The question about the process of how global migration ties to economic globalization is burning for today. Before analyzing the very problem one should clearly understand the meaning of the two terms: migration and globalization. Migration can be explained as any movement of individuals from one location to another. Nowadays it is quite an ordinary thing for people to move over long distances alone or in large groups.
Sociologists single out three main reasons for migration. According to the first one people who are capable to work come to economically well-developed countries as cheap manpower. For example, in Washington, the number of foreign taxi drivers has increased from 25 to 85 percent for the last twenty-five years. As usual, migrants live in bad conditions and occupy low-paid positions. Still, they earn more money than in their native countries. So migrants and the country they work for have mutual benefits (Cohen, 1996, p. 51). The second important component of global migration is the departure of highly qualified and educated professionals to other economically stable countries. Nowadays Africa and the countries of Eastern Europe are on the top concerning the process of so-called “brain drain”.
Every year twenty thousand highly educated and skilled professionals leave Africa for Western and Northern Europe, the USA, and Canada. The third reason for global migration deals with the demographic situation. The population of well-developed countries is steadily growing older. That’s why the country needs new foreign manpower in different branches of the local economy. Globalization in its general sense denotes international integration.
This process presupposes the unification of people of the world into one whole society. Such acting together helps people to improve the economic, political, industrial, technological, and sociocultural spheres of every country’s development. Globalization in its specific understanding often refers to economic globalization, which means the interaction of national economies on the way of creating the international economy. Such a high level of the global economy can be achieved due to trade, the spread of technology, foreign direct investments, and capital flows. Also, the migration of people plays a very important role in this unification. So we can speak about global migration and how it influences economic globalization.
The process of global migration is as old as the hills. Prominent sociologist Peter Stalker (2000, p. 83) distinguished two historical stages in it. The first period was from the end of the nineteenth century till the beginning of the twentieth century up to World War I. The United States of America and Europe were two main economic poles during that period. In Europe, the prices were much higher and salaries much lower than in the USA. Analyzing the situation P. Stalker (2000, p. 112) showed that by economic theory the stream of goods was directed to Europe and a lot of migrants rushed to America. It was calculated that from 1846 to 1924 fifty million people moved from Europe to America and Australia.
As a result, there was a sizable equation of living standards on both sides of the ocean, which was seen in the convergence of prices and real incomes of the population. The second stage of migration began in the middle of the twentieth century. The changes in the legislation of the USA, Canada, and Australia dealing with the cancellation of racial and ethnic barriers lead to an increment of migrants several times in the second half of the twentieth century.
P. Stalker proves that global migration is an integral part of the modern “globalized world”. Such world globalization is characterized by the mobile transference of capital, goods, and people and the appearance of international nets of social, political, and economical character. So the interaction of global migration and globalization in the future will lead to economic equalization of life standards in all countries of the world.
References
Cohen, Robin. (1996). Sociology of Migration. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd.
Cohen, Robin. (1996). Theories of Migration. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd.
Stalker, P. (2000). Workers without Frontiers. The Impact of Globalization on International Migration. Lynne Rienner Publishers.