Global Migration
Global migration refers to the movement of people across international borders in search of better economic opportunities, safety, or improved living conditions. It is a complex phenomenon influenced by factors such as economic disparities, political instability, and environmental changes. Global migration has significant impacts on both the countries of origin and destination, shaping demographic, social, and cultural landscapes.
8 Key excerpts on "Global Migration"
eBook - ePubMigration Theory
Talking across Disciplines
- Caroline B. Brettell, James F. Hollifield, Caroline B. Brettell, James F. Hollifield(Authors)
- 2022(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Human mobility is often a response to and a catalyst for these layers, and thus the social and environmental contexts of areas of departure and reception invite geographical theorization. This chapter will consider some of the foundational theories that shape geographical understandings of migration and human mobility. It argues that, as a discipline, geography has a long-standing thematic interest in human migration, because the movement of people “continually disrupts and remakes geography, as spatial linkages and interconnections both form and dissolve when people move” (Skop 2019: 108). As international migration has intensified since the 1990s, geographic scholarship that empirically demonstrates these flows and theorizes their impact has steadily increased (Price and Benton-Short 2008; King 2012; Czaika and de Haas 2014; Winders 2014; Yeoh and Ramdas 2014; Ehrkamp 2017, 2019, 2020; Collins 2020). Theoretically, geographers have worked across disciplines, and have modified existing theories, as well as inserted innovative theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches. At the core of much of this work is a profound interest in explaining spatial patterns and human networks, as well as a sensitivity to scalar shifts and bordering practices. Human geographers offer theoretical insights about the migrant experience, limits to human mobility, practices of placemaking, development, and integration, as well as the intersectionality of gender, race, and class in understanding migration (Silvey and Lawson 1999; Carling 2002; van Riemsdijk 2014; Yeoh and Lam 2016). Because of geography’s inclination to examine the relationship between society and environment, there is also a growing research interest in the environmental drivers of migration, especially connected to climate change (Hugo 1996; Piguet 2010; Piguet, Kaenzig, and Guélat 2018; Jockish et al. 2019). Within the sub-disciplines of geography, population geographers have an obvious interest in migration...
eBook - ePubThe Turbulence of Migration
Globalization, Deterritorialization and Hybridity
- Nikos Papastergiadis(Author)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- Polity(Publisher)
...However, the pattern of migration associated with globalization, while perpetuating many of the structured inequalities that were characteristic of earlier movements, has been further complicated. The routes of Global Migration involve a decoupling of the historical paths. There has been a fundamental shift away from the traditional destinations, an expansion in the types of people who embark on migration, and the imposition of more restrictions on the conditions of entry settlement. The diversity of paths, and the complexity of forms of migrations, have meant that it is now almost impossible to map movement with a series of arrows, on a flat two-dimensional representation of the world. There would be a greater number of arrows going in multiple directions, and also the time scale would have to be so contracted and irregular that the map would lose its objective of representing movement. Looking for patterns in such maps would be like looking for order in chaos theory. While the form of Global Migration may be incoherent, the scale of the phenomenon is unmistakable. Migration has become such a regular feature of modern life that it can no longer be considered as the exceptional event in the otherwise long historical process of settlement. The mobility of people has reached unprecedented levels. As ever, the experience of migration varies from the traumatic to the opportunistic. However, given that migration, directly or indirectly, touches the experiences of most people on a constant basis, and that our understanding of society has been irreversibly altered by it, it is also necessary to develop a broader conceptual understanding of the patterns of movement. The theoretical models that have been utilized to explain mass migration will also be examined in this chapter...
eBook - ePubAn Introduction to Population Geographies
Lives Across Space
- Holly R. Barcus, Keith Halfacree(Authors)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...CHAPTER 5 Placing human migration 5.1 INTRODUCTION: DEFINING MIGRATION 5.1.1 What is migration? Migration remains the most widely studied and examined element within Population Geography (Boyle 2003, 2004). Moreover, whilst Geographers have played a pivotal role in shaping our contemporary understanding of it, the topic is of interest to numerous academic disciplines, including Demography, Sociology, Political Science, Economics and Anthropology (Brettell and Hollifield 2008a). In this respect, approaching migration as it occurs within the life course has considerable potential for bringing together a scattered body of scholarship often fragmented by “disciplinary partitioning” (Olwig and Sørensen 2002: 7). But what exactly is migration? Initially put, as in a recent textbook, it is “the movement of people to live in a different place” (Holdsworth et al. 2013: 96) or a “permanent change in residence.” It is residential relocation. Or, as expressed in UK and US censuses, a migration is deemed to have occurred when one’s “usual address” has changed within the last 1 or 5 years, respectively (ONS 2013; USCB 2013). Simple, then, one might think! However, as Holdsworth et al. (2013: 98) also noted, careful consideration of these definitions immediately raises a host of questions: what precisely is meant by “different place,” “live in,” “permanent,” or “usual address”? Consequently, by the end of the present chapter, “migration” will have been demonstrated to be at least as complex and multi-dimensional a concept as Chapter 4 revealed “fertility” to be. Starting with the idea of “different place,” the type of areal unit(s) involved in a migration is an initial important consideration when defining it specifically. A crucial starting point is whether a political boundary is crossed during a move. For example, an individual could move from one county to another within the same US state or from one state to another...
eBook - ePub- Christine Inglis, Wei Li, Binod Khadria(Authors)
- 2019(Publication Date)
- SAGE Publications Ltd(Publisher)
...8 Geography and Migration Emily Skop Introduction This chapter considers how geographers take account of the inherently spatial phenomenon of migration. First, the chapter discusses the unique spatial perspective that broadly makes geography an ideal discipline for studies of migration, including utilizing core spatial concepts like space, place, networks, movement, scale, and territory, as well as the discipline's methodological diversity, and its tendency towards interdisciplinary engagement. Second, the chapter focuses on the way the discipline of geography has conceptualized and examined migration through a discussion of key theoretical framings within the field, including neoclassical spatial analysis, the socio-spatial lens, and the geopolitical turn. Third, the chapter reflects on the major developing trends and debates in the discipline of geography with regards to migration studies, with an eye towards future research and interdisciplinary perspectives, with special attention given to ‘crisis’ migration as well as the mobilities paradigm. The Discipline of Geography Migration – a process that evolves over space and time – involves the continual reshaping of space as persons move. Migration has risen dramatically in the past two centuries, and the result is constant transformation and dislocation, which in turn has prompted significant attention to the phenomenon by geographers. Indeed, geographers are especially interested in migration because it continually disrupts and remakes geography, as spatial linkages and interconnections both form and dissolve when people move. The socio-spatial patterns, causes, and consequences of migration are innumerable and include complicated, multi-scalar phenomena, all of which are studied by geographers. The geographical lens encourages a unique spatial perspective when it comes to the study of migration...
eBook - ePubPopulation Geography
A Systematic Exposition
- Mohammad Izhar Hassan(Author)
- 2020(Publication Date)
- Routledge India(Publisher)
...These movements do not involve any permanent or semi-permanent change in the place of residence to qualify as migration. The study of migration occupies an important place in population studies, as together with fertility and mortality, migration determines the size, distribution and growth of population along with its composition and characteristics. As compared with the other two components, migration has been a more popular subject of interest for population geographers. Interestingly, demographers have paid very little attention to this component of population change. Population geographers have since long been concerned with the relationships between movement of people, distance and interacting areas (Woods, 1979:165). Along with its various demographic, social and economic effects, population geographers have also been concerned with the environmental influences upon migration streams and consequences in areas of departure and destination (Clarke, 1972:130). Mobility and migration: general terms and concepts As noted previously, migration refers to permanent or semi-permanent change in the place of residence of an individual or a group of individuals from one location to another. Hence, it is different from the more general term mobility, which refers to all types of movements of people (Rubenstein and Bacon, 1990:75). Thus, the term mobility includes both permanent (and semi-permanent) and temporary movements of people over the earth. With regard to temporary movements, the examples of which have already been cited, a distinction is generally made between a cyclic and a periodic movement. A cyclic movement includes short duration trips to place of work (i.e. commuting), or frequent business trips of people in business, or movement of nomads, which is comparatively irregular in timing. A periodic movement, on the other hand, involves a longer period of residence away from home base than that in the cyclic movement (Blij and Muller, 1986:103)...
eBook - ePub- Ricard Zapata-Barrero, Dirk Jacobs, Riva Kastoryano, Ricard Zapata-Barrero, Dirk Jacobs, Riva Kastoryano(Authors)
- 2021(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...It proposes that migration can be understood as a specific type of movement that is defined by the crossing of territorial borders and explores three conundrums concerning the relation between borders and migration. When migration is perceived in relation to territorial borders, the size of territory and the shifting of borders have paradoxical implications for the measurement of migration. These puzzles lead to a more general lesson that macro-level studies of migration need to assume a stable background of bounded territories and sedentary societies, whereas micro-level studies may adopt a mobility perspective by taking migrants’ life courses as the basic unit of analysis. The fourth section considers mobility as freedom of movement across and within borders and suggests three pathways to enhanced free movement under conditions where states retain immigration control powers. The chapter concludes with a brief discussion of the new mobilities paradigm, the emergence of which is closely associated with economic globalization, technological, and cultural changes around the turn of the millennium. These have greatly increased the volume, distances, and paces of geographical movements and have led mobilities scholars to question statist perspectives that dominate in migration studies. We should, however, not assume that this is an irreversible trend. A possible decline in geographic mobility in the next decades is likely to affect also the distinct conceptual perspectives of migration and mobilities studies. 2 Human movement in time and space Unlike most plants and fungi, humans are animals that need to move around in order to find food and partners for procreation. Moreover, humans belong to a group of animals that have evolved to adapt to very different climates. However, unlike for some fish, birds, or whales, it was until very recently impossible for individual humans to move over very long distances...
eBook - ePub- Dina Ionesco, Daria Mokhnacheva, François Gemenne(Authors)
- 2016(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...This global figure, which measures 'stocks' of migrants in a given country at a given moment in time as recorded through national statistics and censuses, shows just one facet of the complex world migration patterns, and provides no indication as to the reasons for and nature of movements. Behind it lie various types of migration across borders, including labour migration, migration for education, refugee movements, family reunification, return migration, or retirement and amenity migration, some of which may also be linked to environmental factors. Accurate statistics by type of migration are seldom available, except when migrants fall into a clear legal category or benefit from special assistance, such as refugees or those benefiting from family reunification programmes, who are recorded by relevant national and international agencies, In most cases, however, migratory situations are complex, rarely fall into a single category, and may evolve over time, Furthermore, the global figure does not account for a number of migratory situations for which statistics are hard to obtain – typically the case of many forced forms of cross-border migration, including victims of smuggling and trafficking, and an exponentially growing number of irregular migrants. Quantifying these types of migration is challenging, due to their hidden nature, and only rough estimates are available for these flows. Finally, the global figure does not reflect seasonal, circular or other temporary movements, which may also include temporary cross-border displacement due to natural disasters. An age of mass internal migration The focus of political discourse on international migration diverts attention away from one of the predominant forms of migration: internal migration within countries, driven by urbanization, economic and demographic dynamics, is estimated to greatly exceed international migration...
eBook - ePubNew Age Globalization
Meaning and Metaphors
- A. Ahmad(Author)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- Palgrave Macmillan(Publisher)
...Along with fertility and mortality fluctuations, they are contributing to the global demographic transitions as well as to international relations and social and political change within nations. Economically necessary and desirable as they may be, migrant workers often face stiff host-country entry requirements, enter illegally if they can, and once there, are subjected to ridicule, stereotyping, and discrimination in jobs, housing, and education—a situation far from the ideals of borderless economies. Across-the-border labor migrations and their accompanying tensions are expected to continue as long as serious global economic inequalities exist, and as long as the surplus labor from one region is needed but culturally unwanted in richer but labor-deficient regions. For globalization to fulfill its promise, such inequalities need to be reduced if not completely removed in order to dull the forces of push and pull that are essentially behind labor displacements in the contemporary world system. Let us now look at the issue of rural-urban migrations, which too are influenced by similar push-and-pull factors and their accompanying tensions. 42 Rural-Urban Migration and the Reverse Rural-urban migration is an essential element in the global demographic transition. Although not exclusively, this transition is nowhere more dramatic, even alarming, than in rapidly industrializing, large, and population-surplus countries. As victims of economic globalization or fortune seekers in its wake, 8 million Chinese left their rural homes annually between 2001 and 2005 in search of jobs in megacities like Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangzhou (previously Canton). Rural-to-urban migration is a major source of demographic and social change in China today, creating “villages” and slums within cities. 43 Similar migratory patterns exist in India and other heavily populated, traditionally rural-agricultural countries like Indonesia, Mexico, Brazil, and Pakistan...
