theories of migration explaining why and how people migrate week1-class 2 april1, 2010

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Theories of Migration Explaining Why and How People Migrate Week1-Class 2 April1, 2010

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Page 1: Theories of Migration Explaining Why and How People Migrate Week1-Class 2 April1, 2010

Theories of Migration

Explaining Why and How People Migrate

Week1-Class 2

April1, 2010

Page 2: Theories of Migration Explaining Why and How People Migrate Week1-Class 2 April1, 2010

Goal is to understand and predict:

• Who migrates and why

• How the decision is made

• What factors affect ( facilitate or hinder) the decision and the process of migration

Page 3: Theories of Migration Explaining Why and How People Migrate Week1-Class 2 April1, 2010

Challenges

Migration is hard to measure, and migration patterns are hard to predict since it is caused and shaped by many different factors and variables at the individual level, family level, society level, state level and international level.

Page 4: Theories of Migration Explaining Why and How People Migrate Week1-Class 2 April1, 2010

1) Rational Actor Model

• Migrants are rational actors who try to maximize their gains and minimize their losses.

• Assumes:Migration is an individual level decision

Migrants have access to perfect information

Migrants are able to weigh the costs and benefits of migrating

Page 5: Theories of Migration Explaining Why and How People Migrate Week1-Class 2 April1, 2010

Shortcomings of the model

• Migration is not an exclusively individual level decision

• Family tries to minimize the risks while the individual tries to maximize the benefits

• Household collective decision making model (Women as contributors to the decision)

Page 6: Theories of Migration Explaining Why and How People Migrate Week1-Class 2 April1, 2010

Shortcomings of the model (cont’d)

• Criticism of rational choice model:– Individuals never have access to perfect

information– It is hard to weigh benefits and costs when

people do not have access to all necessary information

Page 7: Theories of Migration Explaining Why and How People Migrate Week1-Class 2 April1, 2010

2) Economic Models

Dual economy model (Wage / employment differentials in traditional and industrialized economies)

Neo-classical economic model (Push-pull model)

Page 8: Theories of Migration Explaining Why and How People Migrate Week1-Class 2 April1, 2010

Push and Pull Factors:

• Pull factors (destination): – More jobs– Higher income potential– Political freedom– Education opportunities (human capital)– Better living standards

Page 9: Theories of Migration Explaining Why and How People Migrate Week1-Class 2 April1, 2010

Push Factors (sending country):

• Low Wages

• Less Employment Opportunities

• High Population

• Bad living standards

Page 10: Theories of Migration Explaining Why and How People Migrate Week1-Class 2 April1, 2010

Laborer at work in rural Mexico, earning less than 80 cents an hour

Mexican migrant harvests broccoli in California, earning $6.75 an hour

Page 11: Theories of Migration Explaining Why and How People Migrate Week1-Class 2 April1, 2010

“Push” vs. “Pull” Factors in Mexican Migration to the U.S.

Question: “The last time you went to the U.S., would yousay that it was mainly to escape conditions in Mexico, orbecause of the opportunities that the U.S. offers?”

Conditions in Mexico: 19%

Opportunities in U.S.: 81%

Page 12: Theories of Migration Explaining Why and How People Migrate Week1-Class 2 April1, 2010

Reasons for migrating to U.S. in 2005(among residents of two Mexican rural

communities)

Economic Necessity 30.4%

Returning to the Same Job in the United States 13.9%

Better Pay in the United States 13.9%

More Job Opportunities in the United States 9.6%

No Jobs Available in Mexico 4.3%

Family Reunification 12.2%

Other 15.7%

Page 13: Theories of Migration Explaining Why and How People Migrate Week1-Class 2 April1, 2010

Key assumptions of neo-classical model

Potential migrants have perfect information

Initial costs of migration aren’t prohibitively high

Potential migrants are independent decision-makers

International borders are relatively permeable

Page 14: Theories of Migration Explaining Why and How People Migrate Week1-Class 2 April1, 2010

Shortcomings of economic models

• It is not the poor workers who migrate, but those with some resources.

• Migration is costly

• Undermines role of state and institutions

• Assumes migration takes place in a free, laissez-faire migration market and in a unregulated environment

Page 15: Theories of Migration Explaining Why and How People Migrate Week1-Class 2 April1, 2010

3) World Systems Theory

• Marxist explanation of migration patterns

• Stress the unequal economic and political development of the core (capitalist) and periphery countries.

• Migration is seen as an exploitation by the rich/core countries of the resources (cheap labor) of the poor countries in the periphery.

Page 16: Theories of Migration Explaining Why and How People Migrate Week1-Class 2 April1, 2010

Critique of the model

• Fails to explain why restrictive policies emerge in the “core” receiving countries

Page 17: Theories of Migration Explaining Why and How People Migrate Week1-Class 2 April1, 2010

4) Political Models (Role of State Policies)

• Immigration policies ie. liberal, nativist (restrictive)– US migration restrictions for Chinese (1875-1882)– US Quota Period (1921-1965)

• Immigrant policies (social, political and economic rights)

• Direct labor recruitment through guest worker programs (economic agreements between receiving and sending countries)

Page 18: Theories of Migration Explaining Why and How People Migrate Week1-Class 2 April1, 2010

Mexican“bracero”contract workersarrive in U.S.by train, 1942

Page 19: Theories of Migration Explaining Why and How People Migrate Week1-Class 2 April1, 2010

Portuguese “guestworkers” arrive in Hamburg, Germany, 1965

Page 20: Theories of Migration Explaining Why and How People Migrate Week1-Class 2 April1, 2010

5) Migrant social networks (Sociological model)

a) Informal networks: family and friends available in the destination country.

b) Formal networks: Commercial /professional recruitment networks

c) Illegal networks: Smugglers

• They decrease the risk associated with international migration

• Increase the chances of survival and success in the destination/

Page 21: Theories of Migration Explaining Why and How People Migrate Week1-Class 2 April1, 2010

Unauthorized Mexican immigrant family reunited in California

Page 22: Theories of Migration Explaining Why and How People Migrate Week1-Class 2 April1, 2010

REASONS FOR MIGRATING TO THE UNITED STATES, GIVEN BY IMMIGRANTS INTERVIEWED IN SAN DIEGO COUNTY, 1996 More jobs available in U.S. 26.7%

Higher wages in U.S. 16.6

Economic crisis in home country 7.3

To improve economic situation,

accumulate savings

4.0 ECONOMIC REASONS

(56.7%)

Encouraged by U.S. employer 2.1

Relatives, friends already living in

U.S.

15.5

Was brought to U.S. by relative 5.7 FAMILY REASONS

(24.3%)

Better for children in U.S. 1.0

Other family circumstances 2.1

Political unrest in home country 6.5

Tourism, recreation 4.7

Better quality of life in U.S. 2.0 OTHER REASONS

(19.0%)

To continue education 1.3

All other reasons 5.2

TOTAL 100.7

Page 23: Theories of Migration Explaining Why and How People Migrate Week1-Class 2 April1, 2010

Family ties determine choice of migration destination

Question: [if planning to migrate to the U.S. :] “Where do you think you will go, and why that place instead of some other?“

Relatives who already live there: 42.7%

Already has a job arranged there: 15.3%

Likes it as a living environment: 15.3%

More job opportunities there: 8.3%

Other reasons: 18.4%

Source: UCSD survey of returned migrants and potential first-time migrants, interviewed in two rural Mexican communities, January 2005

Page 24: Theories of Migration Explaining Why and How People Migrate Week1-Class 2 April1, 2010

WHY IS IMMIGRATION SO CONTROVERSIAL?

• What are the burdens and benefits associated with international migration?

Page 25: Theories of Migration Explaining Why and How People Migrate Week1-Class 2 April1, 2010

For Receiving countries:

Controlling borders (to keep the ‘undesirable immigrants’ out)

• -Ensuring economic and technical growth of the society (in what ways are immigrants going to contribute to the society?)

• -Integrating immigrants admitted (structural and cultural integration)

• -Security and social stability (ie cultural clashes, threats to dominant identity)

• -Concerns over increased welfare costs, loss of jobs and lower wages

Page 26: Theories of Migration Explaining Why and How People Migrate Week1-Class 2 April1, 2010

Commonly used anti-immigration arguments in the United States: Are they myth or reality? 

Immigration is a drag on U.S. economic performance and competitiveness (Assumption: immigrants are low skilled)

Immigrants enlarge the poverty population, straining public health and education resources and causing higher taxes.

Page 27: Theories of Migration Explaining Why and How People Migrate Week1-Class 2 April1, 2010

Immigration reduces job opportunities for the least skilled native-born residents, especially minorities who must compete with low-skilled immigrants.

Ad running on Iowa television stations,

December-January 2003-04, sponsored by the Coalition

for the Future of the American Worker, a

Washington DC-based anti-immigration advocacy

group.

Page 28: Theories of Migration Explaining Why and How People Migrate Week1-Class 2 April1, 2010

Poster by anti-immigration groupNumbersUSA (Arlington, Va.)

Immigration degrades the environment, causes overpopulation, overcrowding in big cities.

Page 29: Theories of Migration Explaining Why and How People Migrate Week1-Class 2 April1, 2010

Immigrants raise crime rates; presence of “illegals” breeds disrespect for our laws.

Immigration is shifting the country’s ethnic/racial balance to an unacceptable degree.

Immigrants undermine cultural cohesion, dilute the country’s “core culture,” contribute to “Balkanization.”

Page 30: Theories of Migration Explaining Why and How People Migrate Week1-Class 2 April1, 2010

“Lax immigration laws caused the 9/11

attacks on America.”-- Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR)

“Terrorist Alley: The U.S.-Mexico

Border”

(website of U.S. House of Representatives

Immigration Reform Caucus)

Page 31: Theories of Migration Explaining Why and How People Migrate Week1-Class 2 April1, 2010

More myth than reality: • The perception that migrants are more of a

burden on host countries than a benefit is NOT sustained by research

• In the UK, between 1999-2000, migrants contributed $ 4 billion more in taxes than they received in benefits.

• In the US, the National Research Council estimated that national income had expanded by $ 8 billion in 1997 because of immigration.

Page 32: Theories of Migration Explaining Why and How People Migrate Week1-Class 2 April1, 2010

• There is rarely direct competition between immigrants and local workers. Migrants occupy jobs at all skill levels, with particular concentration at the higher and lower ends of the market, often in work that nationals are either unable or unwilling to take.

Page 33: Theories of Migration Explaining Why and How People Migrate Week1-Class 2 April1, 2010

Pro-immigration arguments  Immigration stimulates national economic growth, by providing needed skills and an expanding labor supply.

--it replaces people who aren’t born and won’t enter the labor force, due to low birth rates. ( = “replacement migration”)

Immigration helps consumers by dampening inflation, by reducing labor costs

Immigration provides new, young workers to pay for Social Security and other benefits to retirees

Page 34: Theories of Migration Explaining Why and How People Migrate Week1-Class 2 April1, 2010

For Sending Countries

• Brain-drain can deprive a sending country of its educated and productive members

• Remittances sent by migrant to home country can help the economic growth of the sending country.

• Political advantages: Diaspora associations can strengthen cooperation between communities at home and abroad.