Abstract
Nazli Choucri argues that in terms of movement of population, fair globalization is a challenge due to its complexity and ubiquity; nevertheless, global norms for managing changing patterns of mobility across territorial boundaries must be found.
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Notes
For an illustration based on the case of Europe, see Therborn (1987). For an anlysis of migration phases in the Middle East, see Choucri (1997).
It is fair to say that theories of international migration are at relatively early stages of development and, more important, there are as yet no theories of formal linkage between cross-border movements of population and international relations. For a selective review of ‘theory’, see Massey et al. (1993).
For a broad contextual perspective, see Sassen (1998).
A good example of this type of organized mobility is the Egyptian state-led migration of educators from Egypt to other Arab countries during the immediate post-World War II period, and persisting throughout the remainder of the 20th century, The private sector equivalent – with adjustment for motivation and institutional contexts – is the movement of Christian missionaries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, where the propagation of religious values was accompanied by educational initiatives (or services).
Note that by referring to ‘process’ we are drawing attention to institutional and organizational features that are generated (or put in place) specifically for the purpose of facilitating migration, often transcending the specific motivations of sending as well as receiving officials.
The first robust empirical studies of the multiplier effect were done by an interdisciplinary MIT team working on the Gulf Countries of the Middle East, focusing specifically on Kuwait.
For example, the importation of labour in the oil-rich countries of the Middle East, designed to compensate for the shortage of local workers (first order) has created added demand for labour that cannot be met by the workers in place; hence new workers are imported (second order). This is often not an inter-generational process, but near-immediate consequences due to the scale scope of the initial migration stream. To simplify, we must remember that the migrants, too, have their own demands for goods and services – and hence for labour.
Extended from Choucri (1993).
Keep in mind, of course, that the very fact of migration may itself shape the nature of the state.
For a broad review of critical issues, see Weiner and Russell (2001).
For an early analysis, see Choucri (1974). For an update a decade later, see Choucri (1984).
Myron Weiner is credited for drawing attention to this point early on in the history of the Inter-University Seminar on International Migration, Cambridge, MA.
Electronic resources on cross-border movements of population – available through MIT's Global System for Sustainable Development (GSSD) – represent added sources of knowledge that still remain to be effectively utilized. GSSD is an adaptive and evolving global knowledge system dedicated to sustainable development based on distributed networking principles and practices. Since global problems are invariably complex and require a multidisciplinary global approach for analysis, decision-making, and solution. GSSD places migration-related Internet materials in the broader context of challenges to sustainable development and thus, by necessity, related cross-border mobility to a range of first and higher order ‘causes’ and ‘consequences’. See http://gssd.mit.edu
See De Greiff and Cronin (2002) for a set of essays exploring the normative and institutional conditions under which globalization may become a benefit for humanity, rather than a mechanisms for enhancing prevailing cleavages.
References
Choucri, Nazli (1974) Population Dynamics and International Violence: Propositions, insights and evidence, Lexington MA: D.C. Heath/Lexington Books.
Choucri, Nazli (1984) Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Population and Conflict, Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.
Choucri, Nazli (1993) ‘Introduction’, in Nazli Choucri (ed.) Global Accord: Environmental challenges and international responses pp. 25–26, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Choucri, Nazli (1997) ‘Demography, Migration, and Security in the Middle East’, in Laura Guazzone (ed.) The Middle East in Global Change: The politics and economics of interdependence versus fragmentation, pp. 95–118, New York: St. Martin's Press, Inc.
De Greiff, Pablo and Cairan Cronin (eds.) (2002) Global Justice and Transnational Politics, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press; 2002.
Massey, Douglas S, Joaquin Arango, Graeme Hugo, Ali Kouaouci, Adela Pellegrino and J.Edward Taylor (1993) ‘Theories of International Migration: A review and appraisal’, Population and Development Review 19(3): 431–466.
Sassen, Saskia (1998) Globalization and its Discontents, New York: The New Press.
Therborn, Goeran (1987) ‘Migration and Western Europe: The old world turning new’, Science 237: 1183–1187.
Weiner, Myron and Sharon Stanton Russell (eds.) (2001) Demography and National Security, New York: Berghahn Books.
World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization (2004) A Fair Globalization: Creating opportunities for all, Geneva: International Labor Organization.
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Looks at how people on the move are adjusting to globalization
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Choucri, N. Cross-border Movements of Populations in a ‘Fair Globalization’. Development 48, 44–51 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.development.1100104
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.development.1100104