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De Haas: International Migration, Remittances and
Development: Myths and Facts
➔ In the article:
◆ Seven migration myths
◆ unattractive investment environments and restrictive immigration policies
which interrupt circular migration patterns prevent the high development
migration from being fully realized
◆ key ‘solution’: encouraging circular migration
➔ migrants contribute significantly to the social and economic development of their
home countries
➔ reciprocal migration - development relations relationship
➔ Myths:
1. We live in an age of unprecedented migration
◆ percentage of international migrants in the total world population has been
around 2.5% to 3% in the last century
◆ migration movements changed after decolonisation and rapid growth in the
Western societies, more South-North migration, increasing visibility of
migration (culturally and physically different migrants)
◆ there were periods in history when there was more migration
1. Poverty and misery are the root causes of labour migration
◆ it’s rarely the poorest who migrate: migration involves costs and risks,
knowledge, social networks, aspiration
◆ level of socioeconomic development + relative deprivation
◆ e.g. leading emigration countries do not belong to the group of least
developed countries
2. Development policies, assistance and trade liberalization are an effective 'remedy'
against migration
◆ development tends initially to stimulate migration, enables more people to
migrate and tends to increase their aspiration
3. Brain drain
◆ not all migrants are highly skilled + brain drain seems to be only truly
massive in a minority of countries
◆ it is accompanied by brain gain: counterflow of remittances, investments,
trade relations, new knowledge, innovations, attitudes and information;
more desire to study;
, 2
◆ reason: mass unemployment among highly educated
◆ highly skilled migrants play a positive role in the societal and political debate,
the development of a civil society in countries of origin, and the emancipation
of women and minority groups, reforming domestic policies
➔ Transnationalisation of migrants' lives has also challenged assimilationist models of
migrant integration, as well as the construct of the nation-state and citizenship
◆ lives of migrants are increasingly characterised by circulation and
simultaneous commitment to two or more societies
4. Migration and remittances thought to lead to a passive and dangerous dependency
on remittances
◆ true: remittances enable migrants and their family members to invest in
agriculture and other private enterprises, increased economic activities and
wealth
◆ expenditure on housing, sanitation, health care, food and schooling =
improvements in well-being and human capital have the tendency to
increase productivity, freedom of choice and participation in public debate
◆ increase local economic activity, benefits for non-migrant households,
general prosperity in migrant-sending area
◆ Under what conditions are migration and development more positively correlated
than under others?
◆ under development constraints (bad infrastructure, corruption, red tape, a
lack of stability, the absence of appropriate public policies etc.) remittances
may lead a retreat of migrants and their families from social and economic
activities in the sending countries
5. Orientation of migrants towards countries of origin is an indication of the lack of
social and economic integration in the receiving countries' societies
◆ loyalty to sending countries is not necessarily in conflict with good
citizenship in receiving countries
◆ migrants' deeper involvement in their receiving societies does not necessarily
lead to less significant commitment to their countries of origin
➔ Remittances alone can generate take-off development
◆ Tendency to overestimate the sheer magnitude of migration and remittances
◆ Remittances have proved to be less volatile, less pro-cyclical, and more
reliable source of income than other capital flows to developing countries,
such as foreign direct investment and development aid
, 3
◆ However only less than 3% of world population are international migrants
and remittances represented only 1.3% of the total GDP of all developing
countries
◆ As migration is a selective process, the direct benefits of remittances are also
selective and do not tend to flow to the poorest members of communities
◆ Remittances do not automatically generate development and economic
growth in migrant-sending areas
◆ Restrictive immigration policies: encouraging undocumented migration and
the permanent settlement of migrants, while interrupting patterns of circular
migration
➔ Linking immigration and development policies
◆ relation between migration and development is most concretely manifested
at the individual, household and community level
◆ improve the legal position of migrants and improve the general social and
political - economic circumstances in the sending countries
◆ If the investment climate and legal security show structural improvements,
migrants are far more likely to remain actively involved, to invest and to
travel and return to sending countries
◆ migration is by no means a substitute for good governance by governments of
migrant-sending countries
➔ discrepancy between the aim of development agencies to help the poorest people and
the poorest countries and the aim of creating a link between migration and
development policies, because migrants are generally not the poorest members of
communities
➔ another discrepancy between the restrictive immigration policies of
migrant-receiving countries and their wish to stimulate circular and return
migration
6. States are able to 'manage', largely control or stop migration,
➔ the goals of restrictive immigration policies as pursued by most Western states are
generally unrealistic, and therefore tend to have counterproductive results
➔ borders are largely beyond control and little can be done to really cut down on
immigration
➔ A higher-than-present level of migration control seems almost impossible without
drastically curtailing civil and human rights
➔ Transnational migration networks tend to facilitate continuing labour, family and
undocumented migration over formally closed borders
➔ There is also a real and persistent demand for migrant labour in the developing world
, 4
➔ migration is an inextricable component of more general development processes
➔ temporary workers? end up staying permanently, because of the rights they acquire
over time, or simply because their employers do not want them to leave
➔ the tighter the immigration controls to prevent this, the greater the incentive to stay
and settle in order to secure access to work
◆ paradoxical results: preventing people working so that they would not
become citizens forced them to become citizens in order to work
➔ severe restrictions on labour immigration tend to encourage the permanent
settlement of migrants while interrupting patterns of circular migration
➔ the key to encouraging circular migration is to give migrants the genuine right and
opportunity to migrate again if the return is unsuccessful
Video: Effects of Migration in Migrant Countries of Origin
➔ micro level effects (individual, household)
◆ reducing poverty, increasing education, living standards, health
◆ absence of caregiver: effect on school attendence and wellbeing of childre
who may have to step up and complete household duties or work
➔ meso level effect (community)
◆ transnational ties: knowledge sharing, sometimes conflict
➔ macro level effects (country, region)
◆ positive effect of economy
◆ migration may drive wages up
➔ mechanisms of migration
◆ monetary remittances
◆ social remittances: norms, values, knowledge transfers
Geddes & Scholten: Analyzing the Politics of Migration and
Immigration in Europe
➔ how international migration in its various forms (to work, to join family, to seek
refuge and to study) affects European politics and societies
➔ European countries have long histories of immigration and emigration
➔ territorial borders as well as social organization within states, labour markets and
welfare states, play a central role in the constitution of immigration as a social and
political issue: how we ‘see’ and understand immigration
➔ ‘conceptual’ boundaries of membership, relations between ‘us’ and ‘them’
