Economic globalisation

• new source / host countries
• south to south migration
• new bilateral corridors

Political factors:

• policy change
• conflict & persecution

Demographic characteristics of migrants:

• young people
• women

Environmental factors:

• climate change

• UN forecasts estimate anywhere between 25 million- 1 billion environmental migrants by 2050
• climate change (gradual) and natural disasters (sudden, mass)
• diverse factors such as population growth, poverty, governance, human security and conflict all interact with the climate change aspect
• amount of storms, floods and droughts in the US region continues to rise
• El Salvador alone is projected to lose 10-28% of its coastline before the end of the century
• global sea level rise could be worse than expected and this could result in land loss of 1.79 M km2, including critical regions of food production, and displacement of up to 187 million people globally
• Africa: climate change, land degradation and climate refugees

Professor Mastrojeni:

• "poverty trap" with poorest not afford to migrate
• climate change effects poorest more
• Maldives, sea level rise, buy another island in future
• mountains melting & sea level rise, cause huge displacement of people
• impacts ecosystems & food sources
• mass migration & climate change are linked

Lake Chad, environmental change:

• Lake Chad used to spread up to 10,000 square miles, but it has lost 90% of its surface area since the early 1970s
• Today, 4/5 of the wetland has been lost, - water table declined as much as 80 feet
• The Tiga Dam was finished upstream 2 decades before 1992 (1984), causing drying up of rivers, supplied a state irrigation project south of Kano (biggest city in Nigeria)
• In 1979 a state-owned rice company built the Maga Dam to divert its head waters in the Mandara Mountains to new paddy fields, and raise 60 miles of embankments, fish yields fell by 90%, water tables fell, hundred thousand people who had depended on the floods for their livelihood were left destitute
  Impact on migration:
• Local people depart the Badlands, while bad people move in
• Between 2013 and 2016, more than 2.3 million people were displaced due to environmental and social chaos, including 1.3 million children
• Youths in the Lake Chad Basin are joining the Boko Haram terrorist group because of lack of jobs and difficult economic conditions resulting from the drying up of the lake and extinction of its resources

Increasing numbers of women migrating:

• In some regions such as Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, North America and Oceania, the number of female international migrants has now exceeded that of men
• increasing female independence and status, greater freedom and the growing importance of women as main income earner
• not the case for Africa and Asia where factors such as regulations governing female admission and departure from some countries and the status of women are restrictive
• growing trend is the migration of highly skilled, graduate women especially to countries where there is less discrimination in the labour market and where in general women’s rights are better respected
• almost half of all migrants are women
• migrants, especially migrant women, have higher labour force participation rates (72.7 per cent) than non-migrants (63.9 per cent)
• every sixth domestic worker in the world is an international migrant, and women make up 73.4 per cent of international migrant domestic workers

ASEAN gender-based migration bans:

• 2009, women from Myanmar permitted to work abroad
• 2012, Cambodian domestic workers required to have parental permission to extend contracts & renew passports
• Mid-late 2014, Myanmar ban on migration for any domestic work to any country

Young workers:

• most economic migrants, seeking greater employment opportunities, higher wages and the possibility of sending remittances, are young
• young workers, mobile, seek job opportunities
• approx 8.5 million Indians live and work in the Gulf, the vast majority of them semi-skilled or unskilled workers
• regional variation in the age characteristics of migrants. E.g. older migrants outnumber younger migrants in the ‘Global North’, younger migrants outnumber older migrants in the ‘Global South’
• In the South, 21% of all international migrants are under the age of 20 whereas in the North this is 9%

Globalisation:

• since 1980s, trend towards laissez-faire economic policies
• lifted economic barriers
• increasing trade, investment and communication, reinforcing migrant links

South-South migration:

• world’s 82 million South-South migrants forming about 36% of the total stock of migrants
• 87% of refugees are located in countries in the south
  Proximity - 80% continuous borders, costs, lack of travel documents
  Networks - ethnic, community, and family ties reduce the costs and uncertainties involved
  Income - middle income from nearby low income (e.g. Zimbabwe -> South Africa), low income to less low income (e.g. Niger -> Ghana), 38% of South-South migrants come from countries with higher incomes
  Conflict & disaster - escape war, often first step in asylum to go to neighbouring country

Policies:

• ACs, more protectionist measures, immigrants may only be accepted if certain skills requirement e.g. point system Australia
• developing countries, benefit higher levels of emmigration where remittances sent home
• policies can change overtime
• USA immigration focus on family reunification, Canada & Australia points based system, Trump did want more points based

Venezuela: emigration controls:

• UN estimates by June 2018, 2.3 million people (7% countries population) left
• people leaving due to collapse of economy, oil prices fell $112 to $62 in 2014 ; poverty rate now nearly 90% population, 33% unemployment
• Vice President announced police "immediately" take control of countries 72 entry/exit points
• Rodriguez also announce several major changes to countries passport fees, making ti harder, new amount 4x monthly minimum wage