Week 8 HT08

1
Sociology of Industrial Societies
International migration and industrial development
Week 8 HT08
2
International migration and industrial
development

• Lecture plan
• Historical trends in international migration
• Contemporary patterns of international migration
• The drivers of contemporary international
  migration flows
• Forces pushing people to migrate away from
  developing countries
• Forces pulling migrants towards industrial
  societies
• The perpetuation of international migration flows

International migration and industrial development
Week 8 HT08
3
Historical trends in international migration the
colonial era

• Large-scale migration during the colonial era
• of European colonizers, esp. to Americas, also
  Oceania Africa
• of enslaved Africans and indentured Asian
  labourers, esp. to North America

Source Castles and Miller 2003
International migration and industrial development
Week 8 HT08
4
Historical trends in international migration
industrial era

• Continued migration during industrial era
• within Europe, and from Europe to the Americas
  during industrialization
• then to Europe, esp. from Asia and North Africa
  during period of full-on industrialism

Source Castles and Miller 2003
International migration and industrial development
Week 8 HT08
5
Historical trends in international migration
global era

• Migration flows stronger than ever in global era
• to North America, esp. from Central and South
  America, and China
• to Europe from former colonies in S. America,
  Caribbean, India, N. Africa

Source Castles and Miller 2003
International migration and industrial development
Week 8 HT08
6
Contemporary patterns of international migration

• Substantial migration away from developing and
  towards developed world post-WWII

Source United Nations 2004
International migration and industrial development
Week 8 HT08
7
Contemporary patterns of international migration

• Migration projections indicate
• continued movement from industrializing to
  industrialized world
• Major countries of net immigration those in North
  America, Europe and Oceania
• Major countries of net emigration those in
  Central America and Asia

Source United Nations 2004
International migration and industrial development
Week 8 HT08
8
Contemporary patterns of international migration

• Immigration growth means increasingly diverse
  populations of industrial societies

Source Migration Information Source
International migration and industrial development
Week 8 HT08
9
Drivers of international migration push forces

• Global spread of trade and industrialization
  pushes workers in developing societies to
  migrate
• World systems theory (e.g. Wallerstein 1976)
• Dialectical interaction between industrialized
  core and pre-industrial/industrializing periphery
• Spread of industrial capitalism through trade and
  investment disrupts and transforms existing
  social/economic arrangements in peripheral
  societies
• Development means displacement of people from
  their customary livelihoods, and creation of
  mobile population of workers actively searching
  for new ways of earning income, managing risk and
  acquiring capital
• Neoclassical macroeconomic theory
• (e.g. Lewis 1954)
• Low wages in developing countries because
• large supply of labour relative to capital
• High wages in developed countries because
• limited supply of labour relative to capital

International migration and industrial development
Week 8 HT08
10
Drivers of international migration pull forces

• Post-industrial transformations in advanced
  industrial societies pull in migrant workers
• Neoclassical microeconomics (e.g. Todaro 1969)
• Workers decide to migrate on basis of calculation
  of comparative utility of migration versus
  staying put P(B-C)
• New economics of labour migration (e.g. Stark and
  Bloom 1985)
• Minimal insurance and credit systems in
  developing countries requires collective strategy
  to manage risk and gain access to capital as well
  as to maximize income
• Households diversify their labour portfolios by
  sending
• members to work abroad
• Dual labour market theory (e.g. Piore 1979)
• Advanced industrial societies tend towards
  bifurcated
• labour markets high-wage jobs in primary
  sector, and
• low-wage jobs in secondary sector

International migration and industrial development
Week 8 HT08
11
The perpetuation of international migration flows

• Migration flows tend to create conditions
  favourable to their perpetuation
• Cumulative causation theory (e.g. Myrdal 1957)
• in sending country, emigration promotes feelings
  of relative deprivation, changes peoples tastes
  and motivations at individual/community level,
  reduces demand for agricultural labour, depletes
  human capital
• in receiving country, immigration
• reinforces labelling of low-wage
• jobs as immigrant jobs and
• thus demand for immigrants to
• fill them
• Social capital theory
• (e.g. Massey et al 1987)
• Migrant networks and ties
• provide valuable sources of
• information and assistance,
• modifying P(B-C) calculation

Source Palloni et al 2001
International migration and industrial development
Week 8 HT08
12
International migration and industrial
development

• International migration reshapes the globe

World map showing territory size relative to net
immigration in 2000
Source Worldmapper.org
International migration and industrial development
Week 8 HT08