MODULE 11

CONTEMPORARY WORLD

INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION AT THE BEGINNING OF THE 21 ST CENTURY:

GLOBAL TRENDS AND ISSUES By Stephen Castles

In the 2nd half of the 20th century, international migration emerged as one
of the main factors in social transformation and development in all regions of
the world. Its significance looks sets to increase further in the 21 st century, as
population mobility grows in volume and takes on new forms. Migration is a
result of the integration of local communities and national economies into
global relationships. At the same time, it is caused of further social
transformations in both migrant-sending and receiving countries. In traditional
societies, many people spent their whole lives in their native village or
neighborhood. Today, migration is becoming increasingly common as people
move in search of security and a better livelihood: from villages to towns, from
one region to another in their home country, or between countries and
continents. Even those who do not migrate are affected as relatives, friends or
descendants of migrants, or through experiences of change in their community
as a result of departure of neighbors or arrival of newcomers.

Migration is often a result of economic and social development. In turn,

migration may contribute to further development and improved economic and
social conditions or alternatively may help to perpetuate stagnation and
inequality. Much depends in the character of migration and the actions taken
by the governments and other stakeholders concerned. Migration helps to
erode traditional boundaries between languages, cultures, ethnic groups and
nation-states. It therefore challenges cultural traditions, national identity and
political institutions, and contributes to a decline of the autonomy of the
nation-state.
 This article seeks to provide an overview of some of the main trends and
issues which are likely to shape international population mobility in the period
ahead. More detailed accounts of regions and countries will be given on other
articles in this issue.

DEFINITIONS AND TYPES

Migration means crossing the boundary of a political or administrative

unit for a certain minimum period. Internal migration refers to move from one
area to another within one country. International migration means crossing the
frontiers which separate one of the world’s approximately 200 states from
another. Many scholars argue that internal and international migration should
be analyzed together. Rigid distinctions can be misleading: international
migration may be over short distances and between culturally similar people,
while internal migration can span great distances and bring together very
different people. Sometimes the frontier ‘migrate’ rather than the people,
making internal migrants into international ones, for instance, the break-up of
the former Soviet Union turned millions if former internal migrants into
foreigner in the successor states. However, this article focuses specifically on
international migration, because of its links to globalization and its significance
in creating multi-ethnic societies. The great majority of border crossings do not
imply migration: most travelers are tourists staying for long. Migration means
taking up residence for a certain minimum period – say 6 months or a year.
Most countries have a number of categories in their migration policies and
statistics. For instance, Australia distinguishes between permanent
immigrants, long-term temporary immigrants who stay atleast 12 months
usually for work, business or education and short-term temporary visitors. Yet,
Australia is seen as a ‘classical country immigration’ because of its tradition of
nation building through immigration, and nearly all public debate is focused
on permanent immigration, other countries prefer to see immigration as
essentially temporary, when the German Federal Republic started to recruit so-
called ‘guest workers’ in the 1960s, some were allowed in for a few months only
as ‘seasonal workers’ while others received one-year permits. In time it became
difficult to limit residence to people who had been residents for a certain time
obtained 2 years, then 5 years and finally unlimited permits.

Such variations highlight the fact that that there is nothing objective
about definitions of migration: they are the result of state policies, introduced
in response to political and economic goals and public attitudes. International
migration arises in a world divided up onto nation-states, in which remaining
in the country of birth is still seen as a norm and moving to another country as
a deviation. That is why migration tends to be regarded as problematic:
something to be controlled and even curbed because it may bring about
unpredictable changes. Problems of comparison arise not just because of
statistical difference, but because such differences reflect real variations in the
social meaning of migration in differing contexts. One way in which states seek
to improve control is by dividing up international migrants into categories.

1. Temporary labor migrants (also known as guest-workers of overseas

contract workers): men and women who migrate for a limited period in order
to take up employment and send money home.

2. Highly skilled and business migrants: people with qualifications as

managers, executives, professional, technicians or similar, who move within
the internal labor markets of transitional corporations and international
organization or who seek employment through international labor markets for
scarce skills; many countries welcome such immigrants and have special
‘skilled and business migration’ programs to encourage them to come.

3. Irregular migrants (also known as undocumented or illegal migrants):

people who enter a country who usually in search of employment without the
necessary documents and permits. Many labor migration flows consists
predominantly of undocumented migrants. In some cases, immigration tacitly
permit such a migration since it allows mobilization of labor in response to
employer demands without social costs or measures for protection of migrants.

4. Refugees: According to the 1951 United Nations Convention relating to the

status of refugees, a refugee is a person residing outside his or her country of
nationality, who is unable or unwilling to return because of a ‘well-founded fear
to persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership on a
particular social group or politician opinion’. Signatories to the Convention
undertake to protect refugees by allowing them to enter granting temporary or
permanent residence status. Refugee organization, especially the United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), seek to distinguish clearly
between refugees and migrants, but they do share many common
characteristics with regard to social needs and cultural impacts in their place
of settlement.
5. Asylum-seekers: people who move across borders in search of protection,
but who may not fulfill the strict criteria laid down by the 1951 Convention. In
many contemporary conflict situations in less developed countries, it is difficult
to distinguish between flight because of personal persecution and departure
caused by the destruction of the economic and social infrastructure needed for
survival. Both political and economic motivations for migration are linked to
the generalized and persistent violence that has resulted from rapid processes
of decolonization and globalization under conditions determined by the
developed countries.

6. Family members (also known as reunion or family reunification

migrants): migration to join people who have already entered an immigration
country under one of the above categories. Many countries, including the USA,
Canada, Australia and most European Union member states recognize in
principle the right to family reunion for legal immigrants. Other countries
especially those with contract labor systems, deny the right to family reunion.
In such cases, family members may enter illegally.

7. Return migrants: people who return to their countries of origin after a

period in another country. Return migrants are often looked on favorably as
they may bring with them capital, skills and experience useful for economic
development. Many countries have special schemes to make use of this
‘development potential’. However, some governments view returnees with
suspicion since they may act as agents of cultural or political change.

None of these categories are explicitly based on the race, ethnicity or

origins of migrants, and indeed, there are few countries today which admit to
discriminating on the basis of such criteria. The exceptions are countries which
gives preference to people considered to be returning to an ancestral homeland.

CAUSE OF MIGRATION

There is a large empirical and theoretical literature on the causes of

migration, which cannot be reviewed. International migration is an integral
part of globalization, which may be characterized as the widening, deepening
and speeding up of worldwide interconnectedness in all aspects of
contemporary social life. The key indicator of globalization is the rapid increase
in cross-border flows of all sorts: finance, trade, ideas, pollution, media
products and people. The key organizing structure for all these flows is the
transnational network, which can take the form of transnational corporations,
global markets, international governmental and non-governmental
organizations, global criminal syndicates, or transnational, cultural
communities. The key tool is modern information and communications
technology, including the Internet, improved telephone connections and cheap
air travel. Flows of capital and commodities are generally welcomed by the
holders of economic and political power, but immigration and cultural
difference are seen as potential threats to national sovereignty and identity,
and many government and political movements seek to restrict them. Yet the
reality is that population mobility is inextricably bound up with the order types
of cross-border flows.

The most obvious cause of migration is the disparity in levels of income,

employment and social well-being between differing areas. Differences in
demographic patterns with regard to fertility, mortality, age-structure and
labour force growth are also important. According to neo-classical economic
theory, the main cause of migration is individual’s efforts to maximize their
income by moving from low-wage to high-wage economies. However, causes of
international migration are often quite complex. Movements may be initiated
and regulated by powerful institutions, while state control of borders by states
creates barriers to market forces. An alternative economic approach is provided
by the ‘new economics of labor migration’ which argues that migration cannot
simply be explained by income differences between two countries, by also by
factors such as chances of secure employment, availability of capital for
entrepreneurial activity, and the need to manage risk over long periods.
Migration decisions are made not just by individuals – they often represent
family strategies to maximize income and survival chances. Use the
remittances for consumption and investment can only be fully understood
through a ‘whole-household-economy’ approach.

Thus, there is no simple relationship between poverty and emigration.

Departures from the very poorest areas may be rare, because people lack the
economic capital needed to travel, the cultural capital needed to become aware
of opportunities elsewhere and the social capital needed to be successfully find
work and to cope in a new environment. However, in the event of catastrophe
which destroys animal subsistence levels, even the poorest may be forced to
migrate, usually under very bad conditions. Migration is thus both a result and
a cause of development. Development leads to migration, because economic
and educational improvements make people capable of seeking better
opportunities elsewhere. Research shows that it is middle-income groups in
developing areas that are most likely to depart. As incomes rise, emigration
tends to decline.

A useful approach to analyzing the various factors causing emigration is

to be found in ‘migration system theory’. A migration system is constituted by
two or more countries which exchange migrants with each other, it is
necessary to examine both ends of the flow and study all the linkages between
the places concerned. Migratory movements generally arise from the existence
of prior links between sending and receiving countries based on colonization,
political influence, trade, investment or cultural ties. For instance, Caribbean
migrants had tended to move to their respective former colonial power: for
example, from Jamaica to Britain, Martinique to France and Surinam to the
Netherlands. The Algerian migration to France is the consequence of the
French colonial presence in Algeria, while the Turkish presence in Germany of
the result of direct labor recruitment by Germany in the 1960s and early
1970s. both the Korean and the Vietnamese migrations to the USA derive from
US military involvement in the countries of origin.

Typically migratory chains are started by an external factor, such as

recruitment or military service, or by an initial movement of young pioneers.
Once a movement is established, the migrants mainly follow ‘beaten paths’ and
are helped by the relatives and friends already in the area of immigration.
Networks based on a family or on common place of origin helped provide
shelter, work, assistance with bureaucratic procedures and support in the
personal difficulties. These social networks make migratory process after safer
and more manageable for the migrants and their families.

HISTORICAL TRENDS

Population movements in response to demographic growth, climatic

change and economic needs have always been part of human history. Warfare
and formations of nations, states, and empires have all led to migrations, both
voluntary and forced. However, from the fifteenth century onwards, European
nation-state formation, colonialism and industrialization led to a rapid growth
in migration. Colonialism involved overseas emigration of European as sailors,
soldiers, farmers, traders, priests and administrators. Colonial labor was
provided first through forced migration of African slaves, and later through use
of indentured workers, who were transported large distances within colonial
empires. Industrialization in Western Europe led to landlessness and
impoverishment, which encouraged masse emigration to other continents.
Economic growth and nation building in the USA relied heavily on immigration.
With as estimated 30 million people entering from 1861 to 1920. Within
Western Europe, industrializing economies made considerable use of migrant
workers: Irish in Britain, Poles in Germany, Italians in France and so on.

Economic stagnation and political turmoil led to reduced migration

between 1918 and 1945. In the USA, ‘nativist’ groups claimed that Southern
and Eastern Europeans were ‘unassimilable’ and presented threats to public
order and American values. Congress enacted a national-origins quota system
which stopped large-scale immigration until the 1960s. France was the only
country to recruit foreign workers in this period: colonies of Italians and Poles
sprang up in the heavy industrial towns of the North and East, while there
were Spanish and Italian agricultural settlements in the Southwest. In the
depression in the 1930s, many migrants were deported and the foreign
population fell half a million by 1936. In Nazi Germany, the regime recruited
enormous numbers of foreign workers – mainly by force – to replace German
men conscripted for military service.