Case Study 5 Global Migration Issues

1
Case Study 5 Global Migration Issues

• 1 Mexican Migration to the United States
• 2 Guest Workers in Western Europe
• 3 Persian Gulf States
• 4 Refugees

2
Concepts Linked to Migration

• Cultural settling
• Related to sex-specific migrations.
• Especially where males are the early migrants.
• Work for many years, sending remittances home to
  their families, especially if married.
• If able to stay in the developed country for a
  while, they may then send for their wives and
  children to join them.
• Enclave immigrant neighborhoods.
• Very limited assimilation because culture an
  identity are very difficult to change.
• Problems begin to surface when the children grow
  up.
• Caught between two worlds and not belonging to
  either.

3
Concepts Linked to Migration

• Step migration
• Moving from a source to an eventual permanent
  destination.
• A Third World rural agricultural family may first
  move to the nearest town.
• Becomes part of the wage economy at the lowest
  level.
• After gaining experience, the family may next
  move to the nearest city.
• Later, on to the provincial capital, each time
  gaining a little in job opportunity, experience,
  and salary.
• Eventually, may move the national capital or
  major port city.
• More competitive situation but is better prepared
  to handle this.

Opportunities / Competition
Village
4
Concepts Linked to Migration

• Chain migrations
• A major source of information about potential
  destinations comes by word of mouth from family
  and friends.
• Involves the sequential migration of kinship or
  friendship groups.
• Very common in the Third World.
• Initially, one or two may go, usually the most
  motivated, best educated.
• Encourages a few more relatives or friends to
  follow.
• Rely upon them to teach the ropes in the new
  situation, get leads on jobs, etc.
• Eventually, larger numbers will follow this same
  pattern.
• Will often replicate the familiar network of the
  home region.
• Many large Third World cities have such
  residential patterns.

City
5
Concepts Linked to Migration

• Distance - decay factor
• Inverse relationship between
• Distance separating two places.
• Amount of information received by each about the
  other.
• Information decreases as distance increases.
• Direct relationship between
• Population size.
• Information generated.
• Closer destinations may often have an advantage.
• Population size can often overcome distance
  decay.
• A larger city can overcome distance decay and
  pull in migrants from wider areas.

6
Concepts Linked to Migration

• Migration field
• Area from which a destination draws its migrants.
• Closely related to the distance-decay factor.
• Larger cities have much more extensive migration
  fields than do smaller ones.
• Burlington, VT The region and the State.
• New York The world.

7
Concepts Linked to Migration

• Fill-in migration
• Pattern in which, as one group of migrants moves
  out of an area, another enters to take its place.
• Often related to the improvement in welfare.
• Occur in American major cities.

Downtown
Suburbs
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Types of Migration
1

• Temporary migration
• The mover still maintains roots at the source.
• Activity space.
• Difficult to quantify.
• Commuting
• Cyclical migration.
• Usually done on a daily basis.
• Shopping.
• Often consolidated in one trip with several
  stops.
• Students/military.
• Periodic migration.
• Tourism or business travel.

Consolidation
Shopping
Leisure
Work
Education
Vacation
Permanent place of residence
9
Types of Migration
1

• Circular migration
• A type of temporary migration.
• Associated with agricultural work.
• The migrant follows the harvest of various crops,
  moving from one place to another each time.
• Very common in the US Southwest (Mexican farm
  workers) and in Western Europe (Eastern European
  farm workers).

Fall / Winter
10
US Immigration and Emigration by Decade
1901-2000 (in 1,000s)
1
11
Slaves Reaching British North America, 1601-1867
(in 1,000s)
1
12
Mexican Migration to the United States
1

• The Bracero Program (1943-1964)
• From the Spanish Brazos meaning people working
  with their arms.
• The Mexico-US migration pattern is a rather
  recent one (mid 20th century).
• Established during WW II (1943).
• Allows Mexican farm workers to work temporarily
  on farms in Texas, California, and the Southwest
  USA.
• Make up for the labor shortage caused by the war
  (the USA had over 11 million people in uniform).
• The program worked well and helped both
  countries.
• About 5 million Mexican immigrants entered the US.

13
Mexican Migration to the United States
1

• The USA got the labor it needed without making a
  permanent commitment to admit the workers as
  residents.
• Took 10 of earnings to be deposited in saving
  accounts in Mexico.
• To favor the return of labor.
• Mexico earned foreign exchange
• Remittances sent back home by the workers and
  solved some of its own employment problems.
• The third most important source of income for
  Mexico after oil and tourism.

14
Legal Mexican Immigration to the US, 1901-1998
1
15
Mexican Migration to the United States
1

• Pattern
• The Bracero Program established a pattern of
  Mexican migration to the USA.
• When the program was discontinued in 1964, the
  migratory flow didn't stop.
• It continues today in both legal and illegal
  forms.
• 20 of all immigration is from Mexico.
• Vast numbers of undocumented aliens, many of whom
  come simply to work with no intention of staying
  permanently.
• 50 of all illegal immigrants from Mexico.
• They return home regularly, especially during
  winter (low agricultural season).
• Stricter border controls have made illegal
  immigrants less likely to return to Mexico once
  they have reached the US.

16
Mexican Migration to the United States
1

• Recent US immigration legislation
• Sought to regulate illegal migration by focusing
  upon the employers who might hire them.
• Currently, employers found with illegal aliens
  working for them are assessed stiff penalties.
• Provided an offer of amnesty to illegals who
  could prove that they had been in the country a
  substantial amount of time.
• Between 1.5 and 2 million persons took advantage
  of this opportunity to regularize their migratory
  status.

17
Illegal Aliens in the United States by Country of
Origin, 1996 (in 1,000s)
1
18
Apprehensions at the US-Mexico Border, 1994-2000
1
19
Guest Workers in Western Europe
2

• Context
• Economic boom of the 1960s and early 1970s.
• Labor shortages, notably because of the impacts
  of WWII.
• Workers were invited to Germany, Switzerland, the
  Netherlands, Belgium, France, Sweden and a few
  other northern and western European states.
• Recruited primarily from Spain, Portugal, Italy,
  Greece, Turkey, Yugoslavia, Morocco, Algeria, and
  Tunisia.
• Variety of guest worker programs to fill jobs
  no longer needed or wanted by nationals.
• These programs did not intend that the workers
  would stay permanently in the host country.

20
Guest Workers in Western Europe
2

• Impacts
• Economy began to decline during the 1970
• Germany ended its program in 1974.
• Most of the workers no longer intended to go
  home.
• Many had children who had grown up in the new
  society.
• Many people were forced to return to the source
  country when their work permits expired.
• Some remain and constitute minority populations
  in countries accustomed to high degrees of
  homogeneity.
• Caused a variety of social problems in many
  countries
• Some have no provisions for foreigners to
  eventually become citizens.
• Situation was aggravated by the collapse of the
  Soviet Union and massive immigration from Eastern
  Europe in the 1990s.

21
Population Movements in Europe
2
High Income Country
Massive Population Movement
Former Soviet Bloc Countries 2.4 M
UK 1.9 M
Germany 6.7 M
France 3.6 M
Switz. 1.2 M
Italy 1 M
Former Yugoslavia 600,000
Turkey 2 M Guest workers, Most in Germany
North Africa 2 M
22
Guest Workers in Western Europe
2

• Future issues
• Aging of the European population would require a
  new wave of immigration.
• The European Union would need 1.6 million new
  immigrants a years between 2000 and 2050 just to
  keep stable the current working population.
• To keep the dependency ratio stable, the European
  Union would need 13.5 million new immigrants a
  year.

23
Persian Gulf States
3

• Context
• Oil-rich countries of the Gulf area
• 5 small Kuwait, Oman, the United Arab Emirates,
  Qatar, and Bahrain.
• 1 larger Saudi Arabia
• Capital-rich but labor-poor (rent economies).
• Before recent oil booms (1970).
• Underdeveloped both economically and from a human
  resource perspective (education) and lacked
  infrastructure.
• After 1970
• Oil revenues.
• Begun to invest heavily in their own development.
• Creation of several jobs in government, services
  and industry.
• High profile jobs occupied by nationals
  (qualified or not).
• Lack a skilled labor force.

24
Persian Gulf States
3

• Solution to labor shortages.
• Importing labor from other countries, including
  Egypt, India, Pakistan, the Philippines, Iran,
  and Lebanon.
• From USA, European states, and Japan.
• Many stateless Palestinians also have found jobs
  there.
• Foreigners outnumber nationals, in some cases by
  as much as 4 to 1.
• Problems
• Heavy reliance upon foreign labor.
• Little incentive for nationals to get
  qualifications.
• Political instability is a potential threat.
• Many disenfranchised persons with no rights in
  the host country.

25
Persian Gulf States
3

• Presence potentially radical Palestinians and
  Shiite Iranians
• Two Islamic groups who may challenge the
  conservative Sunni Moslem regimes.
• The national population
• Supported by oil revenues from the state and have
  little need to work.
• Diminishes incentive to upgrade skill levels
  which might necessitate prolonging the dependence
  on foreign labor.
• The fall of oil prices in the 1990s
• Created unemployment problems among the
  nationals.
• Triggered Islamic nationalistic movements.

26
Share of Foreign Population and Workers in
Persian Gulf States, 2002
3
27

• The Maid Trade
• Large movements of female workers from poorer to
  the richer countries of Asia and the Middle East.
• Often managed by government accredited labor
  agencies (Indonesia and Philippines)
• Charge fees for training, passport issuance,
  visas and transportation.
• Saudi Arabia has about 200,000 Indonesian maids
  (Islam).
• Malaysia has about 160,000.
• Many cases of abuse and rape.

28
The Maid Trade
3
Japan
Rich Persian Gulf States
HK
Thailand
India and Bangladesh
Philippines
Malaysia and Singapore
Indonesia
Country of origin
Country of destination
29
Refugees Receiving U.N. Assistance, World Total
1961-2003 (in millions)
2
30
The Refugee Status
4

• Possible outcomes of the refugee experience
• Voluntary repatriation to the source country
• Preferred outcome.
• Usually necessitates a change in the conditions
  which caused the refugee flows in the first place
  (e.g., the end of a civil war).
• Resettlement in second asylum country
• Most refugees flee from their homeland to an
  adjacent country.
• Indo-Chinese refugees, fled to Thailand,
  Malaysia, Hong Kong or other nearby states.
• Offered permanent asylum by second countries,
  such as the USA, France, Canada or Australia.
• Local integration in the country of first asylum
• Requires approval from the host country
  government.
• Enables the refugees to participate in the host
  society.
• Inclusion of refugees into a states national
  development plans.

31
The Refugee Status
4

• Short-term strategy
• Refugee relief or maintenance.
• Provision of emergency supplies such as food,
  shelter, clothing and protection.
• Frequently, this involves the creation of refugee
  camps.
• Can give rise to a dependency situation in which
  refugees might lose the initiative to become
  self- sufficient.
• Refoulement.
• Forced return of the refugees to their source
  country.
• Illegal under international law but increasingly
  frequent.

32
Refugees
4

• Soviet relocation of ethnic groups (1936-1952)
• More than 3 million people were deported.
• Along the Soviet Unions western borders.
• Dumped thousands of kilometers away in eastern
  and central Siberia or in the Central Asian
  republics.
• 20 major groups suffered in this way.
• 8 entire nations were removed from their
  ancestral homelands
• 1 was non-Orthodox Christian (the Volga Germans).
• 1 Buddhist (the Kalmyks).
• 6 Muslim (Chechens, Ingush, Karachai, Balkars,
  Crimean Tatars and Meskhetians).
• Russians are experiencing resentment in former
  Soviet Republics.

33
Nations Deported by the Soviet Union during WWII
4
34
Refugees
4

• Cubans
• In 1959 forces led by Castro overthrew a
  repressive US-supported regime.
• More than 500,000, mostly to southern Florida
  with smaller numbers elsewhere.
• Granted refugee recognition so long as they do
  not have a criminal record.
• Opposition policy of the US towards to the Castro
  regime.
• Nicaraguans
• Many hundreds of thousands, with at least 200,000
  coming to the US.
• Most of the others moving to neighboring
  countries in Central America, notably Honduras
  and Costa Rica.

35
Latin American Refugees
4

• From 1979-1990, fleeing the Sandinistas were also
  usually granted refugee status here.
• The US opposed that regime.
• Salvadorans
• At least one-half million, with many estimates
  ranging up toward the one million mark.
• The largest number are now in the USA, but
  Honduras, Mexico, Canada, Costa Rica, Guatemala,
  Nicaragua, and Belize have also been
  destinations.
• Haitians
• Fleeing harsh living conditions and political
  turmoil.
• Peruvians

36
Refugees
4

• Palestinians
• Palestinians represented the first large group of
  the "new" refugees when they were left stateless
  shortly after WW II.
• Creation of the new state of Israel.
• Since, no political solution has been achieved
  for their situation.
• Repatriation is not an option - there is no
  Palestinian state to return to.
• Arab host states have resisted long-term
  integration strategies, preferring to maintain
  the group as refugees.
• Use their presence to fan the political flames
  against Israel, on occasion.
• This was particularly true prior to the 1973 war.

37
Refugees
4

• The perceived hopelessness of their situation has
  resulted in the radicalization.
• The number of Palestinians in Israel increased as
  a result of the annexation of the West Bank
  (formerly in Jordan) during the 1967 war.
• Anger has flared up in recent years as the bloody
  Intifada.
• Arab states have supported the Palestinian cause
  but have been less ready to act on its behalf.
• Palestinian to support Iraq in the Gulf War of
  1991 has further eroded their support among many
  Arab states.
• Israel undertook settlement and refoulement
  policies that have exacerbated the situation.

38
Who is Free?
4
Jewish Child Guarded by Israeli soldier, West
Bank Settlement
39
Refugees
4

• The boat people from Vietnam
• Captured world attention since their migrations
  began during the late 1970s.
• Emigration of many thousands of South Vietnamese
  following the collapse of the regime in 1975.
• Repression by the new government.
• Attempts at re-education for those who had been
  affiliated with the former regime.
• Main destination countries
• USA, Canada, Australia, and France.
• Countries that had been involved with the Vietnam
  War.
• With the reduction in East-West tensions, there
  is less willingness to accept the Vietnamese as
  political refugees.

40
Refugees
4

• Receiving states, such as Hong Kong are now
  considering the boat people to be economic
  refugees.
• Forcibly returning many of them to Vietnam.
• It is illegal under international law to forcibly
  repatriate refugees.
• Cambodians
• Some 500,000 Cambodians live outside their
  country.
• Most are in refugee camps in neighboring
  Thailand.
• Many have lived there since the rule of the Khmer
  Rouge regime of 1975-79.
• 20-25 of all Cambodians were killed.
• Efforts to rid the country of all vestiges of
  colonialism and Western influence.
• The excesses of the regime led to an invasion by
  Vietnam in 1979 which toppled Pol Pot.

41
Refugees
4

• Kosovo Refugees
• Province had a 2.2 million population.
• 90 are Muslims of Albanian origin.
• Part of the former Ottoman Empire.
• Collapse of the former Yugoslavia has led to the
  resurgence of ethnic conflicts.
• The Republic of Serbia (Belgrade) has a Muslim
  Albanian minority.
• The Province of Kosovo has been emptied by Serb
  forces.
• About 2 million became refugees.
• Into Albania, Macedonia and Montenegro.
• Removing IDs and destroying records.
• About 10,000 dead (genocide).