Migration and Economic Globalization: Introductory remarks

Abstract

The topics of migration and economic globalization play a crucial role in the analysis and contextualization of the nexus between migration and development; they also extend to policymaking and its implications, and the many questions that arise when addressing all these issues: What impact does increasingly globalized market integration have on international migration? To what extent are labor markets themselves becoming internationalized? Under what conditions could trade and migration become complementary forces or even substitute one another? To what extent can neoclassical economic equilibrium models predict the consequences of factor mobility and trade for wage differentials? Why do societies that have opened up to world markets exhibit different degrees of growth or reduction of international migration? Can diasporas’ home country investments counter the effects of current export-led development strategies, which foster emigration because of their reliance on low-wage labor, and lead to economic activities that would retain native workers or even attract the return of emigrants? Might this process be different for skilled versus unskilled laborers?