.org/esa/population/ publications/ittmig2002/ittmigrep2002.htm, Access 12/10/2010
8. UNDESA, 2006, Trends in Total Migration Stock: The 2005 Revision, http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/migration/UN_Migrant_Stock_Documentation_2005.pdf, Access 1/14/2011
9. Zlotnik H., The Global Dimension on Female Migration, Migration Information Source, http://www.migrationinformation.org/Feature/
display.cfm?id=109, Access 2/15/2011

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.