GLOBALIZATION AND MIGRATION
YUSNARIDA EKA NIZMI
Globalization and Migration
■ Globalization in general promotes and encourages migration.
■ According to Wickramasekera (2000), improved communication networks, mass
media, and transportation are great factors in influencing one’s decision to migrate.
■ Globalization also influences movement of workers.
■ They (skilled workers and professionals) are attracted by growth and development
and welcomed into the country; in turn these workers attract foreign investment.
■ Social disruption caused by economy restructuring is likely to shake more people
loose from their communities and encourage them to look abroad for work (Stalker
as cited in Wickramasekera, 2000, p.10).
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) and
the increase of migrants
■ IOM, “dedicated to promoting humane and orderly migration for the benefit of all,”
estimates that there are 214 million migrants across the globe today, a 37%
increase in two decades.
■ The number of migrants is expected to increase to 405 juta by 2050
■ Huge migratory flows and counter flows between and among 196 countries of
diverse culture and ideologies, the implications are mind boggling, and it is no
wonder that migration is regarded as one of the most complex and complicated
issues facing the world today.
Human Migration
■ The movement of a person or a group of persons across a specified boundary for the
purpose of taking up permanent or semi-permanent residence”
■ The reasons for which may vary according to the migrant’s goals, dreams, priorities,
or specific circumstances in life at the time of movement
Two Basic Types of Migration
■ Internal or Domestic
Migration
■ External or
International
Migration
International Migrants
■ Settlers- people who move from their homeland to another country
with the intention of living permanently in their new country (Marriage,
family reunification)
■ Economic Migrants; for the purpose of securing better employment or
improves financial position.
■ Refugees- people who have fled their homeland, usually en masse,
and cannot return to the country due to a well founded fear of
persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinion
or membership in a persecuted social group, or to escape the horrors
or war and indiscriminate violence.
■ Irregular migrants- (expire of visa, unauthorized entry)
Causes of Migration
■ Ravenstein: “Push- Pull” process
■ Migration was governed by a “push-pull” process- “unfavorable conditions in one
place “push” people out, and favourable conditions in another location “pull” them
in.
■ Everett S. Lee,” A theory of Migration” (1966)
■ “No matter how short or how long, how easy or how difficult, every act of
immigration involves an origin, a destination, and an intervening set of obstacles.”
Intervening obstacles; Internal (Push) Factors:
■ Factors associated with the area of origin (positive or negative)
■ Factors associated with the area of destination (positive or negative)
■ Intervening obstacles (things or circumstances that may constrain the decision to
migrate; travel costs, physical, political, cultural barriers)
■ Personal factors : facilitate aor retard the decision to migrate ( age, gender, social
class, education, family ties)
Other variants:
■ Neoclassical economy theory- international migration is related to the global supply
and demand for labour, such that countries with high demand for but scarce supply
of labour will have high wages that will attract or pull migrants from countries with
surplus of labour.
■ The world systems theory (Sassen, 1988) international migration is a by product of a
global capitalism and that the general pattern of migration is from North to South,
that is from the periphery (underdeveloped nations to the core (developed nations)
because cheap labour would allow the maximation of profits.
What do all these theories point to?
■ The economic is the primary driver of migration ( Ravenstein, Lee)
■ Economic is The only driver of migration (neoclassical economic theory, World
System Theory)
Issues on Migration
■ National Security (such as: Austria’s
identitarian label Phalanx Europa)
■ Spread of diseases
(HIV/AIDS/Malaria/SARS)
■ Brain Drain, “The loss of skilled
intellectual and technical labour
through the movement of such labour
to more favorable geographic,e
conomic,
or
professional
environments
(Answers.com).
Economic disparities remain the
largest reason fro migration, other
reasons
include
curiosity
and
personal preference, being lured by
social networks, and fleeing from
conflict (Wickramasekera, 2000).
Migration and SARS (The severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome)
■ According to European Academies Science Advisory Council, the disease was
believed to have started in China and just after six months, it has already spread to
almost 28 countries in different continents of the globe.
■ In 2007, it has already infected 4.836 people
■ Killed 293 individuals.
■ Based from a study in 2003, it was considered that out of 20 countries, 16 regard
that human mobility or migration itself is the main factor affecting the fast spread of
the disease.
Commander, Docquier dan Rapoport
(2006)
■ The developing countries are left with a great shortage in manpower locally, and the
brain drain contributes to the inequality at world level by widening the gap between
the developing countries and the developed countries.