Global Economy and BusinessMOBILITY AND MIGRATION

• Prof.ssa Luisa Natale• http://www.docente.unicas.it/

luisa_natale/

• Email oli59@mclink.it

MOBILITY AND MIGRATION

•THEORIES AND INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION

THEORIES

1. The Economic approach 2. The Sociological

approach3. The mobility transition4. The Contribution of

political science

1. The economic approach

“The migration of workers is caused by differences in the

supply of and demand for labour in different locations”

(A. Smith)

An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of

Nations), 1776

The economic approach1. The Neoclassical Theory of

migration2. The New Economic of Migration3. Family Migration and

Selectivity of Migration 4. The Dual Labour Market Theory5. The World System Theory

1. The Neoclassical Theory of Migration

Main proponent: Hicks (1932)

The existence of wage differential across the space is the main cause of immigration

1. The Neoclassical Theory of migration

Main proponent: Harris-Todaro (1976)• Level of analysis: macro• Type of migration: internal or international

labour migration• These studies argue that migrants make a

rational decision by moving in the direction where they are expected to get the highest benefits

• As a result of that movements, the supply of labour decreases and wages rise in the countries of origin, the supply of labour increases and wages fall in the countries of destination, leading eventually to a new equilibrium. At that point international migration ceases

1. The Neoclassical Theory of migration (to be continued)

• Micro counterpart• Migrant is a racional actor and decides to

migrates on the basis of cost-benefit calculations

• People move to wherever their skill can be more productive. They must invest in their migration wich involves tangibile and intangibile costs (cost of travel, of research of job, of adaptation to a new enviroment)

Net returns (NT)

• NT are estimated as the difference between expected earnings in the country of destination and expected earnings in the country of origin

• The subtraction of estimated costs leads to a measure of the expected gains from migration

Expected earnings in the country of destination

Expected earnings in the country of destination estimated on the basis of an individual’s skills multiplied by the probability that individual gets a job at destination

Expected earnings in the country of origin

Expected earnings in the country of origin estimated on the basis of an individual’s skills multiplied by the probability that individual gets a job at country of origin

Limitations

• This theory does not take into account the international political and economic environment, as well as the effects of state level economic and political decisions that influence individual decision regarding migration (Papademetriou and Martin 1991).

• There is homogeneity of skills between area of origin and area of destination. The labour is completely interchangeable. It’s true?

• Level of analysis: macro• Unit of analysis: country

2. The New Economics of Migration

Main proponent: Stark and Taylor (1989) • This theory assumes that people act,

within households or families, to maximize expected income and to minimize risks by diversifying the allocation of family labour

• Households diversify risks

• Remittances can also help the community of origin

2. The New Economic of Migration (to be continued

•Migration is considered to be particularly important in developing countries where capital markets are week, many people do not have access to banking services

2. The New Economic of Migration (to be continued

•Household send family members to work abroad

•to improve income in absolute terms

•to increase income relative to others households in a reference group

2. The New Economics of Migration (to be continued

•If in a community the income of aflluent households increases, whereas that of poor households remains unchanged the relative deprivation of the latter increases and their incentive to partecipate in international migration rises as well, even if no change in expected wages takes place.

2. The New Economics of Migration

• Limitations:• The studies available focus on the

experience of just a handful of rural communities, which are not selected to be representative of the whole population

• Level of analisys: micro• Unit of analysis: family

3. Family Migration and Selectivity of Migration

Main proponent: Mincer (1978) • Movements of complete family.• Difference between the individual’s and the

couple’s optimal strategy depends on the degree of correlation in the gains from migration of the husband and wife. When there is perfect correlation do the optimal strategies of the individual and the married couple coincide.–

• Level of analysis :micro• Unit of analysis : family/couple

3. Family Migration and Selectivity of Migration

• If income inequality is greater at place of destination,

• “People with higher than average skills have an incentive to migrate because they can earn a higher relative wage in area of destination”.

• If income inequality is greater at place of origin, such person have less incentive to migrate than those with lower skill

. Family Migration and Selectivity of Migration

•When married couples are considered, the selectivity effects weakens because some low-skilled who would not have migrated on their own to a place with a high level of income inequality may do so if they are married to skilled person

“… migration is the result of rational choices made by

individual or family”

According to :

• The neoclassic economic theory of migration

• The new economics of migration

4. The Dual Labor Market Theory

Main proponent: Piore (1979) • International migration is mainly the

product of international force that transcend individual choice and set constraints on it.

• International migration results from a permanent demand of foreign labour that is inherent to the economic structure of developed countries

• Structural constraints at destination reduce social mobility

• Level of analysis: macro• Unit of analysis: country

4. The Dual Labor Market Theory

Main proponent: Piore (1979)

•Several factors contribute to create

structural demand for foreign workers

4. The Dual Labor Market Theory

Main proponent: Piore (1979)• A) Wages not only reflect condition of supply and

demand. • They also confer status and prestige. Consequently

to preserve an established occupational hierarchy, wages cannot simply respond freely to changes in the supply of workers.

• Employers seeking to attract unskilled workers cannot for jobs at the botton of hierarchy cannot simply raise wages because by so doing they would change the defined relationships between status and reminaration

• The cheaper solution the importation of foreign workers to work for low wages.

•

4. The Dual Labor Market Theory

Main proponent: Piore (1979)

• B) Wages not only reflect condition of supply and demand, Foreign workers from low income countries are usually willing to satisfy that need because even a low wage in developed country can be several time greater than the average wage in developing country

4. The Dual Labor Market Theory

Main proponent: Piore (1979)• Coexistence of a capital intensive

primary sector and of a labour intensive secondary sector. Segmented labour market. Workers in second and or in low-productivity be laid off at any time. They became the means of adjustment during cyclical downturns. Experience of labour importing countries of Europe during the late 1950s and 1960s through official recruitment programs. Ethnic enclaves

Migration theories and the role of demographic factors

• One exception: the dual labour market theory (Piore 1979, Massey et al. 1993)

emphasis on the socio-demographic dynamics of the labour force as a factor shaping demand for migrant labour

supply in the ‘secondary’ labour market provided by specific socio-demographic groups: women (before marriage or first birth), teenagers and rural-urban migrants

5. The World System Theory Main proponent: Wallerstein

(1970/80)

World-system refers to the international division of labor, which divides the world into core countries, semi-periphery countries periphery countries.

5. The World System Theory

The core

, The Core is the place where resources and wealth masses. The Core has high technological development and it creates complex technological products

•Core countries focus on higher skill, capital-intensive production

The core

• Europe gained control over most of the world economy, presiding over the development and spread of industrialization and capitalist economy, indirectly resulting in unequal development

• Demand for cheap labor arises (agricolture, service base, etc.)

The core

Unites States and Europe gained control over most of the world economy, presiding over the development and spread of industrialization and capitalist economy, indirectly resulting in unequal development

2012

The Periphery

•The source of cheap labour, raw minerals and agricultural products that serve the Core.

•focuses on low-skill, labor-intensive production and extraction of raw materials

From the Periphery to the Core

• In the peripheral countries, the commercialization of agricultural production leads to land consolidation, the substitution of cash crops for staples

• Mechanization of agricultural reduces the labour demand

• Rural-urban migration in peripheral area

From the Periphery (PA) to the Core

Growing urban labour force in PA difficult to absorb

↓Rise in unemployment/underemployment

↓Marginalisation of many families →

Unmet labour demand in Core →

PA → Core international migration

2. The Sociological approach

Main proponent: Lee

• Conceptual approaches in migration research include push and pull factors as determinants to explain contemporary migrations.

• Both areas of origin and destination are characterized by sets of positive factors (pull factors), or forces of attraction, and negative factors (push factors), or forces of repulsion

Push factors (1)

caused by a variety of reasons:

• economic causes – income inequality between developing and developed countries -

• demographic causes - Population pressure in area leads to out migration

• political changes, for example the collapse Berlin’s Wall (1989)

Push factors (2)

• geographical causes as proximity, migration is an inverse function of distance;

• evaluation of place utilities and disutilities plays an important role in migration decision

Macro explanations

1. Push/Pull factors

- Demographic imbalances– Economics imbalances– Political factors

In the origin country

Sustained demographic growth high potential labour supply

Unemployment, underemployment, low lyfe style

High pressure towards emigration 42

• Diagram 1 Diagram 1

Pull factors

caused by a variety of reasons:

• Segmented Demand labour market – low skilled

• Migratory chain, Family riunification

• Weak immigration law system (no boundaries control)

ContemporaryMigration

Pullfactors

Pushfactors

Segmented Demand labour

market – low skilled

Weak immigration law systemMigratory chaine,

Family riunification

Black market

Economic reasons

Population pressure in area leads to out

migration

Political changeDemographic reasons

Income inequalitybetween developed

countries anddeveloping countries

Asylum seeking

The collapse Berlin’sWall, 1989

Geographical proximity

Economic reasons

Some lessons from the literature• There is limited theoretical understanding and

empirical evidence of the impact of demographic trends on migration. Emphasis on demography as a ‘push’ factor

• Demographic ‘pull’ forces have been particularly neglected

• A demographic gap is neither necessary nor sufficient for migration to take place

• The socio-demographic composition of the workforce matters more than overall numbers

Network approach

• Network connections can be considered as a form of social capital that people can draw to gain information, material or psychological support

• to facilitate migration and the adaption process.

• Level of analysis: micro

• Unit of analysis: individual

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Is there any correspondance between labour workforce demand countries and attractives

immigration countries?

• Attractive countries: politically stable, high quality of life

• Countries with high attractiveness doesn’t necessary correspond to countries with high migrants need

• Countries with high migrants need, but Japan, are in Europe

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3. The mobility transition

• See chapter Theories 3.a

Mobility Transition Model

↑ ↓

Demographic Transition Model

WORK OF THE INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR THE SCIENTIFIC STUDIES OF POPULATION (IUSSP), 1992

PREMISES

A ) MIGRATION CREATES A UNIFIED SPACE, ENCOMPASSING PLACES OFORIGIN AND PLACES OF ARRIVAL

B) MIGRATION IS NOT THE ONLY PROCESS LINKING AREAS OF ORIGIN AND DESTINATION AND IS CLOSELY ASSOCIATED WITH OTHER PROCESS, OFTEN OF LONG HISTORICAL GESTATION (ECONOMIC, CULTURAL… LINKAGES) C) THIS PROCESS MODIFY THE CONDITIONS IN BOTH AREAS GIVING RISE TO FEEDBACK MECHANISMS TO TRASFORM THE INITIAL PROCESSES (CHANGES IN MAGNITUDE AND CHARACTERISTICS)

4.The systems approach (Kritz,1992)

OTHER PREMISES…

D) STATES PLAYS A CRUCIAL ROLE IN DETERMINING INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION FLOWS

E) IT IS NECESSARY TO IDENTIFY THE MECHANISMS THAT INFLUENCE THE INDIVIDUAL CHOICES (MIGRANT NETWORKS)

4.The systems approach (Kritz,1992)

A GROUP OF COUNTRIES MAY BE CONSIDERED AS A SYSTEM WHEN THEY ...

A) … CAN BE IDENTIFIED AS ATTRACTION POLES FOR MIGRANTS OR AS SOURCES OF MIGRANTS

B) … THE MIGRATION FLOWS CONVERGING TO COUNTRIES OF DESTINATION SHOULD SHOW CONSIDERABLE OVERLAP IN TERMS OF THE COUNTRIES OF ORIGIN INVOLVED

C) … SAME LEVEL OF DEVELOPMENT, HIGH DEGREE OF CULTURAL AFFINITY

D) … COHERENCE IN THE POLICIES

4.The systems approach (Kritz,1992)

THE DEFINITION

“THE CONCEPTUALIZATION OF A MIGRATION SYSTEM AS A NETWORK OF COUNTRIES LINKEDBY MIGRATION INTERACTIONS WHOSE DYNAMICS ARE LARGELY SHAPED BY THE FUNCTIONING OF A VARIETY OF NETWORKS LINKING MIGRATION ACTORS AT DIFFERENT LEVEL OF AGGREGATIONS”

4.The systems approach (Kritz,1992)