Global Migration Essay ⋆ Essays on Controversial Topics ⋆ EssayEmpire

Human geographic mobility is as much part of human life as of human history, for human beings are a migratory species and migration is a continuum in history. International migration is the crossing of international borders, the movement from one nation state to another that falls into the main categories of labor migration, forced migration, family migration, or migration for reasons of education and training. Dividing lines, however, blur, because political borders change and distinctions between voluntary (labor) migration and forced migration or between labor migration and family migration are problematic.

Analysis and Categorization

At the onset of the 21st century, nearly 200 million people, about 3 percent of the global population, were international migrants. Thirty years ago, the figure stood at 85 million (2.1 percent), and 230 million are projected for 2030. Today, around 100 million are labor migrants, 13 million are refugees registered with United Nations (UN) agencies, and the others are family members or students.

The United Nations and International Labor Organization (ILO) official figures of international (labor) migration require some reservations. First, migration is increasingly taking irregular (illegal) forms (a tenth to a fifth of all migration) that go unrecorded. Since no method can calculate levels of irregular migration, existing figures are only estimations. Second, international migration is increasingly temporary; indeed, it is the fastest growing type of migration, and often it is too short (less than 6 months) to count as migration. Third, migration is increasingly difficult to distinguish from other forms of mobility, namely business trips and tourism. For example, businesses might involve stays of more than 6 months, labor migrants often come on tourist visas because this is often the only available means of legal entry, and retirement migrants to southern countries might be counted as tourists. Fourth, the distinction between international migration across international borders and internal mobility within a country but across administrative boundaries often is implausible. For example, geographic mobility in China, India, Nigeria, or Russia is not understood as migration because no international borders are crossed, even though movements within these countries might involve long distances and the crossing of cultural, linguistic, or religious borders. Finally, the predominant form of migration has long been rural to urban. This primary cause of the growth of cities is mostly internal, so it is not recorded as (international) migration.

Consequently, recognizing other forms of geographic mobility would produce some very different figures, perhaps between 1 and 2 billion geographically mobile people. This would mean that at least one sixth to one third of the world’s population are migrants. Putting international migration into the perspective of international travel and of internal mobility is essential, first, to produce a complete picture of human geographic mobility, and second, to judge the relevance of migration within the full range of human behavior in geographic space. In this sense, we can then examine whether migration is the behavior of only a minority (thus an exception from an otherwise sedentary norm) that requires explanation, or whether migration is normal and widespread behavior not requiring any extra justification and explanation.

Of the various major migration patterns, the first notable one is that contemporary migration is mostly from north to north (between developed countries); from south or east to north (from low- and medium-developed to developed countries), and from south to south (between developing countries). Just under half of all migration is toward and between developing countries, while the other half is toward and between developed countries, resulting in about 80 percent of all refugees found in developing countries. These directions, however, are increasingly diversifying, with recently observed large-scale movements from north to south or south to east. Second, most migration is regional, between neighboring countries. This is because distance is short and costs are low, but also because language, culture, or religion might be similar in sending and receiving countries and historical, cultural, political, and economic links possibly facilitate that migration. In contrast, forced migration is often internal, either because conflicts are of a local nature and people can escape to other parts of a country, or because people are prevented from entering other countries and becoming internationally recognized refugees.

Notably, migration is increasingly feminized, and today women account for about half of all migrants. However, in history women migrated too, a fact often unnoticed by then-contemporary sources. Perhaps it is research finally recognizing the role of women in global migration rather than some major shift in gender migratory activity occurring.

Furthermore, nearly all countries in varying degrees experience various stages of migration, changing from being mostly sending to mostly receiving countries (such as Germany and France), or vice versa (such as Spain, Italy, and Ireland). They can also be countries of transit migration for a limited period of time (such as Turkey and Mexico), and some may experience periods of zero migration (such as modern-day Portugal). Because migration seems to be hardly predictable, it is sometimes described as “turbulences.”

Determinants and Conditions

No comprehensive theory of migration yet exists, although experts generally agree that migration is highly dynamic, complex, and changeable, and that migration patterns are fluid and undergo constant transformations. Further, several major determinants and conditions both drive and explain international migration: migration systems, migration networks, macroeconomic forces, non-economic factors, migration politics, and demographic developments.

Migration systems link regions and states historically, culturally and linguistically, economically, politically, and socially. Within such systems are simultaneous flows of information, capital, goods, and people of any kind, for any purpose, and in any direction. Meanwhile, as systems have become global, global markets for information, capital, and goods, and labor now facilitate global and sustainable movements of people.

Migration networks link individuals of sending and receiving communities; they provide potential migrants with preconditions such as information, finances, support with finding accommodation, and employment that encourage migration. Networks can also take the form of migration industries— businesses ranging from human smugglers to recruitment agencies and visa services—that facilitate migration. Networks often explain why migration continues even under adverse conditions, such as lack of economic incentives or unemployment in destination countries.

Macroeconomic forces are mostly the demand for labor and higher wages on the one hand, and by unemployment and lower wages (possibly also overpopulation) on the other hand. Thereby, so-called push and pull factors determine the flow of people, and economic modeling aims to analyze, explain, and predict these migration movements.

Microeconomic and behaviorist theories present migrants as individuals or families assessing their (economic) situation, considering alternative opportunities, and calculating costs and benefits of migration to improve their quality of life. Thus, migration motivations can rest within concepts of individual and collective decision making. Non-economic reasoning instead reflects climatic, cultural, or political criteria, such as warm winters, political stability, and freedom, or opportunities to enjoy a specific culture or to practice a specific religion or lifestyle.

Demographic imbalances—aging and decreasing populations in developed countries and increasing young populations elsewhere—impact on migration, migration discourses, and migration policies. While high-average age, high dependency ratio communities worry about future supply of labor and, at least in Europe, the lack of economically active contributors to pension and other funds, low-average age communities become natural resources to address both these issues by sending migrants.

Migration politics and policies such as recruitment schemes, immigration restrictions, and conditions put on entry and stay shape migration. Thus, the law determines type and character of migration, accepting a migrant as refugee or laborer or refusing entry to a migrant. Individual migrant decision making responds to set conditions and opportunities; vice versa, politics can influence individual decision making. Nevertheless, migration politics also have unintended effects; for example, controls drive people underground and recruitment stops, often resulting in migrants settling down instead of returning as anticipated.

Natural and ecological factors will increasingly cause migration. Global warming, desertification, freak weather, and rising ocean level will almost certainly cause massive population movements.

Challenges and Opportunities

Migration occurs within a triangle of forces: individual aspirations (including human agency, autonomy, and processes of self-selection), economic forces (including macroeconomic push and pull factors and employers’ demand for labor), and institutional goals (of political society and civil society activities). This can result in a tug of war between institutional goals and individual aspirations or of individual autonomy versus public policy. Migration brings about an encounter of sedentary populations and mobile populations and, under conditions of the market economy, it can result in competition over employment and social resources. Occasionally, conflict arises, as is most evident in protectionist, even racist responses to migration. On the other hand, migrants often occupy niches in labor markets, housing markets, and society and often do not compete with indigenous populations. Finally, they integrate and become part of the fabric of host societies.

Normative Challenges. Migration affects nation states’ sovereignty, hence a state’s capacity to control its external borders and access to (a) its territory, (b) its markets (labor market and housing market), (c) its social systems (public and welfare services), and (d) its political system (democratic processes and institutions). Subsequent matters arising are related to legal status (residency, citizenship) of migrants.

Paradoxes of Globalization. Another set of problems relates to some asymmetries and paradoxes of globalization, notably the enthusiasm over unrestricted global flows of capital, information, and goods in contrast to concerns about the flow of people. While some organizations strive for more liberal and unrestrained flows of goods and capital, other institutions aim to control and limit international migration. And while globalization provides for global migration systems and global movements of labor, facilitates the flow of information about opportunities, and brings about safe and affordable transportation, political society often remains skeptical and aims to restrict movement of people.

Liberal Dilemma. Migration represents a major normative and practical challenge to liberalism and liberal democracies. First, the liberal principles of equality, individual freedom, and freedom of movement are met with restrictive immigration practices and exclusive membership practices of otherwise liberal democracies. Second, international obligations— for example, to take care of refugees—are met by increasingly hostile and deterring national legislations. As a consequence, a liberal dilemma arises that is yet lacking both normative and practical resolution.

Migration, Control, and Development. Neoclassical economists argue that migration once liberalized would result in enormous global economic growth; given equal distribution of wealth, this would in the long run have a reducing effect on migration. Equally, shifting immigration control budgets to development politics could instead reduce the need to migrate. Critical views claim that (skilled) migration from developing world countries is a brain drain, reducing the countries’ development prospects. Meanwhile, middle-ground views instead emphasize the advantages of brain gain. Hence, human capital accumulated during a stay abroad and reinvested upon a migrant’s return contribute significantly to the sending society’s development. Finally, remittances made by migrants contribute more to development than development aid or direct foreign investments.

Political Challenges. Migration is one of the top international policy concerns of our time, affecting politics, international relations, and security measures. However, its determinants and conditions are beyond the scope of politics. Authorities can neither reverse history (e.g., interrupt migration systems), nor can they simply manipulate flows within migration networks once developed. Neither can those economic incentives resulting from unequal development be minimized easily, nor can population trends or climate changes be reversed in the short term. In other words, the capacity of politics to control migration is limited. Recent political trends aim to (a) distinguish between costs and benefts of migration, reduce the former, increase the latter; (b) implement selective policies that aim to attract high-skilled migrants while refusing low-skilled migrants; or (c) manage migration to the simultaneous benefit of sending countries, receiving countries, and migrants.

Migration is an intrinsic, inherent, and inevitable part of grand and continuous transformation processes. The departure and arrival of large numbers of people represent a considerable challenge to both sending and receiving communities and societies. Whether migration as such or ill-prepared social systems and inadequate models of political organization of humanity (nation states) are at the core of the problem, migration has an impact on normative, political, economic, and social dimensions of the affected societies. Consequently, two perspectives address the migration problem: either try to prevent and contain large-scale migration (the predominant and conventional response) or better prepare societies and communities for mobile populations (the constant arrival of newcomers and departure of others).

Bibliography:

Castles, Stephen and Mark Miller. [1993] 2003. The Age of Migration: International Migration Movements in the Modern World. Houndmills, England: Palgrave.
Cole, Philip. 2000. Philosophies of Exclusion: Liberal Political Theory and Immigration. Edinburgh, Scotland: Edinburgh University Press.
Global Commission on International Migration. 2005. Migration in an Interconnected World. Report. Geneva, Switzerland: Global Commission on International Migration.
Hoerder, Dirk. 2003. Cultures in Contact: World Migrations in the Second Millennium. Durham, NC, and London: Duke University Press.
Jordan, Bill and Franck Duvell. 2003. Migration: Boundaries of Equality and Justice. Cambridge, England: Polity Press.
Massey, Douglas S., Joaquin Arango, Graeme Hugo, Ali Kouaouci, Adela Pellegrino, and Edward J. Taylor. 1998. Worlds in Motion: Understanding International Migration at the End of the Millennium. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press.

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