International Migration: Prospects and Policies in a Global Market
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| Anteprima |
International
Migration: Prospects and Policies offers a comprehensive, up-to-date
survey of global patterns of international migration and the policies
employed to manage the flows. It shows that international migration is
not rooted in poverty or rapid population growth, but in the expansion
and consolidation of global markets. As nations are structurally
transformed by their incorporation into global markets, people are
displaced from traditional livelihoods and become international
migrants. In seeking to work abroad, they do not necessarily move to the
closest or richest destination, but to places already connected to
their countries of origin socially, economically, and politically. When
they move, migrants rely heavily on social networks created by earlier
waves of immigrants, and, in recent years, professional migration
brokers have become increasingly common. Developing countries generally
benefit from international migration because migrant savings and
remittances provide foreign earnings to finance balance of payments
deficits and make productive investments. Some developing nations have
gone so far as to establish programs or ministries dedicated to the
export of workers. Developed nations, in contrast, focus more on the
social and economic costs of immigrants and seek to reduce their
numbers, regulate their characteristics, and limit their access to
social services. Over time, receiving nations have gravitated toward a
similar set of restrictive policies, yielding undocumented migration as a
worldwide phenomenon. Globalization also creates infrastructures of
transportation, communication, and social networks to put developed
societies within reach. In the latter, ageing populations and segmenting
markets create a persistent demand for immigrant workers. All these
trends are likely to intensify in the coming years to make immigration
policy a key political issue in the twenty-first century.
