International Migration, Immobility and Development

Multidisciplinary Perspectives

Tomas Hammar, Grete Brochmann, Kristof Tamas, Thomas Faist, Tomas Hammar, Grete Brochmann, Kristof Tamas, Thomas Faist

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000324266
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Derecho
• Subtopic: Derecho migratorio

The study of international migration and ethnic relations is rapidly expanding in the social sciences, in the humanities, and in law and medicine at universities around the world. Theories and methods are borrowed from many disciplines, but with little cross-fertilization, thereby leaving many core issues out. This authoritative book fills a gap by providing an expertly integrated overview of international migration from a wide range of disciplinary perspectives. Throughout the book, South to North migration is used as the main example.The authors, leading experts in their fields, ask provocative new questions such as the counterfactual, `Why do people not migrate?' and address old questions in fresh ways in a language accessible for students in a range of disciplines. Does migration from less developed countries stimulate or obstruct development? Does development reduce or increase the flows of migration? What are the dynamics of a migration process? Geography, economics, political science, social anthropology and sociology all inform this book, which is certain to become an established text in migration studies.

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Why Do People Go or Stay?

Tomas Hammar and Kristof Tamas

At the end of the twentieth century there are worldwide about 100 million people residing outside their country of citizenship. They have recently or sometime during their lifetime migrated to live in another country than the one in which they were born. In contrast, around 6,000 million have not left their country of birth, or they have returned to their country after a period of emigration. In other words, more than 98 per cent of the world's population remain in the country where they are citizens. Why have many more not emigrated?

Prevailing migration theories would have us assume that migration from poorer to richer countries had taken much larger proportions than the currently estimated volume. Available theories can only partially explain the present situation. They give some clues as to why people emigrate and why they return, but very little about why people stay. They are far from satisfactory and they were conceived at a time when the world was very different.

The causes and consequences of migration are not the same as they were before the First World War, at the time of transoceanic emigration from Europe to the Central and North Americas, or after the Second World War at the time of labour migration to Northern Europe. New emigration flows from countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America have emerged in a process linked to economic development. Meanwhile, the immigration countries of the North have become welfare democracies of a post-industrial era with new technologies and transformed labour markets. The 1990s have everywhere witnessed high unemployment rates and stagnating growth. The new flows go mainly between countries in the South and the flows towards the North face increasingly restrictive immigration control from governments fearful of uncontrollable and unwanted immigration. While South to North migration can be assumed to grow even more in the future, its new global character needs to be analysed with new theoretical tools.

In this book we evaluate old theories in the light of a new global situation. We undertake a systematic review of the theoretical literature on international migration assessing what has been done in relation to the actual and potential migration flows as well as to current migration policies. What we need at this stage is not a new general theory, but a multidisciplinary evaluation of available social science theories in an attempt to apply them to the new world of international migration, or to what we shall call here 'South to North migration'.

The following questions are analysed in this book:

1. Why do some people migrate?
2. Why do most people stay? Why do many emigrants return?
3. How is international migration related to development? Is the volume of emigration dependent on the development process in the country of origin? Is this development process in turn dependent on international migration?

In studies of the causes of international migration, almost all attention has up to now been given to those who actually migrate, although their behaviour under most circumstances is not the normal one, but the deviant case. A parallel might be helpful, although it must not be misunderstood and taken for a value judgement. Just as more attention has recently been paid in medicine to those who are healthy, or in traffic studies to the absence of accidents, we suggest studies not only of those who have emigrated but also of those who have stayed in their country of origin. In other words, we include in our study both those who take part in int...