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ASPECTS OF GLOBALIZATION
INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION AND GLOBALIZATION: GLOBAL TRENDS AND PROSPECTS
Ivan Aleshkovski
The author analyzes the impact of globalization on the transformation of international migration flows. The author considers the characteristics of the global trends within international migration, namely: a growing international migration, a geographic expansion of international migration, qualitative shifts in the structure of migration flows, determining role of economic migration, permanent growth and structural intricacy of illegal immigration, increase of forced migration, increasing role of international migration in demographic development, and a dual character of migration policy. The author also points out that only a reasonable migration policy can provide a legitimate field for international migration and rational use of migrants' skills.
Keywords: international migration, illegal migration, demographic development, globalization of migration processes, migration policy.
In the second half of the twentieth century the humankind experienced an insurmountable and irreversible power of globalization processes, which influenced all spheres of social life and created a global system of interdependency between countries and nations.
This growing interdependency is related to:
• developing integrating processes and expanding economic interdependency between national economies;
• a growing gap in the levels of economic development between developing and developed countries caused, inter alia, by the demographic factor;
• improvement of communication facilities and the transport system, which allows information, goods and people to move freely and quickly even between territories that are located very distantly from each other;
• activities of international institutes and transnational corporations that engage employees from different countries and promote their movements across the borders;
• social connections that develop as a result of international migration and interracial marriages, in particular, and promote formation of the global system of mutual aid.
Globalization processes within impetuous changes in global political and economic systems have abruptly intensified global migration flows and have led to dramatic shifts in global migration trends that are resulting in the formation of a new stage of migration history of the mankind.
We summarized those trends in the 1990s and 2000s (see Aleshkovski and Iontsev 2008; 2015) and by now, they have become well-formed. The most significant among them are the follows:
Journal of Globalization Studies, Vol. 7 No. 2, November 2016 32-48
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- unprecedented growth of the international migration flows and formation of 'nation of migrants';
- a geographic expansion of international migration flows via involvement of practically every country in migration flows;
- qualitative changes in the structure of the international migration flows in compliance with the requirements of globalizing labor market;
- a determinant role of economic migration, primarily of the labour migration;
- a sufficient growth and structural intricacy of illegal migration;
- a growing scale and geographic expansion of forced migration;
- a growing importance of international migration for the demographic development of the world, countries of origin and destination;
- a dual character of migration policy at global, regional, and national levels.
Growth of the International Migration Scale
The collapse of the USSR and emergence of separate independent states in its place, important political and social changes in the Eastern Europe, the collapse of Yugoslavia and prolonged conflict between the Serbians and Albanians, the crisis in the Persian Gulf, civil wars in Rwanda, Somalia, and Sudan, conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria - all these and other events of the 1990s and 2000s set in motion vast and often uncontrolled international migration flows and moved out international migration of population among the most important global phenomena, which had an influence on the world economy and, accordingly, conditions of its globalization.
The scale of international migration allows us to speak about it as a phenomenon with a global influence. According to the United Nations Population Division 2015 estimates, more than 244 million people live outside their country of birth, 57 per cent of all international migrants live in more developed regions. Currently, international migrants make up nearly one of every 32 people in world, almost one of every eight people in the developed regions and nearly one of every 65 people in developing regions. Collectively, international migrants could now constitute the world's fifth most populous nation if they all lived in the same place - after China, India, the United States, and Indonesia (UN 2015b).
One should note that these figures do not include illegal immigrants whose number according to different estimates amounts from 10 to 15 per cent of the total number of international migrants (from 24 to 36 million people) and international tourists whose number exceeded 1,200 million. If we add 150 million labour migrants together with their family members, more than 10 million seasonal and frontier workers, and no less than 60 million forced migrants (refugees, displaced people, asylum seekers, 'ecological refugees', etc.), we will have the total number of people involved in the international migration in this or that form which amounts to over 1.5 billion people. If we summarize all the categories of migrants then every fifth Earth's inhabitant is an international migrant. This brings up the idea of the so-called 'nations of migrants', which can be compared by its quantity with the quantity of two largest nations of the world.
As it can be seen from Table 1, in the last half a century there have been significant changes in the regional distribution of international migration flows. If in 1960 the majority of international migrants (57.2 per cent) located in the developing regions, now more than 57.6 per cent of international migrants have settled in the developed regions. The most perceptible changes have been observed in Europe and North America where over the period from 1960 to 2015 the number of international migrants has increased by 5.3 times and by 4.3 times respectively. Currently, the region with the highest number
of international migrants is Europe (more than 76.15 million people in 2015), followed by Asia (75.08 million people) and North America (54.49 million people) (UN 2016a).
Table 1
International migrant stock at mid-year by major area and region, in millions,
1960-2015
Major Area, Region 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2005 2010 2015
World 75.46 81.34 99.28 152.56 172.70 191.27 221.71 243.70
Developed regions 32.31 38.36 47.46 82.38 103.38 117.18 132.56 140.48
Developing regions 43.15 42.97 51.82 70.18 69.32 74.09 89.15 103.22
Europe 14.24 18.79 21.89 49.22 56.27 64.09 72.37 76.15
Africa 9.13 9.94 14.10 15.69 14.80 15.19 16.84 20.65
Asia 28.48 27.82 32.11 48.14 49.34 53.37 65.91 75.08
Latin America and the Caribbean 6.01 5.68 6.08 7.17 6.59 7.23 8.24 9.23
Northern America 12.51 12.99 18.09 27.61 40.35 45.36 51.22 54.49
Oceania 2.13 3.03 3.75 4.73 5.36 6.02 7.13 8.10
Source: UN 2006a; 2015b.
The important indicator reflecting the ratio of international migration is the growing share of international migrants in the total population of the receiving states. In 1960, there were 27 countries in the world where the percentage of international migrants was up to 10 per cent, while in 2015 the number of such countries reached 92, moreover, in 16 countries the share of international migrants in total population exceeded 50 per cent (UN 2015b).
Most significantly, in the period from 1960 to 2015 the share of migrants in the total population increased in the oil-producing countries of the Persian Gulf: in Bahrain from 17.1 to 51.1 per cent, in Kuwait from 32.6 to 73.6 per cent, in Qatar from 32.0 to 75.5 per cent, in the UAE from 2.4 to 88.4 per cent, and in Saudi Arabia from 1.6 to 32.3 per cent (see Table 2).
Table 2
Countries with the largest percentage of international migrants in the total population
Country 1960 Country 2015
Israel 56.1 % UAE 88.4 %
Jordan 43.1 % Qatar 75.5 %
Kuwait 32.6 % Kuwait 73.6 %
Qatar 32.0 % Bahrein 51.1 %
Singapore 31.7 % Singapore 45.4 %
Brunei Darussalam 25.2 % Oman 41.1 %
Côte d'Ivoire 18.0 % Jordan 41.0 %
Bahrein 17.1 % Lebanon 34.1 %
Australia 16.6 % Saudi Arabia 32.3 %
Canada 15.0 % Switzerland 29.4 %
Note: only for countries with the population exceeding 500 thousands people. Source: UN 2006a, 2015b.
Thus, international migration flows in the contemporary world became global phenomena affecting all spheres of life of the global community; besides, the international migration became one of the key factors of social and economic development of states.
Geographic Expansion of International Migration Flows
Nowadays, almost every country in the world is to a greater or lesser extent involved in international migration. Even such 'closed' states as Northern Korea or Cuba are getting more and more proactive in the migration processes taking into account that emigration in these countries is much more strictly controlled than immigration, as opposed to many other countries.
One should note that despite the fact that the majority of international migrants originate from the developing countries, the contemporary migration flows far from always have only 'South-North' or 'East-West' vectors. Nearly half of all reported migrants move from one developing country to another and approximately the same number move from the developing countries to the developed ones. In other words, the number of migrants moving from 'south to south' approximately balances out the number of migrants who move from 'south to north'.
In the twenty-first century, all countries and territories in the world become, in one way or another, countries of destination for some migrants. The era of fast transportation throughout the world affects every country, and the international migrants can be found almost everywhere. According to the UN Population Division, in 2015 the only sovereign state in the world, where the number of international migrants was less than 1,000 people, was the Republic Tuvalu (number of its inhabitants is below 10.5 thousand people) (UN 2015 a).
In 1965 there were 41 countries with the number of migrants exceeding 300 thousand people, while in 2000 the number of such countries grew to 66, and by 2015 it reached 81; moreover, in 37 countries the number of international migrants exceeded a million persons, while in 10 countries it was over 5 million persons. At the top of the list are the USA (46.6 mln persons), Germany (12.0 mln persons) and Russia (11.6 mln persons) (see Table 3).
Table 3
Countries hosting the largest numbers (in millions) of international migrants
Country 2000 Country 2015
USA 34.81 USA 46.63
Russia 11.90 Germany 12.01
Germany 8.99 Russia 11.64
India 6.41 Saudi Arabia 10.19
France 6.28 United Kingdom 8.54
Ukraine 5.23 UAE 8.10
Canada 5.51 Canada 7.84
Saudi Arabia 5.26 France 7.78
United Kingdom 4.73 Australia 6.76
Australia 4.39 Spain 5.85
Source: UN 2006a, 2015b.
Thus, over the last 60 years the shifts in the global migration situation were primarily related to considerable changes of geography of international migrant flows as well as to the increasing number of countries becoming involved in international migration processes.
Qualitative Shifts in the Structure of Migration Flows
The profound changes that happened in the world in the second half of the twentieth century are rooted in the development of the post-industrial sector of economy and associated transformation of the demands at global labor market, as well as liberal reforms and democratic shifts in the post-communist and developing countries. This encouraged a qualitatively new stage in the development of international migration. In what follows we point out the key changes in the patterns of international migration.
Shift from Permanent to Temporary Migration
The existing data do not provide reliable information on temporary migration flows and for the most part temporary movements are not recorded in the statistics, whereas detailed information on temporary migrants is not regular. Meanwhile, surveys conducted in some countries of destination and statistics on travelers prove that in the recent five decades the number of permanent (or long-term) migrants has been gradually increasing, however, the number and frequency of short-term movements were growing much faster.
Among all the forms and types of international migration, the labor migration has been growing most rapidly during the last decades. This happens due to the spreading and greater availability of transport facilities which make migration easier and 'reduce' the distances between countries and continents. In this situation a temporary work abroad is more preferable than emigration since it incurs less material and non-material costs.
On the other hand, globalization of the world labor market requires a more flexible migration behavior that can be partially provided by labor migration. The attraction of foreign workers on a temporary basis also corresponds to the goals of immigration policy in developed countries which are the 'globalization elite' and in many respects define conditions, under which other countries get involved in globalization processes.
Shifts in the Qualitative Structure of Migration Flows
In the labor markets of developed countries that determine the direction and activity of international labor migration flows there is a constant demand for foreign labor at two qualification 'poles': low-level workers and skilled labors in technologically advanced jobs. At the same time, the demand for foreign labor in countries of destination tend to evolve towards more qualified labor force, and receiving countries strenuously encourage attraction of qualified immigrants in the branches and sectors of a national economy that face labor deficit.
Shifts in the qualitative structure of migration flows mean first of all an increasing number of skilled professionals among the international migrants. This trend is closely related to probably the most painful phenomenon in international migration, known as 'brain drain' which is a non-return migration of highly skilled specialists -scientists, engineers, physicians, etc. (including potential intellectuals such as students, post-graduate students, and trainees). The policy specifically aimed at attracting skilled personnel from other countries is widely used by developed countries, first of all by the USA.
On the other hand, low- and non-skilled migrants face new barriers that hamper their access to the countries of final destination. Thus, there simultaneously operate the still preserved push factors in less developed states and the pull factors in receiving countries. As a result, the receiving states are obligated to develop guest workers programs for temporary attraction of low-skilled migrants (ILO 2004: 127-151).
Feminization of Migration Flows
It is traditionally considered that males constitute the majority of international migrants. Females, if they took part in international migrations, used to be the male migrants' family members. But starting from the beginning of the 1990s the researchers noticed that currently more and more women migrate not in order to join their partner, but in the search for jobs in countries where they think to be better paid in comparison to their home country. In 2015, the share of women among international migrants in the developed countries exceeded 51 per cent (totally in the world - 48 per cent). The share of female migrants is the largest in Nepal (69 per cent), Moldova (65 per cent), and Latvia (60 per cent) (UN 2015b).
Table 4
Female migrants as a percentage of the international migrant stock by major area and region, 1960-2015
Major Area, Region 1960 1970 1980 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015
World 46.8 47.2 47.2 49.0 49.2 49.1 48.8 48.3 48.2
Developed regions 48.9 48.9 49.8 51.1 51.1 51.1 51.2 51.7 51.9
Developing regions 45.3 45.8 44.8 46.6 46.5 46.1 45.1 43.3 43.3
Europe 48.4 47.7 48.1 51.3 51.5 51.6 51.8 52.1 52.4
Africa 42.3 42.7 44.1 47.2 47.3 46.9 45.8 46.3 46.1
Asia 46.4 46.8 44.6 46.0 45.9 45.6 44.6 42.0 42.0
Latin America and the Caribbean 44.7 46.8 48.2 49.8 50.0 50.1 50.3 50.3 50.4
Northern America 50.5 51.5 52.6 51.1 50.8 50.5 50.3 51.1 51.2
Oceania 44.4 46.5 47.9 49.0 49.5 50.1 50.4 50.3 50.6
Source: UN 2006a; 2015b.
In many respects, the above-mentioned fact is connected with structural modifications in the global economy, which accompany globalization processes. The development of the services economy encourage the increasing role of this sector in the structure of the developed countries' labor market (textile industry, leisure industry, social service, sex services, etc.) and constantly growing need in female migrants including those occupied in unqualified jobs.
Thus, feminization of migration flows is one of the important trends of the contemporary international migration, which in its turn is accompanied by the increase of human trafficking, smuggling of migrants and other exploitative practices. The latter happens because women tend to work in the gender-segregated sectors of economy, such as domestic services and leisure sphere, and due to the fact that they are much more likely to suffer gender discrimination than their male counterparts (IOM 2006: 20). These trends pose a challenge to defending labor migrants' human rights (first of all, of the
women) in the line of priority tasks of national and international institutes, which deal with migration issues.
Determining Role of Economic Migration
The international migration flows emerge under the influence of different factors, among which economic factors are of primary importance. The growing role and scale of economic migration (first of all, of the labor migration) is the most stable and long-lasting trend of international migration. It gained a crucial impulse from the expansion of capitalist economy and commercialization of labor. In terms of global economic globalization the most important issue consists in the formation of the global labor market which operates via export and import of labor resources and has developed to an unprecedented scale.
Despite the fact that one can hardly estimate the general scale of international labor migration flows since far from all the countries monitor the labor migration and a considerable number of labor migrants are illegal; thus, the international labor migration appears to be of a considerable scale indeed and moreover, it turns to be a growing trend.
According to recent ILO estimates, in 2013 there were 150.3 million migrant workers in the world compared to 86 million in 2000 and 3.2 million in 1960. Almost half of migrant workers (48.5 per cent) are concentrated in two broad subregions, Northern America and Northern, Southern and Western Europe. These subregions together make up 52.9 per cent of all female migrant workers and 45.1 per cent of all male migrant workers (ILO 2015).
Table 5
Distribution of migrant workers, by broad subregion, 2013
Broad subregion Millions %
Northern, Southern and Western Europe 35.8 23.8
Eastern Europe 13.8 7.0
Northern America 37.1 24.7
Latin America and the Caribbean 4.3 2.9
Sub-Saharan Africa 7.9 5.3
Northern Africa 0.8 0.5
Central and Western Asia 7.0 4.7
Arab States 17.6 11.7
Eastern Asia 5.4 3.6
South-Eastern Asia and the Pacific 11.7 7.8
Southern Asia 8.7 5.8
World 150.3 100
Source: ILO 2015: 16.
Despite the fact that migrant-workers make up less than 4.2 per cent of the total number of economically active population of the developed countries, the role of labor migration for many receiving countries is much more significant. It is necessary to note that many countries are simultaneously host and home countries. For example, Canada is a traditional country of destination for migrants, but it also sends a great number of workers, especially high-skilled, to the USA.
We define the following three key factors determining the expansion of international labor migration and its increasing role (IOM 2006: 18):
- the pressure of the changing demographic situation (first of all, the population ageing) and labor market needs in developed countries;
- the pushing demographic factors in developing countries and growing differences of income and opportunities between developing and developed regions, along with an increasing gap between the most dynamically developed countries and other developing world;
- established inter-country networks based on family, culture, and history.
Remittances are the immediate and tangible benefit from international labor migration. The receiving countries financially benefit from labor migration mainly via receiving tax payments, while for the sending countries the financial inflow from migrant workers is more diverse.
Thus, labor migration as a global transference of human capital has become an important factor of development of the global economy and at the same time it is a result and source of increasing interdependence of countries and regions of the world. Considering that international mobility of people in search of jobs in the globalizing world will definitely increase, it is necessary for countries of origin and countries of destination of migrant-workers to develop an effective and fair management of labor migration.
Permanent Growth and Structural Intricacy of Illegal Immigration
Labor migration is closely related to another contemporary trend in the international migration - to a permanently growing irregular immigration.
There are no reliable data on irregular migrants in the world. According to different estimations, from 10 to 15 per cent of all international migrants stay in the countries of destination in violation of the law. In other words, irregular migrants are about half of legal migrant-workers, and their number is not reducing despite the restrictive immigration rules and special laws directed against irregular immigration. Moreover, countries where the use of labor of irregular migrants is widely practiced are replenished with developing countries. For example, Mexico, the largest supplier of irregular immigrants in the world, is at the same time a receiving society for about one million irregular immigrants from the countries of Latin America and Caribbean. It should be noted that the development of irregular immigration brings the emergence of new categories and groups of migrants who violate the law (migration laws, labor codes, etc.), both in destination countries and in transit countries.
Whatever the routes and means migrants use to enter a destination country and whatever measures are taken to prevent this flow, we think that it is hardly possible to effectively counteract irregular immigration under the existing predomination of capitalistic norms when in receiving countries the employers benefit from the cheap and rightless labor of irregular migrants, so that illegal migrants become 'pure taxpayers' beneficial for employers and receiving state. In combination with demographic pressure and economic pushing factors in sending countries, these circumstances make illegal migration in the contemporary world structurally insurmountable. However, this does not mean that we are unable to restrain the scale of irregular immigration. In particular, this can be achieved via a more effective management of legal migration flows. The most important issue for receiving governments is to realize that irregular immigration is neither a form of terrorism or criminality to fight with by all means, nor should they
run to another extreme and open the doors wide for migrants, so that the citizens will have to defend their indigenous rights against undesirable invasion.
Increasing Scale and Geographic Expansion of Forced Migration
Forced migration is a full range of spatial movements related to permanent or temporary changes in place of residence caused by extreme factors not depending on people's will (political and ethnically based persecutions, natural disasters, technological accidents, ecological catastrophes, armed conflicts, etc.). Forced migrants include: refugees, internally displaced people, asylum-seekers, ecological refugees, stateless people and others. For most of them, emergency and life-threat push factors are determinative.
Increase in the scale and geography of forced migration is related to the current stage of international relations filled with political tension, wars, ethnic conflicts, and ecological disasters (after Second World War, over 150 global and regional conflicts happened in the world). According to the UNHCR date, by the end of 2015 the global figure of forced migrants was at 55 million, of which 13.7 million were refugees, 32.3 mln internally displaced people, around 1.8 million asylum-seekers and 3.5 million stateless people (UnHCR 2015).
Table 6
Estimated forced migration stock at mid-year by major area, region,
1960-2015, millions
Major area or region 1985 1990 1995 2000 2006 2015
World 10.7 14.9 27.25 21.8 32.86 54.96
Europe 0.7 0.1 6.5 5.58 3.43 3.90
Africa 3.0 4.6 11.8 6.06 9.75 17.76
Asia 5.1 6.8 7.9 8.45 14.91 25.94
Latin America and the Caribbean 0.4 1.2 0.1 0.58 3.54 6.67
Northern America 1.4 1.4 0.9 1.05 1.14 0.62
Oceania 0.1 0.1 0.05 0.08 0.09 0.07
Source: UNHCR 2015.
Therefore, the forced migration as one of essential contemporary international migration trends has gained a global scale.
The Increasing Role of International Migration in Demographic Development
During the major part of the human history the population number primarily changed due to a natural increase of population. The mortality and fertility rates, growing gap in demographic potentials between less developed and more developed nations, as well as globalization of the world economy have resulted in the growing role of international migration in the demographic development of the globe.
Nowadays, international migration is one of the major factors of stabilization of the world population. As for developed states, it is the principal (and in some countries -the only one) determinant of the population growth, while in the developing states it contributes to the decrease in the population growth rate and alleviates 'population pressure'. Thus, net migration from less developed regions to more developed regions exceeded 100 million persons from 1950 to 2010 (UN 2015b).
Considering the global tendency of decreasing population growth rates developing regions are at the initial stage of this decrease while in developed countries the rate of natural population growth is often negative. For this reason, the migration potential in developing countries remains high while developed countries are dependent on immigrants' inflow to withstand local population ageing. Between 1950 and 1955 the migration increase gains only 1.7 per cent of total population increase in more developed regions, and between 2010 and 2015 migration increase gains more than 65 per cent of total population increase (Table 7).
Table 7
Indicators of Demographic Development of More Developed Regions, 1950-2015
Time periods Average annual rate of population increase Average annual rate of natural increase Average annual rate of migration increase
1950-1955 11.9 11.8 0.1
1955-1960 11.7 11.7 0.0
1960-1965 10.8 10.3 0.5
1965-1970 8.5 7.8 0.7
1970-1975 7.7 6.5 1.2
1975-1980 6.5 5.2 1.3
1980-1985 5.8 4.7 1.1
1985-1990 5.5 4.2 1.3
1990-1995 4.4 2.3 2.1
1995-2000 3.2 1.0 2.2
2000-2005 3.4 0.7 2.7
2005-2010 4.0 1.3 2.7
2010-2015 2.9 1.0 1.9
Source: UN 2015a.
It is important to emphasize that international migration is not only a way to increase the total population number but it also has a positive impact on its age and gender structure, bringing higher reproductive standards. In the 1990s this argument was applied within the 'replacement migration' concept which emphasized the potential of international migration from 'demographically younger regions' to compensate for negative demographic trends in the 'older' receiving states (UN 2000). Whether 'replacement migration' is able to solve problems of population ageing in developed countries is a scientific problem which requires further discussion. Taking into account constant negative trends in demographic development (first of all, population ageing) in developed countries, the number of immigrants required to replace them seems to be too large. There are forecasts that the EU countries, in order to 'compensate' for ageing of their labor-active groups, are to 'import' annually 12.7 million immigrants until 2050. Russia, in order, to provide a stable number of the labor-age population, is to admit annually (up to median forecast) about 700,000-800,000 migrants (net migration) and gradually increase this number up to 1.5-1.7 million migrants by 2025 (UN 2000).
In the twenty-first century the depopulation trends along with population ageing will make international migration a non-alternative factor of the population growth in the majority of developed countries. In this context, one should consider not only the impact of immigration on the population size in receiving countries, but the fundamen-
tal shifts in reproductive behavior, gender, age, and ethnic structure of the receiving countries' populations due to inflow of immigrants from distant regions.
The Dual Character of Migration Policy
The transformation of migratory streams into a global phenomenon has aroused a significant interest of scientists, officials, politicians, international public organizations and public in the issues of international migration. In its turn, there emerged a necessity to improve the management tools for migratory processes at national and regional levels, as well as to work out a migration policy at the global level comprising a system of international treaties, agreements and other bilateral and multilateral normative legal acts on regulation of interstate territorial movements of population, in order to pursue social, economic, demographic, and geopolitical purposes, etc.
Our analysis shows that duality is a peculiar characteristic of the existing system of management of the interstate and territorial movements of population. At the current stage of globalization the dual character of migration policy is distinctly noticeable at the following three levels (Aleshkovski and Iontsev 2015):
- the global (world) level associates with contradictions between interests of various agents of international relations system (developed and developing countries, international organizations and certain states);
- the regional level (level of integration associations) associates with existing counteractive trends for liberalization of migration regime within integration associations and simultaneous toughening of migration policy towards citizens of third countries;
- the national level (level of individual states) represents a contradiction between social, demographic, and economic interests, on the one hand, and national security, on the other hand.
Meanwhile, the contradiction between migrants and host states as well as between business circles and society in general, gains a particular meaning. One should bear this in mind since in recent years in the developed countries the integrating policy for migrants can be implemented both at the regional and national levels.
Global (world) Level of Migration Policy
The core of the international normative framework on international migration is constituted by agreements, recommendations and others legislative acts, which are adopted at different meetings and conferences, conducted under the auspices of the largest international organizations, mainly the United Nations and its agencies (UNFPA, UNCTAD, UNHCR), International Organization for Migration (IOM) and International Labour Organization (ILO).
The Compendium of Recommendations on International Migration and Development, published in 2006 by the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the Secretariat, defines to what extent the adopted documents should provide guidance to the governments to promote co-development initiatives in international migration management (see UN 2006a: 95-98).
The conducted analysis showed that resulting documents of conferences and summits contain various recommendations for improving the migration policy. At the same time, one can define the dual character of the approaches to managing the migratory processes at the global level. The duality at the global level proceeds, first of all, from the differing interests of various actors of the international relations system which are
often in conflict with each other. For example, there are contradictions between the major countries of emigration and countries of immigration. As a result, many documents and agreements signed at international conferences remain for many years non-consummated or are applied in a limited number of countries since they have been ratified by an insignificant number of countries.
A typical example here is the situation with ratification of international conventions dealing with migrant workers and affecting economic interests of receiving states. For example, by the present time only 26 per cent of countries has ratified the 1949 Convention No. 97 'On migrant workers' of the International Labor Organization, and as many as 12 per cent of countries has ratified the 1975 ILO Convention No. 143 'Concerning Migrations in Abusive Conditions and the Promotion of Equality of Opportunity and Treatment of Migrant Workers'. In its turn, the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families was adopted in 1990, came into force only in 2003, and has been ratified so far only in 24 per cent of countries (see Table 8).
Table 8
Ratification of international legal documents dealing with international migration
Agreement Year of coming into force Participants of agreements as of 01.09.2006 Participants of agreements as of 01.09.2016
Number of countries Percentage of countries Number of countries Percentage of countries
The 1949 Convention No. 97 of the ILO on migrant workers 1952 45 23 49 26
The 1975 Convention No. 143 of the ILO concerning Migrations in Abusive Conditions and the Promotion of Equality of Opportunity and Treatment of Migrant Workers 1978 19 10 23 12
The 1990 International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families 2003 34 17 48 25
The 2000 Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children 2003 97 50 1 70 88
The 2000 Protocol against the smuggling of migrants by land, sea and air 2004 89 46 1 42 73
The 1951 Convention relating to the status of refugees 1954 143 73 145 75
Source: data of the UN (United Nations Treaty Collection) and ILO (ILO Information System on International Labour Standards).
To conclude an overview of the migration policy at the international level one particular characteristic of the international community towards the problem of international migration should be emphasized: it was always viewed as a function of changing political, economic and social conditions.
However, all those discussions on migration issues have three main features: 1) lack of reliable and complete statistical data on migration; 2) complex nature of international migration and absence of a comprehensive theory of migration; 3) difficult interrelation between migration and development, incomplete understanding of totality of interrelations between migration and various factors (demographic, economic, political, ecological, etc.).
Search of an answer to these problems is necessary for development of a well-grounded migration policy, decision making on all actual aspects of interrelation of migration and development, realization of potential of international migration as a factor of development of countries of departure, transit and destination.
Regional Level of Migration Policy
Regional cooperation for the management of labor migration can be divided into formal mechanisms of regional integration (migration policy as a component of regional integration), regional inter-state agreements (migration policy in the framework of interstate agreements within a region) and less formal mechanisms, such as regional consultative processes and other informal arrangements.
The conducted analysis revealed that the dual character of migration policy at the regional level is expressed in two aspects.
First, under the conditions of actively developing processes of the regional integration in the modern world, we witness liberalization of migration policy, the appearance of 'transparent borders' in the framework of regional unions, and freedom of movement for the population and labor force among the member countries across the internal state borders of those unions. On the other hand, many countries adopt increasingly strict measures towards migrants from 'the third countries', caused by different aspects of the national security (including a fight against the threats of the international terrorism and protection of the national labor markets).
The second aspect is that the interests and problems of integration association in general cannot coincide or can even contradict the interests of its separate member states. For example, the position of the United Kingdom from the very beginning of its accession into the EU (1973) had a somewhat special limiting character which, afterwards, found its reflection in that it refused to sign the Schengen agreement. Now, the government of Great Britain considers a possibility of introduction of limiting measures in relation to migrants from other countries of the European Union, and also restrictions on their use of social services and system of social protection of Great Britain. In the North American free trade zone (NAFTA) between the USA, Canada and Mexico, the freedom of travel of citizens, including migrant workers, is ensured between the USA and Canada while possibilities of labor migration of the Mexican citizens to these countries are significantly limited.
National Level of Migration Policy
At different times in history, different components of the government migration policy (emigration or immigration) dominate and define migration policy during a definite period.
In periodical UN publication on demographic policy (World Population Policies Database), there is a special chapter on different national government views and state policy on international migration.
Currently, only 13 per cent of sovereign states (the most part of which is located in Africa) do not regulate an immigration level. Whereas policy of emigration is not pursued by 45 per cent of the states, generally countries of Africa, Europe and North America. At the same time, all developed countries realize measures in the field of immigration regulation whereas emigrations are regulated by only 20 per cent of them (see Tables 9 and 10).
Table 9
Views of national governments in relation to immigration policy, 2011
Region Policy in the field of immigration level
To reduce To maintain To raise Without intervention
World in general 16 % 60 % 11 % 13 %
Europe 11 % 64 % 25 % -
Africa 19 % 38 % 2 % 41 %
Asia 30 % 55 % 12 % 2 %
Latin America and Caribbean Region 12 % 79 % 3 % 6 %
North America - 100 % - -
Australia and Oceania - 94 % 6 %
Table 10
Views of national governments in relation to emigrant policy, 2011
Region Policy in the field of immigration level
To reduce To maintain To raise Without intervention
World in general 24 % 22 % 9 % 45 %
Europe 18 % 14 % - 68 %
Africa 25 % 15 % 2 % 58 %
Asia 21 % 29 % 29 % 21 %
Latin America and Caribbean Region 33 % 36 % - 30 %
North America - - - 100 %
Australia and Oceania 31 % 19 % 31 % 19 %
Source: UN 2013b.
Thus, today the majority of countries pursue the immigration policy with governments' deliberate interest to immigrants along with imposing various requirements on them concerning the education level, profession, qualification, financial position, age, marital status, etc. Special attention is paid to these characteristics taking into account both a situation in the national labor market and goals of a population policy, and the national security aspects.
One should note that the greatest changes in national migration policy since the end of the 1950s are connected exactly with its immigration component. For the states traditionally pursuing an immigration policy, the essential changes consist in the adopted laws directed, first, at encouragement of immigration of highly qualified specialists, and secondly, at a struggle against illegal migration.
The analysis of laws adopted in recent years and directed at counteracting illegal migration demonstrates a dual policy of receiving states: on the one hand, regulaitions for newly arriving migrants becomes more and more restrictive; on the other hand, policy of legalization is pursued in relation to those who entered a country earlier and found a job illegally. In developed countries from 1980 to 2016, over 30 migration amnesties were held and over 10 million illegal immigrants were amnestied. Thus, it is not actually about eradication of illegal immigration, but about legalization of those who entered a country earlier and found a job illegally. For example, in 2014, the US President Barak Obama signed an executive order reforming the immigration system of the USA which provided legalization for over 5 million illegal migrants. We should note that a number of experts speak against the implementation of such campaigns since in their opinion the latter only increase the potential scales of illegal immigration (Aleshkovski and Iontsev 2015).
The duality of migration policy at the national level also reveals itself in economic, demographic and geopolitical contradictions. For example, for the sake of demographic and economic development it often seems necessary to hold a liberalization of migration policy while the national security interests quite often require its toughening. The latter contradiction especially clearly revealed itself after the 9/11.
With respect to the migration policy in Russia, one should point that on the one hand, certain legislative base in the field of regulation of migratory processes has been worked out during the modern period of the country's development (from 1991 to 2016), and, on the other hand, Russia still lacks a strategic vision of migration as a positive phenomenon.
The duality of migration policy in Russia reveals itself in the fact that at the highest national level (in particular, in the Concept of the state migration policy of the Russian Federation, the President of Russia's Addresses to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation) the thesis is proclaimed about the necessity of conducting a reasonable immigration policy implying the involvement of our compatriots from abroad and qualified legal labor. Meanwhile, at the 'executive' level the attitude of the state to migratory processes management remains in many respects of a police-officer type, while migration itself is considered, first of all, as a threaten to the Russian national security. This ongoing situation contradicts the interests of the economic and demographic development of Russia and poses a necessity of a further improvement of the migration policy in Russia.
In conclusion we find it necessary to note that we believe that in order to overcome the dual character of migration policy and to take full advantage of international migration as a resource of development the political agents should pursue a reasonable and strategically adjusted approach to international migration management.
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