Global Migration

Migration As a result of social, economic and political changes migration as a worldwide issue has brought about 80 million migrants and 20 million of them are refugees. Movement of people from one region or society to another for the purpose of settlement.

Definitions Migration is the movement of people from one region to another for the purpose of settlement. Immigration is the movement of people into a country to settle. Emigration is the process by which people leave a country to settle in another country.

History European expansion and its effects brought migration into world’s agenda. After 2nd World War and especially in the last decades migration became an important political issue. Migration on the one hand make a country’s population ethnically and culturally colorful, creates hostility towards outsiders on the other. Movement of people towards the 2st World forced European countries’ to examine their citizenship regulations.

Four model of Migration Classic Model: Immigration is encouraged by the countries of destination like USA, Canada and Australia. The only restriction is annual quotas. Colonial Model: Countries are more tolerant to immigration coming from their ex-colonies than other countries of origin. (i.e. immigration to England from the former British colonies) Worker Model: Immigrants are accepted temporarily as guests workers to fulfil the demand within the labour market without citizenship. Illegal Model: Entering an industrialized country secretly and work without legal permission.

Forces Behind Migration Push Factors are the dinamics within the country of origin which force people to emigrate such as war, famine, political oppression or population pressures. Pull Factors are characteristics of destination countries that attract immigrant wish to get better living and working conditions. Macro Level Processes: Overcharging issues such as political situations, laws and regulations between the countries to control migration. Changes in global economy can be counted as a macro factor for example. Micro Level Processes: Resources knowledge and understandings that migrant population has and activate.

A Case for Macro/Micro Level Processes Macro Level -Germany’s need for labour, -German policy for guest workers, -Turkish economy’s lacking employment. Micro Level Informal network among Turkish workers.

Four Tendencies in Global Migration (by Stephen Castles and Mark Miller, 1993) Acceleration: Increase in the number of migrants. Diversification: Types of migrants have changed. Labourforce, refugees… Globalization: In terms of sender or receivers migration become global in nature. Feminization: Women’s number in migrants are increasing. They are generally hired as cheap labourforce like domestic labour or sexual slaves.

Global Diasporas Diaspora is dispersal of an ethnic population from an original homeland into foreign areas by force because of traumatic reasons. First known diasporas African-American people who migrated to the new world as slaves and Jews people who had to migrate and got citizenship in the West today after the 2nd world war.

Characteristics of Diasporas Sharing the same history and ancestors, Sharing a common reserved ethnic identity, Sharing a collective memory of original homeland, A degree of tension towards the host country, Sharing the belief in return, Sharing a sense of solidarity, A potential to contribute to the host culture.

Five Historical Diasporas Robin Cohen (1997) defines five historical categories of diasporas and notes that diasporas are formed as a result of persecution and violence. Victim (Jewish), Imperial (British), Labour (Indian), Trade (Chinese), Cultural (Caribbean).

A Case: United Kingdom Historically Britain is formed by English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish. After industrial revolution some Dutch, Chinese, Irish and black people had been added to the existing British community. Surveys show that British people are discriminatory to non-Briton. British migration policy has been getting more and more discriminatory. In order to get British citizenship, a person has to be born and bred in Britain by a British parent. The British Overseas citizenship formed in 1981 has become more restrictive recently. Between entering to UK as asylum seekers and get refugee status had been hardened following Thatcher policies. More than 6 per cent of British population are made up of different ethnic and racial background. Recent migrants are working in manual jobs and paid less. In professional and managerial positions there are few ethnic people. Discrimination occurs in hiring level because of legal restrictions. Unemployment rate is higher among ethnic people.

Immigration and Ethnic Relations in Europe After the 2nd World War some Mediterranean and North African countries sent guest workers to Europe as a result of acute labour shortage. After the collapse of Soviet regime a new migratory movement has started: -Migration from ex-socialist countries to Europe and -migration from East Germany to the West starting from Ethnic un-mixing in Soviet countries and former Yugoslavia created millions of migrant and refugees.

Migration and the EU Freedom of movement within EU is resulted a migration of highly developed and skilled people. According to this legislation EU citizens have right to work and live in another EU country. With the Schengen Agreement some EU countries hardened the control of their territory. By the enlargement of EU, the protection of the external borders became more important issue. Except family unification and studentship, entrance to the EU is almost impossible. Still it is estimated that every year people smuggled into the EU borders. This fact triggered illegal entries and human trafficking. Human smuggling became a global organized crime as a result of that.

Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Economic Migrants Asylum Seeker: A person who applied for refuge in a foreign country due to a fear of religious or political persecution in his or her country of origin. Although it is an internationally recognized legal rights. Asylum seekers are treated like criminal people by the authorities of the country of destination. Some people enter to European countries to seek better life but do not get political protection. That’s why EU countries strengthen their policies and accepting procedures against illegal entrances. People in EU countries see asylum seekers as potential criminals. They become less tolerant to the migrant people.