Globalisation and International Migration

This lesson introduces the core concepts of migration as a foundation for Edexcel A-Level Geography, Paper 2 (9GE0), Topic 8B: Migration, Identity and Sovereignty. You will explore the types, patterns and drivers of contemporary international migration and understand how globalisation has accelerated the movement of people across borders. This lesson addresses the Edexcel Enquiry Question: "What are the causes and consequences of international migration?"

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What Is Migration?

Migration is the movement of people from one place to another with the intention of settling, either temporarily or permanently, in the new location. It is one of the most fundamental processes in human geography, reshaping populations, economies, cultures and landscapes across every scale from local to global.

Migration is distinguished from other forms of human movement (such as commuting, tourism or nomadism) by its purposeful relocation and by its duration — migrants typically intend to stay in the destination for a significant period, whether months, years or permanently.

Exam Tip: The Edexcel specification requires you to understand migration at multiple scales — internal (within a country), regional (between neighbouring countries) and international (across continents). Always specify the scale of migration you are discussing in exam answers, and link it to globalisation processes where appropriate.

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Types of Migration

Migration can be classified along several dimensions. The most important distinctions for A-Level Geography are:

By Choice: Voluntary vs Forced

• Voluntary migration: The migrant chooses to move, typically to improve their quality of life. This includes economic migrants seeking better jobs, students pursuing education abroad, and retirees moving to warmer climates.
• Forced migration: The migrant has no meaningful choice. This includes refugees fleeing conflict or persecution, people displaced by natural disasters, and those compelled to move by state policy (e.g. forced resettlement programmes).

The distinction between voluntary and forced migration is often blurred in practice. A farmer in sub-Saharan Africa who moves to a city because drought has destroyed their livelihood is technically making a "choice", but the alternatives are destitution or starvation. The concept of survival migration (Betts, 2013) captures these grey areas — people who cross borders to escape existential threats that do not fit neatly into the legal definition of a refugee.

By Distance: Internal vs International

• Internal migration: Movement within a country's borders. This includes rural-to-urban migration (the dominant form globally), urban-to-rural counter-urbanisation, and inter-regional migration (e.g. the movement from northern to southern England for employment).
• International migration: Movement across national borders. This is the primary focus of Topic 8B and includes both short-distance cross-border migration (e.g. Poland to Germany) and long-distance intercontinental migration (e.g. India to the UK).

By Duration: Temporary vs Permanent

• Temporary migration: The migrant intends to return. This includes seasonal agricultural workers (e.g. Eastern European fruit pickers in the UK), contract workers in the Gulf states, and international students.
• Permanent migration: The migrant intends to settle indefinitely. This includes family reunification, skilled workers gaining permanent residency, and refugees who cannot return to their home country.

By Legality: Regular vs Irregular

• Regular (documented) migration: The migrant has legal authorisation to enter and reside in the destination country, through a visa, work permit or other legal pathway.
• Irregular (undocumented) migration: The migrant enters or remains in the destination country without legal authorisation. The IOM estimates there are approximately 50 million irregular migrants globally. The term "illegal immigrant" is widely rejected by migration scholars and international organisations because it criminalises the person rather than the act.

Type	Definition	Example
Voluntary economic	Choosing to move for better employment or income	Polish plumbers migrating to the UK post-2004 EU enlargement
Forced / refugee	Compelled to flee conflict, persecution or disaster	Syrian refugees fleeing civil war to Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan
Internal rural-urban	Moving from countryside to city within the same country	Chinese rural workers migrating to Shenzhen or Shanghai
International skilled	Qualified professionals moving for career opportunities	Indian software engineers migrating to Silicon Valley
Seasonal / temporary	Short-term movement linked to specific work or activity	Mexican agricultural workers in California under H-2A visas
Irregular / undocumented	Migration without legal authorisation	Central Americans crossing the US-Mexico border without visas
Retirement	Older people moving to preferred environments	British retirees moving to Spain's Costa del Sol

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Theoretical Frameworks: Why Do People Migrate?

Lee's Push-Pull Model (1966)

The most widely used theoretical framework for understanding migration drivers is Everett Lee's push-pull model. Lee identified four sets of factors that influence migration decisions:

1. Push factors: Negative conditions in the origin that encourage people to leave — war, poverty, unemployment, political persecution, environmental degradation, lack of services.
2. Pull factors: Positive conditions in the destination that attract people — jobs, higher wages, political freedom, better healthcare and education, family connections.
3. Intervening obstacles: Barriers that make migration difficult — distance, cost of travel, immigration laws, language barriers, physical barriers (deserts, seas), lack of information.
4. Personal factors: Individual characteristics that affect the decision — age, gender, education, family ties, risk tolerance, access to social networks in the destination.

graph LR
    subgraph ORIGIN["ORIGIN (Push Factors)"]
        A1["Unemployment"]
        A2["Conflict / persecution"]
        A3["Poverty / low wages"]
        A4["Environmental hazards"]
        A5["Lack of services"]
    end

    subgraph OBSTACLES["INTERVENING OBSTACLES"]
        B1["Immigration laws"]
        B2["Cost of travel"]
        B3["Language barriers"]
        B4["Physical barriers"]
    end

    subgraph DEST["DESTINATION (Pull Factors)"]
        C1["Employment opportunities"]
        C2["Higher wages"]
        C3["Safety / political freedom"]
        C4["Better services"]
        C5["Family / diaspora"]
    end

    ORIGIN --> OBSTACLES --> DEST

    style ORIGIN fill:#e53935,color:#fff
    style OBSTACLES fill:#fdd835,color:#000
    style DEST fill:#43a047,color:#fff

Exam Tip: Lee's model is an excellent starting point, but examiners reward students who go beyond it. Criticisms include: it oversimplifies complex decisions; it treats migrants as rational economic actors ignoring emotional, cultural and social factors; it does not explain why some people migrate and others in identical circumstances do not; and it underplays structural causes like colonialism, global inequality and the policies of destination states.

Ravenstein's Laws of Migration (1885)

Ernst Georg Ravenstein was one of the first scholars to identify regularities in migration patterns. His "laws" include:

• Most migrants travel short distances; long-distance migrants tend to move to major economic centres.
• Migration occurs in steps — from rural areas to small towns, then to cities.
• Every migration stream produces a counter-stream (return migration).
• Urban residents are less likely to migrate than rural residents.
• Women are more likely to migrate internally; men are more likely to migrate internationally (though this pattern has changed significantly since Ravenstein's time).

Wallerstein's World-Systems Theory

Immanuel Wallerstein's framework explains international migration as a product of the capitalist world-system. Core countries (wealthy, industrialised nations) create demand for cheap labour that is supplied by periphery and semi-periphery countries. Migration flows therefore follow the logic of capital accumulation — workers move from where labour is cheap to where it is expensive, while capital flows in the opposite direction.

This explains major migration corridors: Mexico to the USA, North Africa to Europe, South Asia to the Gulf States. In each case, workers from lower-income countries supply labour demanded by higher-income economies.

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The Scale and Patterns of Contemporary International Migration

Global Migration Statistics

According to the UN International Organization for Migration (IOM), there were approximately 281 million international migrants in 2020, representing 3.6% of the global population. This number has more than tripled since 1970 (when it was approximately 84 million).

Key statistics:

• Top destination countries (2020): USA (51 million), Germany (16 million), Saudi Arabia (13 million), Russia (12 million), UK (9 million).
• Top origin countries (2020): India (18 million abroad), Mexico (11 million), Russia (11 million), China (10 million), Syria (8 million).
• Remittances sent by migrants to low- and middle-income countries reached $656 billion in 2022, exceeding foreign direct investment and official development assistance.
• Refugees and displaced persons: UNHCR reported over 110 million forcibly displaced people worldwide by mid-2023, the highest figure ever recorded.

The Acceleration of Migration

Globalisation has accelerated international migration through several mechanisms:

1. Transport revolution: Cheaper, faster air travel makes long-distance migration accessible. A London-to-Lagos flight costs under £400; in 1970, the equivalent journey by ship took weeks and cost months of wages.
2. Communications technology: Mobile phones, the internet and social media enable migrants to maintain contact with families, access information about destinations, and coordinate migration journeys. WhatsApp groups are now a primary tool for migrant networks.
3. Economic globalisation: The integration of global labour markets creates demand for migrant workers at both ends of the skills spectrum — from Silicon Valley software engineers to Gulf State construction workers.
4. Migration networks: Once a migration corridor is established, it becomes self-reinforcing. Diaspora communities in destination countries provide information, housing, jobs and emotional support to new arrivals, lowering the barriers to migration.
5. Deregulation and free movement: Regional agreements like the EU's freedom of movement, ECOWAS in West Africa, and MERCOSUR in South America have removed legal barriers to migration between member states.

Decade	Estimated International Migrants (millions)	% of Global Population
1970	84	2.3%
1980	102	2.3%
1990	153	2.9%
2000	173	2.8%
2010	221	3.2%
2020	281	3.6%

Major Contemporary Migration Corridors

A migration corridor is a well-established route between an origin and destination country, sustained by economic connections, historical ties, geographical proximity and diaspora networks.

Corridor	Estimated Migrants	Key Drivers
Mexico → USA	11 million+	Wage differentials (US wages 4–5× higher), geographical proximity, established diaspora, demand for low-skilled labour
India → Gulf States	9 million+	Construction and service sector demand, temporary contract work, remittance economy
Poland → UK/Germany	2 million+ (UK)	EU free movement (post-2004), wage differentials, English language skills
Philippines → Gulf/USA	6 million+	Government-supported labour export, nursing and domestic work demand, remittances (10% of GDP)
Syria → Turkey/Lebanon/Germany	6+ million refugees	Civil war, proximity, EU refugee resettlement, diaspora networks
North Africa → Southern Europe	3 million+	Colonial linguistic ties (French), proximity across Mediterranean, economic disparity

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Migration and Globalisation: An Inseparable Relationship

Migration is both a cause and a consequence of globalisation. Globalisation creates the conditions for migration (economic inequality, transport links, information flows), and migration in turn deepens globalisation by creating diaspora networks, cultural exchange, economic remittances and transnational identities.

However, migration also creates tensions within globalisation. The same globalisation that enables the free movement of goods, capital and information has not produced truly free movement of people. States continue to assert sovereignty over their borders, restricting who can enter, work and settle. This tension between the economic logic of free movement and the political logic of border control is at the heart of Topic 8B.

Exam Tip: The Edexcel specification frames migration within the broader context of globalisation. In your answers, always make explicit links between migration and globalisation processes — transport, communications, trade, TNCs, cultural exchange. The highest marks go to students who see migration not as a separate topic but as an integral part of globalisation.

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Key Vocabulary

Term	Definition
Migration	The movement of people from one place to another with the intention of settling temporarily or permanently
Push factor	A negative condition in the origin that encourages out-migration
Pull factor	A positive condition in the destination that attracts in-migration
Migration corridor	An established route between an origin and destination country, sustained by economic, social and historical ties
Diaspora	A community of people living outside their country of origin who maintain connections to their homeland
Remittances	Money sent by migrants back to their families in the country of origin
Irregular migration	Migration without legal authorisation (entry or overstay)
Survival migration	Migration driven by existential threats that do not fit the legal definition of a refugee
Net migration	The difference between immigration (in-migration) and emigration (out-migration)
Intervening obstacle	A barrier that makes migration more difficult or costly

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Summary

International migration is a defining feature of the 21st century, driven by the same globalisation processes that have integrated economies, communications and transport networks. Understanding migration requires grasping its multiple dimensions — voluntary vs forced, internal vs international, temporary vs permanent, regular vs irregular — and applying theoretical frameworks such as Lee's push-pull model, Ravenstein's laws and Wallerstein's world-systems theory. With over 281 million international migrants and 110 million forcibly displaced people, migration is one of the most significant and contested issues in global politics, directly shaping debates about sovereignty, identity and belonging that form the core of this topic.