Economic migration and globalisation - Essay Example

Economic migration and globalisation Introduction This paper analyses the issue of economic migration in the world today. The terms globalisation and economic migration are defined and different types of economic migration are described. The theoretical perspective known as positive globalist approach is explained and then its links with the topic of economic migration are explored. The strengths and weaknesses of the positive globalist approach are then evaluated. Definition of Key Terms Globalisation can be defined as “the intensification of worldwide social relations and interactions such that distant events acquire very localized impacts and vice versa” (Held and McGrew, 2007, p. 2). In the present study the economic interactions and effects of globalisation are the particular focus, but clearly globalisation embraces much more than this dimension. Economic migration is a term used to describe the movement of people from one place to another, often across the borders of nation states, in order to obtain better economic opportunities for themselves and their families. It can take many forms, from the Gastarbeiter model used by Germany in the aftermath of the Second World War (Castles and Miller, 2009, p. 70), in which mainly working men travelled to work, to the very recent movements of Polish, Croatian and other Eastern European workers into Western Europe in order to take advantage of higher wages. It covers also or the illegal immigrations that trouble the USA across its long border with Mexico and can even apply to movement which have an element of coercion and organised crime behind them, since those who take part in illegal drug and people trafficking operations, both as perpetrators and victims, are often looking for opportunities to obtain a higher standard of living than is available in their home situation. The positive globalist theoretical perspective Some supporters of globalisation such as Stiglitz (2002, 2007) emphasise the positives in this phenomenon while at the same time acknowledging that perennial human problems are not going to be resolved overnight thanks to the new interconnectedness of the world. Many aspects of life which are taken for granted by modern workers, such as for example instant communication at low prices, or even free of charge once the infrastructure for the internet is in place, would have been unimaginable even fifty years ago. Increased knowledge about the world fosters curiosity and travel, for leisure, education and work, and this has created a global shift in human consciousness which now cannot be reversed. Migration has been encouraged by the operation of international labour markets and by the freer flows of goods between countries. International transport improvements have made it physically possible to reach more parts of the world easily, and international competition among airlines has produced a well differentiated market for travel from budget to business and elite classes. These processes have brought immeasurable benefits to societies across the world. Economic migration Migration has been a feature of the human experience since well before the beginning of written history, as individuals, groups and larger tribes were either pulled by desire to find more resources and better living conditions, or pushed by factors such natural disaster, war, and climate change. The age of Western colonial expansion, fuelled by new technologies in the building of sailing ships to travel long distances and carry large cargoes, marks the beginnings of a move towards globalisation (Hobsbawm, 1979) but there were similar expansionist periods in the ancient word also, with their own international trade networks passing goods and slaves over long distances. There is therefore nothing particularly new about significant movements of people from place to place. In the modern world however it is clear that the scale and speed of human movements across the globe has increased and that some of the patterns that have emerged in this movement are causing difficulty to migrants, host countries and the countries of origin also. Giddens (1991) highlights the role of culture in this context and makes the case that there is something inherent in modernity itself that encourages globalisation. Features of the modernity such as simultaneity, reflexivity and a reliance on technology in many areas of life have resulted in people and organisations having much broader horizons. A major implication of this perspective is a new realisation that the massive and multi-directional exchange of labour and goods and especially the flow of ideas across huge distances has caused an irreversible opening of new possibilities for millions who were previously trapped in the grinding poverty of subsistence economies. It has been pointed out that there is a difference between a world economy, which has been evident from the colonial age right up to the middle of the twentieth century, and a global economy, which has only been evident in the last forty years or so (Castells, 2010). A truly global economy has “the capacity to work as a unit in real time, or chosen time, on a planetary scale” (Castells, 2010). What this means in practice is that events which occur in one continent can very speedily affect people in another continent in all kinds of ways. So, for example, when a particular country or region experiences a significant climactic variation which causes a major increase or decrease in the availability of a product which is in demand somewhere else (products such as coffee or illegal drugs, for example) then the effects can be both local and global at the same time. Scarcity and surplus produce price rises, which in turn produce positive and negative impacts on producers and consumers, in which there are always some winners and some losers. The global economy thus magnifies ordinary economic effects can this can trigger economic migration as people try to move to the most favourable location in which to live and work. Strengths and weaknesses of the positive globalist approach Economic migration takes many forms along a spectrum ranging from formal emigration and immigration, refugee and asylum seeker migration, illegal migration, human trafficking, and even the emergence of a modern slave trade. These pathways are all enhanced by globalisation and the lives of many millions of people have been transformed for the better as a result. The positivist globalist approach explains why this trend has been successful, and makes explicit some assumptions that are simply taken for granted by most people in the modern age. There are, however, a few weaknesses in the positive globalisation position which must be mentioned in order to avoid over-simplification of the issues discussed above in relation to economic migration and its global effects. Some theorists of globalisation dispute either the true extent of globalisation in the modern world, or the broadly positive nature of its effects. Dicken (2003), for example, notes that there are still many barriers between different nation states, and that this means that there is only partial integration of economic activity across the world. Multi- national companies exist to maximise the benefits of the global economic system, and they often compete with nation states to control the flows of resources in ways that benefit the rich, mostly in the northern hemisphere, more than the poor who are mostly in the south. There are also many areas of the world which are excluded from the global market, or which through poverty, or political differences, or lack of infrastructure cannot participate on anything like equal terms with developed countries who control the mechanisms for world trade through umbrella organisation like the WTO. Flows of people can be overwhelming and great human suffering is a feature of this process for many people (Cohen and Deng, 1998). These practical observations do have merit, and they represent a valid qualification of the positive globalist position, in so far as they bring theorists back to a rather messy real world in which nothing works perfectly, and there are always good and bad consequences of any human action. In fact any market situation, however large or small, will result in relative winners and losers because of the dynamic effects of supply, demand and competition (Dehasa, 2006). These mixed effects do not, however, detract from the value of the positivist globalist theory. For every negative and harmful consequence of globalisation, such as for example the increased susceptibility to major market fluctuation and financial crisis which has been witnessed very recently on a global scale, there are also a number of useful avenues to find globalised solutions. Aid has been organised on a huge an international scale to flow from rich countries to poor countries and exchange rates can be managed to prevent the collapse of suddenly weak economies, as can be seen in the recent case of Greece and other European states hit by crisis. Globalisation provides also functioning systems with a very wide reach such as the IMF and the World Bank for corrective action and restitution when actors break universally agreed rules (Krueger, 1997). These systems are by no means perfect, but their existence and their ability to function depend upon globalisation. Conclusion This paper has shown that economic migration is nothing new in the world, but that it has increased in speed and intensity thanks to the improved connections that globalisation has provided. The positive globalist approach illuminates many of the processes that occur in the globalised world and highlights the importance of economic factors. There are some weaknesses in this approach, including a tendency to undervalue the human cost of economic migration, and the ineffectiveness of some supposed safeguards. Nevertheless the positive globalist position is surely correct in confirming the existence and huge extent of globalisation and in finding that it has resulted, on balance, in more good than harm, and that it has provided corrective mechanisms for many of its negative effects. References Castells, M. (2010) The New Economy. In M. Castells, The Rise of the Network Society. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 101-147. Castles S. and Miller, J. (2009) The Age of International Migration: International Population Movement in the Modern World. Fourth edition. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Cohen, R. and Deng, F.M. (1998) Masses in flight: the global crisis of internal displacement. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institute. Dehasa, G. de la (2006). Winners and Losers in Globalization. Malden, MA: Blackwell. Dicken, P. (2003) A New Geo-economy. In D. Held and A. McGrew (Eds.), The Global Transformations Reader: An Introduction to the Globalization Debate. Malden: Polity Press, pp. 303-310. Giddens, A. (1991) The Globalizing Of Modernity. In A. Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity. Cambridge: Polity Press, pp. 55-78. Held, D. and McGrew, A. (2007) Introduction: Current controversies about the Demise of Globalization. In Globalization/antiglobalization: beyond the great divide. Cambridge: Polity Press, pp. 1-10. Hobsbawm, E. (1979) The development of the world economy. Cambridge Journal of Economics 3, pp 305-318. Krueger, A.O. (1997) Whither the World Bank and the IMF? NBER Working Paper Series 6327. Available at: http://kisi.deu.edu.tr/muge.tunaer/A_Krueger.pdf [Accessed 16 November 2013]. Stiglitz, J. (2002). Globalisation and its Discontents. London: W.W. Norton. Stiglitz, J. (2007). Making Globalisation Work. London: Penguin. Read More