the new migration and development optimism

alan.gamlen@vuw.ac.nz

migration and development mania

migration and development mania

the new ‘migration-and-development’ optimism

• migration benefits everyone if the policies are right– migrants win through expanding freedoms and higher living

standards, but risk vulnerability– destination countries win through cheap low-skill labour and

new ideas, but risk ethnic tensions– origin countries win through remittances and knowledge

transfers, but risk brain drain– the risks of migration are best minimized (and rewards

maximized) by promoting ‘circulation’ and ‘engaging diasporas’

Stark and Bloom (1985) The new economics of labour migration, The American Economic Review 75(2): 173-78.

the old optimism: 1950s-60s• Kindleberger (1965) Emigration and

Economic Growth. Banca Natzionale Del Lavoro Quarterly Review, 28, 235-54.

• key ideas– migration balances wage differentials– rising wages at source promote

innovation laissez faire approach leads to

‘balanced growth’ background: postwar growth drives

demand for migrant labour

jethro tull’s seed drill

Image sources: http://www.industrialrevolution.sea.ca/seed_drill.gif http://niciwiki.pbworks.com/f/workers1.jpg

rural labour ‘freed’ to work in industry

the old pessimism: 1970s-80s• Papademetriou & Martin (1991) The unsettled

relationship: labor migration and economic development. New York/London: Greenwood.

• Castles and Kosack (1973) Immigrant workers and class structure in Western Europe. London: Oxford University Press.

• key ideas: – migration driven by capitalist exploitation– ‘asymetric growth’: destinations win, but

origins and migrants lose neo-marxist economic theory background: oil-shocks reduce demand

for migrant labour and ethnic tensions emerge

Turkish Guest Workers in Germany, 1969

Images: http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/images/Gastarbeiter%20copy2.jpg http://americanhistory.si.edu/ONTHEMOVE/collection/image_1524.html. Photo by Leonard Nadel

Mexican Braceros compare paychecks, 1956

the new optimism: 1990s-2000s

• key ideas:– migration generally benefits all, provided the

policies are right– the right policies involve circular migration and

engaging diasporas‘third-way’ neoliberal economic theorybackground: search for ways of ‘governing

globalization’

the new optimism: 1990s-2000s

• states see need to cooperate, but unwilling to accept centrally imposed global migration governance

• search for areas where interests coincide– migration and development

optimism suggests a grand bargain is possible if states cooperate• e.g. Rolph Jenny 2006

Image source: http://www.marriedtothesea.com/031709/three-way-handshake.gif

conclusions• migration and development thinking has swung back and

forth from optimism to pessimism since the 1950s at least

• the new migration and development optimism offers states a starting point for cooperation over migration, in lieu of global migration governance

• the way we think about the impacts of migration is driven not only by social science but by wider historical factors