GLOBAL MIGRATION
LECTURE 1: INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION: THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES I
What share of the world population is a migrant today?
➔ Around 3%.
IMMOBILITY PARADOX (MALMERG, 1997: 21 -22)
Why is the fast majority of people not migrating?
It is much more difficult to migrate these days.
COMPLEXITY OF MIGRATION
Definition: someone who crosses international borders / more than one year?
,MIGRANT TYPES
o Up until 1990s: temporary labour migrants, settler-migrant and refugees
o Post-Fordism
o Time-space compression
o Globalisation
➔ New forms of migration and mobility
THEORIES OF MIGRATION: DETERMINIST THEORIES
Ravenstein’s laws
o Journal of the Royal Statistical Society 1885 and 1889
o Influence on neo-classical approaches
o ‘Methodological individualism’: the individuals are the units of analysis, not families or countries.
o Sub-national census data
o Categorization into ‘short-distance’, ‘stage-migrants’, ‘long-journey’ and ‘temporary migrants’: avoids
homogenization of different forms of migration
o Certain economic determinism
1. Most migrants migrate short distances to ‘absorption centres’
2. Rural area → urban area → rural depopulation → migrants towards rural areas from further away
3. ‘absorption’(in-migration) at the expense of ‘dispersion’ (out-migrantion)
4. Each migration stream has a counterstream
, 5. Long-distance migrants head to great centres of commerce and industry
6. Those in rural areas migrate more compared to those in urban areas
7. Women migrate more, particularly short distances
Values?
1. Migration may indeed be partly determined by economic factors.
2. Categories of migrants that are still relevant today
3. Economically dynamic cities are absorption centres (Sassen)
4. ‘Birds of passage are also women’ (Morokvaic, 1984)
5. Suggestion of ‘push-pull factors’
PUSH-FULL FRAMEWORK
o Originates in Ravenstein’s laws
o Adaptation Everett Lee:
o Origin
o Destination
o Obstacles
o Individual characteristics
Examples: Bolivia, France, Syria
NEOCLASSICAL THEORIES
o First used to explain internal rather than international migration
o Particular focus on migration from poorer to richer countries
o Macro-level: unequal division capital and labour
➔ Conversion in the long-term: wages in rural areas go up, in urban areas go down
o Micro-level: rational individuals, homo economicus, ‘perfect’ information
Criticism: people are not 100% rational, why is 97% not a migrant, think about obstacles.
LECTURE 2: INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION: THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES II
BEHAVIOURALIST APPROACHES
, o Also focus on individuals, but did not adhere to idea that all individuals migrated for reasons relating
to wage differentials
o Particular focus on migrant’s cognition and decision-making (or the psychological reasons) and why
they choose a particular destination
o Apparent irrationality of migration decisions and destination choice
o Degree of stress in emigration country
o Julian Wolpert (1965)
o Place-utility → move to where they get the highest satisfaction, bv family
o ‘Satisficers’ instead of ‘maximizers’
NEW ECONOMICS OF MIGRATION
o Focus on households, family inversion
o Migration from developing countries to developed countries
o Diversification income & risk spread (remittances): the family stays where they are and the migrant
sends money home
o Reference groups (‘relative deprivation’ rather than absolute poverty): not absolute poverty is driving
migration, but referencing to other groups
o ‘Relative deprivation’ in Sociology
o Robert Merton (1938): use of relative deprivation to understand social deviance
o Walter Runciman (1966):
o Person A does not have X
o Person A knows other persons that have X
o Person A wants to have X
o Person A believes obtaining X is realistic
o Egoistic vs Fraternalistic (group deprivation) relative deprivation: egoistic particularly drives
migration
Example on relative deprivation: Chitwan Valley (Bhandari, 2004)
→ the more farm land you have, the more power you have. 80% is working in agriculture. 23.9% of the farming
households send individuals abroad to find work. Those who have lower land, are much more likely to migrate.
o Criticism:
o Not applicable everywhere
LECTURE 1: INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION: THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES I
What share of the world population is a migrant today?
➔ Around 3%.
IMMOBILITY PARADOX (MALMERG, 1997: 21 -22)
Why is the fast majority of people not migrating?
It is much more difficult to migrate these days.
COMPLEXITY OF MIGRATION
Definition: someone who crosses international borders / more than one year?
,MIGRANT TYPES
o Up until 1990s: temporary labour migrants, settler-migrant and refugees
o Post-Fordism
o Time-space compression
o Globalisation
➔ New forms of migration and mobility
THEORIES OF MIGRATION: DETERMINIST THEORIES
Ravenstein’s laws
o Journal of the Royal Statistical Society 1885 and 1889
o Influence on neo-classical approaches
o ‘Methodological individualism’: the individuals are the units of analysis, not families or countries.
o Sub-national census data
o Categorization into ‘short-distance’, ‘stage-migrants’, ‘long-journey’ and ‘temporary migrants’: avoids
homogenization of different forms of migration
o Certain economic determinism
1. Most migrants migrate short distances to ‘absorption centres’
2. Rural area → urban area → rural depopulation → migrants towards rural areas from further away
3. ‘absorption’(in-migration) at the expense of ‘dispersion’ (out-migrantion)
4. Each migration stream has a counterstream
, 5. Long-distance migrants head to great centres of commerce and industry
6. Those in rural areas migrate more compared to those in urban areas
7. Women migrate more, particularly short distances
Values?
1. Migration may indeed be partly determined by economic factors.
2. Categories of migrants that are still relevant today
3. Economically dynamic cities are absorption centres (Sassen)
4. ‘Birds of passage are also women’ (Morokvaic, 1984)
5. Suggestion of ‘push-pull factors’
PUSH-FULL FRAMEWORK
o Originates in Ravenstein’s laws
o Adaptation Everett Lee:
o Origin
o Destination
o Obstacles
o Individual characteristics
Examples: Bolivia, France, Syria
NEOCLASSICAL THEORIES
o First used to explain internal rather than international migration
o Particular focus on migration from poorer to richer countries
o Macro-level: unequal division capital and labour
➔ Conversion in the long-term: wages in rural areas go up, in urban areas go down
o Micro-level: rational individuals, homo economicus, ‘perfect’ information
Criticism: people are not 100% rational, why is 97% not a migrant, think about obstacles.
LECTURE 2: INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION: THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES II
BEHAVIOURALIST APPROACHES
, o Also focus on individuals, but did not adhere to idea that all individuals migrated for reasons relating
to wage differentials
o Particular focus on migrant’s cognition and decision-making (or the psychological reasons) and why
they choose a particular destination
o Apparent irrationality of migration decisions and destination choice
o Degree of stress in emigration country
o Julian Wolpert (1965)
o Place-utility → move to where they get the highest satisfaction, bv family
o ‘Satisficers’ instead of ‘maximizers’
NEW ECONOMICS OF MIGRATION
o Focus on households, family inversion
o Migration from developing countries to developed countries
o Diversification income & risk spread (remittances): the family stays where they are and the migrant
sends money home
o Reference groups (‘relative deprivation’ rather than absolute poverty): not absolute poverty is driving
migration, but referencing to other groups
o ‘Relative deprivation’ in Sociology
o Robert Merton (1938): use of relative deprivation to understand social deviance
o Walter Runciman (1966):
o Person A does not have X
o Person A knows other persons that have X
o Person A wants to have X
o Person A believes obtaining X is realistic
o Egoistic vs Fraternalistic (group deprivation) relative deprivation: egoistic particularly drives
migration
Example on relative deprivation: Chitwan Valley (Bhandari, 2004)
→ the more farm land you have, the more power you have. 80% is working in agriculture. 23.9% of the farming
households send individuals abroad to find work. Those who have lower land, are much more likely to migrate.
o Criticism:
o Not applicable everywhere
