Development Economics Term Paper (Shakeel & Hassan)...3

8/4/2019 Development Economics Term Paper (Shakeel & Hassan)...3

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Quote:

“For migration to have its full developmentalimpact, the most beneficial policy change would

be to reduce barriers to migration, at all levels

and particularly for the poorest.”

Richard Black

Director, Development Research Centre

On Migration, Globalization and Poverty



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Introduction

Human international migration is physical movement of people from one defined

boundary area to another, over long distances. Those people who are involved inmigration are known as migrants or more specifically, emigrants, immigrants, or settlers,depending on the circumstances and situation.

Globalization and Migration:

These days migration is a topic which is most widely discussed for better livelihoodopportunities in developing countries, at the present moment, movement of people and

migration of nationals from one country to another become a normal practice. Such high

level of migration results in prominent demographic, ethnical, socio-economic and

cultural changes in the world.

The recent trend in world economy known as globalization is a factor which is

accelerating migration. Most of the countries are involved in this process and tend todevelop international relations on all levels, including cultural, political and economic

specially, since globalization is mainly an economic phenomenon that led to globalization

of international relations on all other levels. The course of globalization has theinvolvement of all states of the world with exceptions like Northern Korea, or other

countries mostly communist states that tend to remain distant from the rest of the world.

Globalization as the defining factor of migration:

Globalization is the determining factor of migration therefore to understand the process

of migration one has to understand the role of globalization in it and its effects. With a

rapid progress of science and technologies in 1980s along with a quick development of some countries globalization started. Later, in 1990 it became a global phenomenon as

the process became clearer. The development of informational technologies, Internet andtelecommunications had a prominent contribution in this process. As a result of

globalization there are many international organizations like WTO as well as regional

organization like SAARC and ASEAN organizations, in the modern world, all of themare looking forward at increasing the process of globalization and faster development of

economic cooperation between countries. In such a situation geographical boundariesbetween countries tend to disappear and as a result hurdles on the way of migrants arediminished.

Globalization seems remove barriers between nations and increase of the level of economic and social interaction between countries globally. If we talk about the spirit of

globalization in a comprehensive manner, one idea about globalization is common

worldwide that globalization is increased by economic specialization of different



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countries. Each country tends to occupy its own position in the global market and sell the

products or services it is the most competitive in (theory of comparative advantage).

History bears evidence that people have always been mobile but the current era of

globalization – the growing economic and social interdependence of countries

worldwide – is motivating people to move across the boundaries. People are now awareof opportunities around the globe and they know how to catch up the opportunities.

Globalization has inspired international trade and put a quality on mobility, especially

skilled populations.

Developed economies have the demand of labor and the developing economies have the

surplus of labor force. Labor (both men and women) from developing countries aremeeting the demand for skilled and semiskilled or low-skilled labor in more developed

economies. Many local nationals in developed countries are reluctant to do the low paid

jobs but the migrants regardless of their skill level fulfill these low paid, low skilled jobs.

Where there is an economic need for migrant labor in developed and faster-growing

economies, well planned and well managed migration could benefit sending countriesand countries of destination as well.

Recent trends of international migration:

The current period of increased international trade is part of an era of globalization

characterized by wide-ranging flows of capital, goods, raw materials, and information.

Though the roots of the contemporary era of globalization lie in the end of the Second

World War, until 1990 due to the Cold War, globalization could not reach its fullpotential. The end of the Cold War finally allowed the global economy to reach to the

stage of development it had reached before WW-1.

Since then we have witnessed a progress towards laissez-faire, democracy, the formation

of secure international institutions, an acceleration of free trade, and a new global

security regime guaranteed by the super power of unipolar world, United States. UnderU.S. domination, markets for land, commodities, capital, goods, raw materials, and

information have globalized as never before, and once again the resulting flows are

accompanied by rising volume of international migration rooted with structuraltransformation and integration into the global marketplace.

Types of migrants (people who migrate):

1. Immigrants: An immigrant is a person who once resided somewhere else andnow lives in your country.

2. Emigrants: An emigrant leaves their land to live in another country. The person

is emigrating to another country



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3. Settlers: These are people who decide to live permanently in their new country.

Most head to United States, Canada and Australia from the developing countries.

4. Contract workers: Contract workers migrate to other countries on the

understanding that they will stay only for a specific period: the length of their

contract. Contract workers from developing countries mostly are to be found inthe Gulf countries.

5. Irregular migrants: Irregular migrants are those who migrants through illegalchannels without having passports or visa they cross borders. Sometimes called

undocumented or illegal immigrants. Millions of irregular migrants from Mexico

are residing in USA.

6. Asylum seekers: Those people who migrate because they feel that the place

where they are residing is not safe from them in context of life threats to them.

They seek asylum in any other country to escape danger.

7. Refugees: A person or a group who is residing outside the country of his or her

origin due to fear of harassment for reasons of race, religion, nationality,membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.

Types of migration (process of migrating):

1. Internal Migration: Moving to a new home within a state, country, or continent.

2. External Migration: Moving to a new home in a different state, country, orcontinent.

3. Involuntary migration: When a government forces a large group of people outof a region, usually based on ethnicity or religion. This is also known as

population transfer.

4. Impelled Migration: Individuals are not forced out of their country, but leave

because of unfavorable situations such as warfare, political problems, or religious

persecution.

5. Chain Migration: Chain migration is a series of migrations within a family in

which initially one family member migrates who sends money back to bring other

family members one by one.

6. Return Migration: Return migration also known as Circular migration is the

voluntary movements of immigrants back to their place of origin.

7. Seasonal Migration: The process of moving for a period of time in response to

labor or climate conditions (e.g., farm workers following crop harvests or working

in cities off-season)



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Theories of migration

Lee’s push-pull theory: Lee’s push and pull theory of migration divide factorscausing migration into two groups of factors. Push and pull factors, which are those

factors which either push people into migration or pull them to an area.

Push factors Pull factors

Not enough jobs Better living conditions

Famine or drought Political/religious freedom

Pollution Education facilities

Discrimination Better medical care

Political fear or persecution Attractive climates

Natural disasters industries

Neoclassical economic theory: This theory suggests that migration is related to the

global supply and demand factor for labor. States with deficit of labor supply and high

demand will have high wage levels that pull immigrants in from nations with a surplus of

labor.

Segmented labor market theory: According to this theory, First World economies

have a structure which demands certain level of migration. This theory gives importance

to the point that developed economies are dualistic in nature: they have a primary marketof secure, well-paid work and a secondary market of low-wage work. Segmented labor-

market theory argues that immigrants are required to fill these jobs that are necessary forthe overall economy to function but are avoided by the local population because of the

poor working conditions linked with the secondary labor market.

World systems theory: Sassen argues that international migration is a by-product of

global capitalism. Contemporary patterns of international migration tend to be from the

poor nations (periphery) to the rich nations (core) because elements linked with industrialdevelopment in the First World generated structural economic problems, and push

factors, in the Third World.



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Elements enforcing migration

There are a lot of factors which enforce people to migrate. These factors can be dividedinto 4 sub sections

i. Economic factorsii. Political factors

iii. Social factors

iv. Environmental factors

Economic factors:

Poor living conditions: Poor living conditions in underdeveloped countries

influence its dwellers to migrate in search for better living conditions. The

availability and accessibility of basic goods and services is included in livingconditions.

Industrialization: Patterns of migration in the history has proved that thosecountries which are more industrialized face more number of immigrants coming

in because when industries are growing in an area then job opportunities increases

and people migrate to these areas.

Value of profession: People migrate because the place where they are residing

their profession is less valued and they search for markets for their profession.

Inflation: Those earning low level of income normally are not able to survive in a

country where basic necessities of life are expensive and their prices are

increasing day by day. This factor normally leads to negative migration whenpeople migrate from a developed area to less developed countries.

Less job opportunities: When there is a high rate of unemployment or underemployment in a country people migrate for better job opportunities and to work

at their full potential.

Recession: for example, the global economic recession in 2008-2009 forced

many workers to migrate to other places.

Political factors:

War: When Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan thousands of Afghanis migratedto Pakistan and took refugee.



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Govt. policies: when people are not satisfied with the government policies they

often chose to migrate to other places.

Political freedom: people want to exercise their political freedom.

Human rights issues: violation of human rights is a very common cause of migration.

Infrastructure development (e.g. dams, highways): we can see thousands of cases when people migrated because their area was chosen for the construction of

any dam or highways etc.

Social factors:

Crime: People don’t wish to live in a State where there is a high crime rate and

there is a greater chance of becoming victims of crime. In order to avoid beingvictim of crimes people flee those areas where there is high crime rate.

Racism and ethnic clashes: e.g. in Kyrgyzstan large number of Uzbek people

fled and took refugee in Uzbekistan because they were being victimized on the

bases of ethnicity.

Religious freedom: People seek to migrate to those areas where they can

practice their religion and faith freely without any restrictions. Afterindependence millions of people migrated from India to Pakistan and fromPakistan to India because of this one reason, to be able to practice their religion

and faith freely.

Society culture, norms and values: People don’t tend to live in a society wherethey are not comfortable with the norms and values and this causes migration.

This factor causes circular migration when people migrate to other countries and

when they don’t find the norms and values of the host country favorable they

migrate back to their country of origin.

Environmental factors:

Famine or drought: There is solid evidence from history that countries likeIndia, China and in Africa had been frequently experiencing famines which has

led to large scale emigration from these areas.



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Natural disasters: Natural disasters like floods, earthquake, volcanic eruption,

tsunami etc cause the effected people to migrate. In some case the migration istemporary and in some case it is permanent.

Industrial accidents: For example, in Bihar, India a lot of people had to migrate

because the leak of toxic waste materials from the industries made the waterpolluted and people started moving to other safe places.

Climate change: Due to climate change and global warming glaciers in the northis melting at a very high pace leading to increase in sea levels which is creating

problems for the island countries and people are migrating from these countries at

a large scale. For example, it is said that Maldives will be half under sea water inthe next 15 to 20 years due to increase in sea levels.

Effects of migration Decline in poverty through remittances: poverty reduction: Through

remittances and other migrant activities, the incomes of individual migrants and

their families rise. Remittances help in poverty reduction as mostly in developingcountries people utilize remittances in buying agricultural land and for starting

small scale businesses.

Change in gender roles: Greater equality between men and women can occur

when women migrate and achieve more independence. Even if women do not

migrate and they only receive remittances from their migrant partners, they

become more empowered and control over the household budget and property.

Social and racial tensions: When a person migrates to any other country, he/she

is totally an alien to the new world. It needs time to adjust in the culture, normsand values of the new area. The migrant is likely to face racism and

discrimination in the new area which is a negative effect of migration.

Increase of human capital (brain gain): A positive effect of migration for the

host country is that it gets educated and skilled people which increase their human

capital and they can use the Diasporas for their development.

Change in demographic: Migration leads to change in age structure both insending countries and receiving countries. According to Regenstein’s laws of

migration mostly young people do migrate. The sending country may face thedeficit of young age group and the receiving country may find it difficult to

produce more job opportunities for the immigrants.



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Brain drain (human capital flight): When well educated and skilled workers

migrate from one place to another the receiving country suffers from brain drainwhich means loss of human capital.

Foreign investment: In many cases migrants who settle their business in other

places come back and invest in their country of origin.

Cultural diffusion: when immigrants come to a new country they ring their

culture and values in the new region this is called cultural diffusion.

Spread of diseases (e.g. swine flu): migrants also become a source of spreading

diseases like in the case of swine flu which originated in one country and thenmigrants from that country spread that to other countries as well.

Depletion of green belts (overcrowding): More migrants coming in will result in

overcrowding and that will lead to depletion of green belts as more housing will

be needed.

Social inequality: When poor people will be migrating to richer countries thiswill create social inequality in the receiving countries.

Exploitation of migrant workers: In developed countries migrants fromdeveloping countries are exploited by giving them low wages.

International migration law and migrants rights

International migration convention:

“The International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workersand of Their Families entered into force in July 2003. Its main objective is to protect

migrant workers and their families, a particularly vulnerable population, fromexploitation and the violation of their human rights”.

The Convention on Migrant Workers defines the rights of migrant workers under twomain topics:

Human Rights of migrant workers and members of their families: applicable to allmigrant workers. (legal and illegal migrants both)

Other Rights of migrant workers and members of their families: applicable only tomigrant workers in a regular situation. (only legal)



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Human rights of migrant workers and members of their families:

Basic freedoms (Article no. 9-15): freedom of mobility, freedom fromslavery or servitude, freedom of religion, sexual or physical assault, inhumane

living and working conditions etc.

Due process (Article no. 16-22): convention explains in detail the need to

ensure due process for migrant workers and their families. Investigations,

arrests and detentions are to be carried out in accordance with established

procedures in law. They must be provided with necessary legal assistance,interpreters and information in a language understood by them.

Right to privacy : A migrant worker is entitled to his or her honour andreputation and also to privacy, which extends to one's home, family and allcommunications

Equality with nationals (Article no. 25-28): Migrant workers are to betreated as equal to the nationals of the host country in respect of remunerationand conditions of work. Equality with nationals extends also to social security

benefits and emergency medical care.

Right to information: They have the right to be informed by the States

concerned about their rights arising from the present Convention as well as theconditions of their admission, and their rights and obligations in those States.

Such information should be made available to migrant workers free of charge

and in a language understood by them (Art. 33).

Transfer of earnings: migrant workers have the right to transfer theirearnings and savings as well as their personal effects and belongings on

completion of their term of employment (Art. 32).

Other rights of migrant workers and members of their families:

Right to be temporarily absent: Migrant workers should be allowed to betemporarily absent, for reasons of family needs and duties, without effect on

their authorization to stay or work.



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Freedom of movement: They should have the right to move freely in theterritory of the country of employment and they should also be free to choose

where they wish to reside (Art. 39).

Equal treatment: Migrant workers and their families must enjoy equalitywith nationals of the country where he or she is employed in the followingareas: access to education, vocational guidance and placement services,

vocational training, housing including social housing schemes, protection

against exploitation in respect of social and health services, rents, co-operatives and self-managed enterprises, access to and participation in cultural

life (Art. 43).

Employment contract violations: if the contracts are violated by thesuperiors, the migrant worker should have the right to address his or her case

to the authorities where the migrant is employed (Art. 54 (d)). They shall

have the right to equal treatment with nationals and be entitled to a fair andpublic hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal established by law

(Art. 18.1).

Making migration work for development (policy options

for effective migration):

Governments should make alliances with the private sector and NGOs to regulate

the policies of migration and the utilization of Diasporas activities for thedevelopment of the country of their origin

Government should provide incentives and help the poorest of the poor to migrateand find better livelihood options as its effect on inequality is more likely to be

positive.

Migration can both deteriorate the impact of existing gendered roles and bringabout significant changes in gender norms.

Continuing to improve the quality of data on migration will lead to better policies.

Developing countries have a large number of poorly educated people, if

governments of these countries design programs for these people to migrate into

low-skilled jobs could bring about huge poverty-reduction and developmentbenefits.



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The opportunity to travel through legal channels can significantly increase the

benefits of migrating. Governments should make policies to eliminate migrationthrough irregular channels.

Bilateral agreements between sending and receiving countries are very important

as it allows migration to meet the labor market needs of the countries involved.For developing countries this approach may be an important mechanism for

balancing their need for legal low-skilled migration and managing the outflow of

highly skilled workers.

The governments must regulate recruitment agencies. Where governments have

not yet regulated the functioning of recruitment agencies manipulative practiceshad arise. Agencies can support the movement of people through legal migration

routes and ensure their rights are respected when they function within the

appropriate legal framework.

The impact of highly skilled migration, particularly of health and educationprofessionals is important factor for the developing countries. Governments

should provide incentives to these highly skilled professionals to work withintheir country of origin and make hard emigration policies for them.

An important feature of migration is the difficulty migrants may experience inexercising their rights. They are often unaware of their rights, or unable to

exercise the full range of rights to which they are entitled. When migrants’ rightsare denied this can seriously undercut the potential benefits of movement for

individual migrants and their communities of origin. The agencies must organizeseminars for the migrants before departure in which they are told about their

rights and laws of the receiving countries.

Philippine Nurses: A Case Study

(Explaining the positive and negative socio-economic effects on both the

countries)

A clear example of migration's positive and negative economic effects on both sendingand receiving countries is that of Philippine nurses who have migrated to the United

States. With the developed world experiencing nurse shortage, U.S. hospitals have foundwell trained and experienced nurses in the Philippines. U.S. Hospitals have had notrouble in bringing nurses from Philippine to their country by offering them higher

salaries and better living standards.

In fact, in many US hospitals nurses from Philippines make majority of the nursing staff.

Philippine nurses have become an integral part of the American health system. The



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Philippine nurses’ example displays the entire phenomenon of migration and its

economic consequences.

Receiving countries gain from migration when there is a shortage in domestic labor

supply, which United States and other industrialized countries were facing because this

job requires long hours of work, high stress and due to industrialization many new jobsfor women were increasing. But well-educated, experienced and trained Philippine nurses

provided the perfect replacement. Without any increase in wage level, U.S was able to fillnecessary, hospital jobs with Philippine immigrants.

Migration of the nurses has positive economic effects for the Philippines as well. Onceemployed in the United States, the nurses were earning as much as 20 times what they

were making back home. Part of this money they send home to support family and other

dependents, this is called a remittance. The remittances flowing back into the country

from the migrant nurses helped improving the Philippine economy and support the localpopulation

Not only remittances is the positive effect but the greater amount of training and

experience they will bring when they come back is also the positive for Philippine as it

will contribute to their human capital.

Along with the positive effects there are some negatives as well. Firstly, they are leavingbehind shortage of nurses in their home country when they migrate to USA. Second, ThePhilippines experience Brain Drain when they lose one of its greatest sources of social

capital. Third, Philippine is not getting the profit from the investment the government

have made in the education and training of the nurses Infact USA is getting the benefit

which Philippine was suppose to get. Fourthly, turnover at Philippine hospitals is so high

that even operating rooms are staffed with beginner nurses.

There are some negative economic effects on the United States as well. Due to thewillingness of Philippine nurses to work at lower wages the wages of American nurses

decrease. The expenditure of the government of USA to educate and train American

nurses goes wasted as they are not able to get jobs because Philippine nurses are willingto work on lower wages then the Americans do, which is a good wage for the Philippine

nurses keeping in mind the amount they get for the same work in their home country.

Conclusion:Migration has social political and economic effects (positive and negative) on the sending

countries as well as on the receiving countries. To understand the phenomenon it isimportant to understand that what the elements that enforce migration are, and how each

factor produces a result (effects of migration) after the process. Migration must be

utilized for development of both countries involved in the process by making effectivepolicies. For the developing countries migration is considered as potential for



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development (economic growth, changing gender roles, greater equality, democratic

liberalism, etc. all comes under the term development) although its negative effect alsocan not be ignored.

Globalization has been the prime determinant in accelerating migration since the end of

cold war, global capitalist approach in economy, inter-dependency in trade and theproliferation of latest technology and means of communication has made the world a

“global village” and migration has became an essential part of this. The developed

countries have a demand for labor from the developing countries because they are willingto work on low wages; this is now on the developing countries that how they take full

advantage of this demand and make maximum benefits for individuals as well as for

national level. It is important for the governments of developing countries to makecollaborations with NGOs and international organizations to utilize the migrants and their

activities for development and promote free mobility of people, especially the poor,

rather than putting barriers in migration.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

References:

1. IOM- international organization for migration, www.iom.int

2. Globalization 101: A students guide to globalization

www.globalization101.org/issue_main/migration

3. http://web.worldbank.org , moving out of poverty

4. http://www.population-growth-migration.info/

5. www.philsol.nl/solcon/Anny-Misa.html , Globalization and migration

http://www.iom.int/

http://www.iom.int/

http://www.iom.int/

http://web.worldbank.org/


http://www.population-growth-migration.info/


http://www.philsol.nl/solcon/Anny-Misa.html





http://www.iom.int/

Development Economics Term Paper (Shakeel & Hassan)...3

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