Migration and Development

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Since time immemorial, people have always moved from their original or cradle land and found settlements in other places. This movement is caused by a number f reasons some of which are intentional while others are as a result of catastrophic occurrences.

This movement of people from one place to another is referred to as migration (Giddens, 1984). The aim of this discussion is to look at some of the impacts that migration has on the immigrant, the people around the immigrant and the community at large. In addition, this discussion will also focus on the link between migration and development.

There are quite a number of developmental issued that have emerged as a result of migration. This is because; most of the people who migrate are part of a workforce in a given society. This therefore means that their departure will leave a gap in the workforce of their society and will also add to the workforce of the so city where the immigrants will finally settle.

The United States of America for instance has continued to receive immigrants from many parts of the world with most of the immigrants to America coming from Mexico. This has created a relationship of dependency considering that America is a 1^st world country while Mexico is still a developing country.

Many European countries have also seen immigrants from North America move into these countries permanently (Agunias, 2006).

During the boom period that was experienced in the 60s and 70s there were several agreements that were reached between the countries that were receiving labour and those that were providing labour. However, when this period came to an end, the needs of the countries that were receiving labour changed and this broke the ties between these countries.

Migration from various anthropological studies has been viewed in various angles some of which have been addressed in this discussion. Migration has been looked at from the angle of modernization. This is where anthropologists have argued that migration was used a tool of modernization.

This meant that since people in third world countries would migrate to 1st word countries in search of labour, they would get to earn of the new ways of life and when they went back to their native countries the would take back the new practices.

At the same time, by the immigrants providing labour in the 1^st wor1d countries they would contribute to development and this enhanced modernization. Thus, if an immigrant from North Africa moved to Europe both the native country and the country that the immigrant settles in stand to benefit as a result of the migration.

On the other hand, migration has been said to create dependency between the third world countries and the already developed countries. This is because, the immigrants who are from the periphery countries always depend on the core countries to provide them with labour opportunities so that they can migrate and set their base of work there.

The immigrants therefore do not consider how they can look for ways to develop their own countries and develop a sense of livelihood without having to migrate. Therefore, an immigrant from North Africa would prefer to migrate to a European country in search of labour opportunities instead of looking for labour opportunities in his or her own country.

Migration has also been considered in two main ways. There is migration from a peripheral or a third world country to first world country that is the most common (Kapur, 2003). There is also a new trend whereby people from third world countries are migration from the rural areas into the urban areas of their country in search of job opportunities.

While the latter is different from the former, the concept is still the same. This trend has brought about other issues of development (Kearney, 1986). While on one hand this issue encouraged development and urbanization, there is also slow growth in the rural areas as almost everybody has moved to the big cities and towns in search of work.

Impacts of Migration

The impacts that migration has on the immigrant, the people around him or her like the family members and the community at large can be looked at from two perspectives. There are some impacts that are negative while others are positive.

To begin with, when an immigrant moves from his native country to another country, the society from he come from is deprived of one of the most important pillars of development that is the labour force (Kuhn, 1962).

This means that even though the immigrants is likely to come back with new concepts that could enhance development, already the native country of the immigrant is likely to suffer as far as development is concerned due to lack of sufficient labour force. As a result, the local and regional economies are greatly undermined (Rodenburg, 1997).

This situation leads to a continued trend of dependence on the first world countries to provide labour opportunities. The end result is that since the native country is experiencing sluggish growth or the growth is almost ground to a halt for lack of enough labour, poverty crops in, and this encourages even greater migration as people sort of seek refuge in greener pastures (Hass, 2010).

Migration is also seen as creating inequality especially in third world countries (Sen, 1999). This is because the labour opportunities that are provided by the developed countries are such that not every person in the developing country can qualify to take them up. This means that for those who are not able to take up the opportunities. Their fate is sort of sealed.

Looking at it from this angle, then one clearly concedes that migration is not a tool for development especially for the counties from where the immigrants come from. Migration has not in any way helped the alleviation or reduction of poverty in the developing countries. If anything, it has helped increase poverty levels by high margins as the productivity of the community has gone low for lack of enough labour force.

There is yet another argument that has been developed regarding the role played by migration in development (Myrdal, 1957). It is argued that most of the immigrants together with their families do not have a proper investment strategy of the money they earn upon migration.

Instead, they spend their money on various consumer goods since most of the 1^st world countries encourage consumerism. This therefore means that when the immigrants go back to their native countries, they have nothing to shoe for their work and this paralyses development (Glick et al, 1991).

Migration and development are intertwined but whether migration has aided development remains a subject of debate and the controversy surrounding the subject does not seem to go away any time soon.

References

Agunias, D. (2006) Remittances and Development: Trends, Impacts, and Policy Options. Washington, DC: Migration Policy Institute.

Giddens, A. (1984) The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Glick, Szanton et al. (1991) Towards a Transnational Perspective on Migration. New York: New York Academy of Sciences.

Hass, H. (2010) Migration and Development: A Theoretical Perspective. Oxford: University of Oxford.

Kapur, D. (2003) Remittances: The New Development Mantra? Paper prepared for the G-24 Technical Group Meeting, September. 1516. New York and Geneva: United Nations.

Kearney, A. (1986) From the invisible hand to visible feet: Anthropological Studies of Migration and Development. California: University of California.

Kuhn, T. S. (1962) The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Myrdal, G. (1957) Rich Lands and Poor. New York: Harper and Row.

Rodenburg, J. (1997) In the Shadow of Migration: Rural Women and their Households in North Tapanuli, Indonesia. Leiden: KITLV Press.

Sen, A. (1999) Development as Freedom. New York: Anchor Books.

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Migration and Development

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