Migration, Identity and Sovereignty
What are the impacts of globalisation on migration?
Globalisation has led to an increase in migration both within countries and between them.
Migration The movement of a person or a group of persons either across an
international border or within a state.
Emigration The act of departing from one state with a view to setting in
another.
Immigration A process by which non-nationals move into a country for the
purpose of settlement.
Economic migrant Someone who moves to improve the standard of living or work
Refugee A person who has been forced to leave their country in order to
escape war, persecution or natural disorder.
Asylum seeker A person who seeks safely from persecution or serious harm in a
country other than his or her own and awaits the decision on the
application for refugee status under relevant international and
national instrument. (Does not have refugee status.)
Irregular migrant Movement that takes place outside the regular norms of the
sending transit and receiving countries. (Illegal migration.)
Rural to urban Moving from a rural area to the city.
migration
What is the link between globalisation and migration?
• Globalisation has led to a rise in migration both within countries and between.
• A record number of people migrated internationally in 2014: more than 230 million people now
live in a country they were not born in.
• Globalisation has created opportunities for people to migrate.
• Modern transport networks enable truly global labour flows to operate.
• At a national scale, people move from traditional rural economies to work in cities which have
become hubs of industrial activity.
• At an international scale, there is easier movement of people. The EU allows free movement.
,Rural to urban migration (internal) within China:
Background:
• Began in the 1970s and 80s
• 20 percent of China’s population lived in cities in 1978, now the figure is 55 percent.
What are the push factors?
• Reduced need for rural labour
• Depressing incomes and quality of life
What are the pull factors?
• Higher wages in secondary industries
• Better quality life.
What is the Hukou system?
• In the 1950s after the Communist Revolution the government restricted internal migration by
introducing the Hukou system, where everyone is registered as an official resident.
• The Hukou system means in order to change an official resident to a new location, they have to
register and buy a permit (expensive).
• Without a permit Hukou workers earn less and their families are less entitled to schooling or
health care.
International migration within the EU:
• There are now 26 Schengen countries - 22 EU members and four non-EU. Those four are
Iceland and Norway (since 2001), Switzerland (since 2008) and Liechtenstein (since 2011).
• Only six of the 28 EU member states are outside the Schengen zone - Bulgaria, Croatia,
Cyprus, Ireland, Romania and the UK.
• Schengen is often criticised by nationalists and Eurosceptics who say it is an open door for
migrants and criminals.
• The 13 November Paris attacks, which killed 130 people, prompted an urgent rethink of the
Schengen agreement.
• There was alarm that killers had so easily slipped into Paris from Belgium, and that some had
entered the EU with crowds of migrants via Greece.
• In 2015, the influx of more than a million migrants - many of them Syrian refugees - also greatly
increased the pressure on politicians, and one after another, EU states re-imposed temporary
border controls.
• In December, the European Commission proposed a major amendment to Schengen,
expected to become law soon. Most non-EU travellers have their details checked against
police databases at the EU's external borders. The main change is that the rule will apply to EU
citizens as well, who until now had been exempt.
• Non-EU nationals who have a Schengen visa generally do not have ID checks once they are
travelling inside the zone, but since the Paris atrocity those checks have become more
common.
Why do migration patterns vary?
Between 3-4% of the global population live outside their country of birth, but this population varies
greatly between countries according to their different migration policies and level of engagement
with the global economy.
,Global migration patterns:
This diagram shows the global migration patterns, here we see that migration to North America is
prominent from a number of separate continents, such as Latin America. Another example of
prominent migration is from India to the United Arab Emirates (see globalisation notes). In many
different places there is additionally inward migration, whereby people are moving to a different
area within the region
A main factor for this is economic opportunities which result in people moving from a less
economically developed country to a more economically developed country.
Japan’s closed-door immigration policy:
• Japan’s population is falling, 27 percent are aged over 65, median age is 46.5.
• Its working age population is predicted to fall by 44 million by 2037, half the size it was in 2007.
• The UN suggests that Japan needs 17 million migrants by 2050 to maintain its population
levels.
• The population is supporting the policy (see globalisation notes).
Australia’s skills-based immigration policy:
• 70 percent of immigrants are let in based on skills shortages where there are insufficient
Australian workers.
• Australia’s immigrants are contributing 10% more to Australia’s GDP each year than Australian
workers.
, • Immigrants additionally are beneficial demographically and have countered the ageing
population, as 88 percent of immigrant workers are under 40 and 50 percent are aged 20 to 34,
this.
What else influences migration?
Environmental change Economic events Political events
Influence of factor Climate change is The global financial crisis New conflicts can
causing refugees to of 2007-2008 had an unexpectedly trigger or
leave regions where unprecedented effect on diversity global migration
agriculture is threatened. migration. For the first flows. On many
In Kiribati and Tuvalu time since1945 world occasions since the
extreme flooding linked GDP shrank. Net Second World War,
to climate change has migration from Poland political regime changes
resulted in migration to fell to its lowest level have prompted ethnic
New Zealand and since the 1950s. groups to flee states.
Australia, who are under
pressure to produce an
open door policy to allow
these migrants into the
country (see coasts
notes).
Evaluation of Climate change acts to The realisation that In parts of the Americas,
importance intensify rural poverty in globalisation has a Africa and the Middle
some countries. It is ‘reverse gear’. East, political factors are
important to recognise Projections for global now a vital influence on
that climate change is a migration and migration, 12 million
vital reason for refugees urbanisation should be people in Syria have
in the future. treated with caution. been displaced during
Economic systems can Syria’s war.
become unstable.
Causes of migration:
Most migrants move for work or to re-join family members; there are other significant causes,
including displacement of refugees due to conflicts in their region of origins.
Migrants crossing the Mediterranean:
• In 2015 one million migrants left both Africa for the Middle East and Europe.
• 340,000 arrived in 2016.
• Fleeing conflict and persecution and seeking better job opportunities.
• Most migrants arrived in Europe in boats run by smugglers, who were paid a fee, not safe,
cramped (conditions were awful).
• Some didn't reach their final destination as many were overloaded and boats sank at sea.
• Syria: In 2015, half of those arriving in Europe were from Syria due to civil war.
EU migration to the UK:
• Most migrants from the EU to the UK listed work as their main reason for moving.
• Between 1992 and 2016, 2.5 million EU nationals became resident in the UK. For example by
2015 about 250,000 French people lived in London.
• 60 percent of EU migration arrived from Eastern Europe after eight counties from there joined
the EU in 2004.
• They help to fill gaps in the UK labour market.
• Move due to low wages and high unemployment figures in Eastern Europe.
• In 2016 270,000 EU citizens settled into the UK, whilst 90,000 left (net gain of 180,000).