Crossing Borders

Regional and Urban Perspectives on International Migration

Cees Gorter, Peter Nijkamp, Jacques Poot, Cees Gorter, Peter Nijkamp, Jacques Poot

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9780429872617
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Social Science Research & Methodology
• Index: Social Sciences

Published in 1998. Migration patterns at the global level have become more complex, affecting more countries, more people and for a greater variety of reasons. Consequently, international migration is receiving increasing attention throughout the world. Migration is an inherently spatial phenomenon. But while the spatial patterns themselves have been described in recent surveys of global contemporary international migration, the causes and consequences of the spatial patterns have received surprisingly little systematic attention. Often migration is seen just from a host country perspective, or from a sending country perspective, without explicit consideration of the sub-national origin and destinations of the flows or linkages between countries. It is well known that migration flows follow certain gravity-like properties, that there is chain migration, that certain regions attract more migrants than others, that migrants are highly urbanised, and that within urban areas there are also concentrations of migrants leading to a reshaping of the urban landscape. However, such observations are often the result of purely descriptive research or case study research. Consequently, there is still a need for an integrated multi-disciplinary study of the spatial impact and the resulting socio-economic and political issues concerning migration. This book aims to fill this gap by bringing together a collection of papers which are primarily concerned with the spatial impact of contemporary international migration patterns, or with related issues. The topics of the papers are wide ranging and the focus varies from broad international perspectives to specific urban areas. Two general themes run through the papers. The first of these is that migration is an inherently dynamic process which may have either equilibrating or self-reinforcing (cumulative) effects. The importance of considering international migration in a dynamic context has come to the fore in several theoretical frameworks which are available in the literature to study this phenomenon. The second major theme of the book is the emphasis on the importance of personal networks in shaping international migration patterns, leading to pronounced clusters of (urban) areas from which migrants are drawn and of migrant settlement.

1 Regional and Urban Perspectives on International Migration: An Overview

CEES GORTER, PETER NIJKAMP AND JACQUES POOT

1.1 Introduction

Throughout history, waves of migration have contributed to the shaping of societies across the world. Sometimes these flows were forced by nature, sometimes they were instigated by economic motives. During the first six decades or so of the present century, international migration was typically thought of as a movement of people from the Old World seeking better socioeconomic prospects in the New World. Since then, migration patterns have become more complex, affecting more countries, more people and for a greater variety of reasons.

Consequently, international migration is receiving increasing attention throughout the world. For Europe, three main geographical patterns of international migration can be identified: the migration between hinterlands and home countries, the migration streams from south to north, and recently, the east-west migration flows. It can also be observed that Western European countries have become reluctant to allow for inward (labour) migration. Nevertheless, the flows due to family reunification and asylum seeking have risen considerably in the recent past. Besides European countries, also Israel, the traditional English-speaking immigrant receiving countries (USA, Canada, Australia and New-Zealand), the Gulf states and some Asian countries (Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia) have experienced huge large inward migration streams during the last decade or so. However, the patterns are complex and sometimes rapidly changing. Some countries are both significant senders as well as recipients of migrants. It has been estimated that – in total – in the mid 1990s around 100 million people lived outside their country of birth, of whom one fifth were refugees.¹ In addition, the children of immigrants born in the host countries and subsequent generations contribute to a growing ethnic diversity of which the impact can be far greater than the immigration itself.

Migration is an inherently spatial phenomenon. By definition, an international migrant leaves one community and becomes part of another community in a foreign nation, at least for some minimum period of time.² Thus, for each migration we can identify regions, and urban or rural locations within regions, of origin and destination. In addition, migration may not be a one-off event. Migrants may move again: within the host country, to a third country, or return home.

The spatial patterns themselves have been described in surveys of global contemporary international migration such as Castles and Miller (1993) and Stalker (1994), whereas the economics of international labour migration have recently been studied by, for example, Van den Broeck (1996) from an institutionalist (or evolutionary) perspective in which the focus is on dynamic processes and human institutions. However, the socioeconomic causes and consequences of the spatial patterns have received surprisingly little systematic attention. Often migration is seen just from a host country perspective, or from a sending country perspective, without explicit consideration of the subnational origin and destinations of the flows or the linkages between countries.

It is well known that migration flows follow certain gravity-like properties, that there is chain migration, that certain regions attract more migrants than others, that migrants are highly urbanized, and that within urban areas there are also concentrations of migrants leading to a reshaping of the urban landscape. However, such observations are often the result of purely descriptive research or case study research. Consequently, there is still a need for an integrated multidisciplinary study of the spatial impact and the resulting socioeconomic and political issues concerning migration.

This book aims to fill this gap by bringing together a collection of chapters which are primarily concerned with the spatial impact of contemporary international migration patterns, and with related issues such as the impact on the (local) labour markets. The topics of the papers are wide ranging and the focus varies from broad international perspectives to specific urban areas. Two general themes run through the papers. The first of these is that migration is an inherently dynamic process which may have either equilibrating or self-reinforcing (cumulative) effects. The importance of considering international migration in a dynamic context has come to the fore in several theoretical frameworks which are available in the literature to study this phenomenon. In the next section we present an overview of a number of theoretical frameworks.

The second major theme of the book is the importance of personal networks in shaping international migration patterns, leading to pronounced clusters of (urban) areas from which migrants are drawn and of migrant settlement. Section 1.3 of this chapter reviews issues of spatial selectivity. Section 1.4 discusses briefly the related issue of absorption of immigrants in the urban labour market, with specific reference to the European situation where migration has suddenly become an important issue.

One or both of the main themes can be found in all the papers brought together in this book. Section 1.5 of this chapter outlines, and draws together, the findings of the remaining fourteen chapters of the book. These chapters have been grouped under four headings. Part A (Chapters 2 to 5) addresses specific economic issues which have played an important role in the policy debate. Some theoretical results are derived, but the empirical evidence from the international literature to date is also reviewed. Part B (Chapters 6 to 8) focuses on linkages between sending and receiving countries and the spatial clustering that has emerged. Clustering at the subnational level and the related issue of assimilation of immigrants in local communities are addressed in the third part of the book (Chapters 9 to 12). Finally, Part D (Chapters 13 to 15) provides examples of new approaches to statistical modelling of migration, either in terms of a description or prediction of the actual flows, or in terms of the impact on local labour markets. The final section of this introductory chapter sets out some priorities for further research on international migration.

1.2 Theoretical Frameworks for International Migration Analysis

A variety of scientific explanations for international migration have been proposed in the literature. These differ in terms of the disciplinary perspective and the level of analysis (e.g. micro versus macro). Despite the myriad of publications on migration between countries, it is possible to group most of the explanatory theories into some main classes. Following Nijkamp and Spiess (1994), we will limit ourselves here to a concise description and evaluation of the following (non-exhaustive) classes: the equilibrium approach (Subsection 2.1); the utility maximizing approach (Subsection 2.2); the historical-structural approach (Subsection 2.3); the welfare state approach (Subsection 2.4); the regulatory approach (Subsection 2.5); the tension approach (Subsection 2.6); and the system approach (Subsection 2.7).

These approaches differ not only in terms of their main message, but also in terms of their disciplinary foundation. Considering only a single scientific discipline would lead, especially in the field of international migration research, to the loss of some very important aspects. In what follows we will provide for each approach one or more key references, which have been drawn from a range of disciplines (e.g. economics, sociology, political science). In addition to the survey in this section, Bauer and Zimmermann provide a more detailed overview of economic theories of labour migration in Chapter 4.

1.2.1 The Equilibrium Approach

The equilibrium approach to international migration represents a main direction in the explanation of causes and consequences of the international movements of people. A brief description of the consequences of international migration within the equilibrium approach can be found in, e.g. Greenwood (1994).

The equilibrium model of migration focuses primarily on the rational calculus of individual actors. Migration is in general regarded as the outcome of a choice process for individuals or households. The choices can be explained by means of neoclassical economics. In general, the equilibrium approach conceptualizes migration as the geographical mobility of workers who are responding to imbalances in the spatial distribution of land, labour, capital and natural resources. Observed migration flows are seen as the cumulative result of individual decisions based on a rational evaluation of the benefits to be gained and the costs entailed in moving. On average, migrants are expected to move from low to high wage countries. When there is unemployment, migrants are also expected to be sensitive to observed differences in unemployment rates since these determine expected earnings when spells of unemployment are likely (see e.g. Harris and Todaro 1970).

By being seen as primarily a form of arbitrage in the labour market, migration is considered to raise wages in the sending country (because emigrants withdraw their labour) and lower wages in the receiving country (because immigrants will be seeking employment). Since we noted above that we expect migrants to move on average from low to high wage regions, the process therefore reduces such wage differentials. This, in turn, reduces the incentive for movement.

A crucial limitation of this approach is that restrictions on migration, usually by potential host countries, can distort the way in which observed flows are responding to international wage differentials. Thus, we expect the equilibrium approach to be more useful for understanding (free) internal migration patterns (for a survey of the evidence, see e.g. Greenwood 1975) or for understanding international migration between culturally and economically similar countries, as e.g. Poot (1995) demonstrated in the case of migration between Australia and New Zealand. However, Van Wissen and Visser show in Chapter 14 that international migration within the more diverse European Economic Area is only weakly responsive to income per head differentials.

Taking a longer term perspective, the equilibrium approach suggests that migration will lead to a gradual convergence in the rate of economic growth and social well being. This is, for example, shown by Fischer in the next chapter.

It is clear that this equilibrium approach may be criticized from various view points. Wood (1982) has pointed out three main critical points. The first relates to the fact that – especially in the context of developing countries – it is evident that geographic mobility of labour does not necessarily lead to an equilibrium situation, because migration is often an indicator of regional disparities which, e.g. due to the movement of skilled people, are reinforced by migration rather than reduced. Thus, inequalities may increase and the existence and nature of a long run equilibrium may depend on additional considerations, such as the emergence of eventual congestion effects in the receiving areas. This alternative perspective on the long run impact is highlighted by Fischer in the next chapter. He suggests that immigration may widen income differences due to, for example, positive agglomeration effects or human capital externalities. The importance of such positive feedback loop effects of migration is reinforced by e.g. Geyer in Chapter 6 and Lipshitz in Chapter 7.

A second critical point mentioned by Wood (1982) concerns the non-historical character of the equilibrium approach. Some empirical facts run counter to this approach, notably that many ‘backward’ economies throughout history have not spontaneously exported labour and – when labour was needed – it had to be coerced out of them. As a third point, Wood criticizes the reductionism of the equilibrium approach, especially the failure to account for migration resulting from non-economic reasons, such as political developments, persecution, religious beliefs, etc.

1.2.2 The Utility Maximizing Approach

Borjas (1989) describes a more modern version and extension of the economic equilibrium approach to migration. This more recent approach is based on two key assumptions of neoclassical theory. The first assumption, that the individual is a utility maximizer, was already referred to above in the context of the equilibrium approach. Migrant behaviour is, however, constrained by the household’s financial situation and by the migration policies of the sending and receiving countries. It is based on the second assumption, that exchanges among various players lead to an equilibrium in the market place, Borjas discusses extensively the existence of an immigration market, which is acting as a sieve for migrants across potential host countries. The different host countries function as the suppliers in this immigration market, making migration ‘offers’ with respect to a certain set of immigration regulations from which individuals on the demand side compare and choose. Hence, they allocate themselves in the end non randomly among countries.

Using these main assumptions, Borjas addresses three questions: the determinants of the size and skill composition of immigrant flows to any particular host country, the process of assimilation of migrants in the host country, and the adjustment process in the host countries’ labour market after an immigration ‘shock’. To answer these questions he develops a simple model of migration between two countries, a source and a host country. A special function relates in this model earnings to individual observable and unobservable skills. The assumption that observable skills (for example education) influence the rate of return to migration, enables Borjas to show how workers flow to the country that is willing to pay most for their human capital. An example of this type of model, but in the context of internal rather than international migration, is given by Van Dijk, Folmer, Herzog and Schlottmann in Chapter 15.

Borjas also shows that the self-selection of migrants on the basis of the unobserved abilities depends entirely on the extent of income inequality in the host and source country. He argues that there is no theoretical reason for presuming that immigration flows are always composed of the ‘best and brightest’. His model predicts that the size, direction and composition of immigrant flows will change when economic and political conditions change: ‘there is no universal law that must characterize all immigration flow’ (Borjas 1989, pp. 471-72).

Borjas’ model provides an innovative and flexible way to analyse migration decision making and migration flows. However, it remains a partial approach which does not concern itself with learning, social networks and adaptive behaviour at the micro level or regulatory regimes, historical and political influences and overall impacts at the macro level.

1.2.3 The Historical-Structural Approach

The third main direction of migration theories, the historical-structural approach, focuses on the origin of the costs and benefits faced by the potential migrants. Migration is seen as a macro-social process. This approach is – because of the variety of considerations included – more of a qu...