Global Migration and Development

Ton van Naerssen, Ernst Spaan, Annelies Zoomers

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2008
• Print ISBN: 9780415962476
• eBook ISBN: 9781135896294
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Social Science Research & Methodology
• Index: Social Sciences

The debate on international migration and development currently focuses on South-North migration, transnationalism, remittances and knowledge transfer. The potential positive role of migration for countries and regions the emigrants originate from has recently been acknowledged by, among others, the World Bank, United Nations Commissions and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM). This volume addresses the question: to what extent and under what conditions does international migration contribute to local and national development? By presenting novel insights and themes on the basis of new empirical evidence from various countries, this volume is an indispensable addition to the international discussion on migration.

1
Globalization, Migration, and Development

Ton van Naerssen, Ernst Spaan and Annelies Zoomers

International migration is one of the key issues of today. Even though people have moved and settled across borders ever since early history, it has never reached the magnitude and extent as presently. The United Nations estimated that there were 191 million migrants worldwide in 2005, an increase of 26 million compared to a decade earlier (United Nations, 2006a). In the period 1995–2005, the proportion of women among the migrant population remained at about 50%, and the geographical distribution of migration was rather stable: Europe (33 to 34% of total stock) and North America (from 23 to 26%) showed a slight increase at the expense of Africa (11–9%), Asia (29–28%) and Latin America (4–3%).

International migration is increasingly important, even though the majority of today’s population movements still is internal and takes place in poor countries with high rates of population growth and rural-urban migration. Some 3% of the total world population was born outside the country where they are currently living. The impact is, however, far greater than this percentage suggests. International migration not only touches the lives of the migrant population, but also influences the lives of nonmigrant populations. Once people decide to cross borders and to settle in other countries, both their personal life and that of their families they leave behind will profoundly change, not only economically, but also socially and culturally. This also applies to the people with whom they live and communicate within the localities and regions of settlement. Contemporary migration manifests itself in all corners of the globe and transforms entire societies as a consequence of a constant stream of people leaving and/or entering.

Migration systems connecting places by way of flows of people are becoming increasingly complex (Skeldon, 1997). International migration takes place in many directions: from south to south, between east and west, from south to north, and vice versa. The majority of international migration takes place among neighbouring countries in the poorer parts of the world, in part due to wars that leads to massive displacements of people who seek protection across the borders. Except for south-south migration, in recent years, within Europe, substantial cross-border east-west labour migration took place (van Naerssen & van der Velde, forthcoming). Nevertheless, south-north migration is also increasing. People from the south migrate north searching for new opportunities to improve their lives, and although in many developing countries the welfare has improved, as demonstrated by the growth in GNP per capita, higher life expectancy and improvement of basic services, widespread unemployment and poverty continue to exist (United Nations Development Programme, 2006). People in poor countries have better possibilities than before to observe the welfare and life styles of people in the rich countries by global means of communication (TV, video, mobile phone, and internet), which raise their expectations and provide them with information about opportunities elsewhere and the trajectories along which to move.

Immigration to the north is generating new patterns of transnationalism, heterogeneity, and hybridism (e.g., dual citizenship), which is often perceived as a source of ethnic tensions and/or threat to the nation-state. Notwithstanding the fact that mobility is an integral and essential feature of globalization, at present rich countries are implementing restrictive international migration regimes. Although stimulating the free movement of capital and commodities as part of neoliberal policies, governments of destination areas (i.e. the United States and the European Union) are searching for new ways to effectively control labour migration.

This book aims to provide an up-to-date overview of the diverse forms and global nature of international migration in relation to development processes. It is within the framework of globalization, world poverty, people’s mobility, and restrictive migration regimes that the question of international migration and its impact on development in countries of origin has entered the (political) arena. This book addresses the subject and intends to present an up-to-date account, to show the complexity of the problem and to open up new perspectives for future research.

At the international level, reports of the World Bank (2003a; 2003b; 2006), the International Organization for Migration (2001; 2005; Farrant, MacDonald & Sriskandarajah, 2006), the Global Commission on International Migration (GCIM 2005), and the UN High-Level Dialogue on Migration and Development (held September 2006) optimistically pointed out that international migration comprises a huge potential for development. In particular, the size and the growth of migrants’ remittances are mentioned as positive factors. According to the World Bank, remittance transfers to developing countries increased from US $58 billion in 1995 to about US $167 billion in 2005, which is more than the official development aid. Remittances are said to have contributed to a decline in poverty (World Bank, 2006). Optimism also colours the opinion on the role of transnational communities in development, which also receives increasing attention from state and multilateral institutions (Levitt & Nyberg-Sorensen, 2004).

However, there are several reasons why international migration will not automatically lead to development. Much will depend on the volume and direction of migration (i.e. the shifts in migration frontiers), the composition of the flows (low versus highly skilled etc.), the degree of feminization of labour migration, the consequences of the rise of migration industries (labour recruiters and smugglers), the degree of circulation and return of migrants and the politicization of migration. Migration is defined on the basis of a multitude of different concepts and definitions (such as place of birth, citizenship, residence, duration of stay and purpose of stay) and comparison between countries is complicated, and it is not easy to make generalizations.

Migration is increasingly complex—there are many subcategories of labour migrants, and each of these will have its own impact. In addition to the coerced migrants (e.g., political refugees) and voluntary migrants (e.g., labour migrants), there are long-distance and short-distance migrants; permanent migrants, temporary migrants who stay on contract for 3–5 years abroad, and (transient) circular migrants on short-time contracts who regularly return to their home places, etcetera. Migrants can further be differentiated by age groups (children, working-age people, and pensioners), by gender, by education and skills (low skilled and high skilled) and generation (first, second, and even third generation). These various categories of migrants will maintain diverse links with the origin countries and by consequence impact in different ways on the development in the home areas (many of these subcategories will be dealt with in this volume).

Much value is currently attached in discussions to the developmental role of migrant communities and diasporas. Even though strictly speaking the notion of diaspora only relates to the forced displacement of an ethnic group outside its original area (such as the Jews and the Armenians), the terms are often used intermittently. Diasporas usually encompass the whole ethnic group living abroad—regardless of the length of stay in the country of settlement, whereas migrant communities usually comprise two or three generations only. Migrant communities are assumed to be transnational and by consequence their members will live in two countries, mentally as well as behaviourally. These transnational are now considered as agents for development and their finance, knowledge and skills should be mobilized (see the earlier cited international reports), although there are also critical voices.

A key question concerns the understanding of development. The concept of development itself is a contested concept. It encompasses more than economic development and contains different and inter-related aspects. Development can be defined as sustainable economic growth, as social advancement, as increasing equity, as increasing democracy and freedom, and as all of these together. The links between international migration and development are thus multidimensional and complex. Fundamental questions concern which people at home benefit from migration, where they live, in what processes of development they are involved and whether these are sustainable or not.

MIGRATION-DEVELOPMENT APPROACHES AND THEORIES

During the past decades different approaches to and discourses on the migration-development nexus have been devised and discussed (Spaan, Hillmann & van Naerssen 2005). Nevertheless, until recently, the multifaceted link between migration and development has not really come to the fore in theory and research. Where the relationship between migration and development processes was explicitly acknowledged, the emphasis was mainly on economic aspects, among which the impact of remittances and the detrimental consequences of the brain drain for local labour markets in the countries of origin (Papademetriou & Martin, 1991 p. 5). Only recently, phenomena such as circular migration, brain gain, skill formation, migrant entrepreneurship, social remittances, transnational philanthropy and politics, and the role of (return) migrants and the diasporas in development in origin countries have been emphasised more.

The neoclassical migration approach, framed within the modernization approach of development and underdevelopment, basically posits an imbalance in the spatial distribution of resources (land, labour, capital), which through migration flows are adjusted until a new equilibrium has been reached. According to this approach, people from areas and countries characterized by resource deficiencies, unemployment, low wages and marginal productivity, are attracted to areas or countries characterized by relative labour scarcities but with abundant capital, resources and higher wages. The outflow of labour migrants from the underdeveloped and rural regions is beneficial because it will lead to a more balanced distribution of capital and labour that furthers economic development in the out-migration region. In the destination country, the inflow of cheap labour fosters production and ultimately the differentiation between sending and receiving areas flats out and a new balance in wages and resource distribution has been achieved (Todaro, 1969). The decision to migrate is assumed to be voluntary and grounded in a rational, individual decision taking into account the expected income differentials and employment opportunities (Harris & Todaro, 1970). The theories based on the neoclassical approach are rather optimistic about the impact of migration on sending areas since they expect that overpopulation, unemployment, and poverty will be reduced. A contraflow of investment capital is assumed to take place as well as a limited flow of highly-skilled workers (Massey et al., 1993 p. 433). As long as the benefits of staying and working abroad (e.g., in terms of wages, education, and prestige) outweigh the costs, neoclassical theories assume that migrants will not return (Constant & Massey, 2002).

This approach is based on a number of assumptions that can be challenged, particularly in the context of developing countries. First, migration is not necessarily voluntary, as it is often induced by sheer necessity resulting from poverty, war, oppression, or restrictive state policies. The assumption of the rational cost-benefit calculating individual is also contestable; nonmigrants often stay for social reasons even when conditions at home are less favourable. Migration decisions are not taken individually, but prospective migrants are embedded in social units and hierarchical power relations, such as households, kinship systems, patron-client relations and gender roles, which constrain their autonomy and individual decision-making power. Moreover, it is assumed that potential migrants dispose of full knowledge about wages and job opportunities elsewhere on the basis of which they make their decisions. In reality, information on other countries is incomplete and often filtered by actors who have an interest in migration. Particularly, in the worldwide migration industry, run by recruitment agencies, labour brokers and smuggling networks, information is often a valuable commodity that is manipulated for commercial purposes. In short, neoclassical theor...

Table of contents

• Routledge Studies in Development and Society
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• List of Boxes
• Preface and Acknowledgments
• 1 Globalization, Migration, and Development
• Part I The Role and Impact of Family Remittances
• Part II Diasporas and Development at Home
• Part III Transfer of Knowledge, Skills, and Ideas
• Part IV Comprehensive Studies
• Contributors
• Index