migration, identity and sovereignty

• Globalisation has caused significant changes to the global economic system, with demand for manufacturing shifting to lower wage eastern countries. demand for manufacturing workers has followed this shift. Rapid industrialisation in these countries created high worker demand which was filled with rural-urban internal migration. Globalisation allows capital to flow freely around the world. As well as encouraging international migration with workers travelling to where they can earn more.
• rural to urban migration: move from traditional farming areas to large cities, as there are higher wages, better working conditions, and high provision of services and opportunities. While traditional rural economies requiring hard labour for low wages. With low service provision and few opportunities
• international migration: 64% of international migrants lived in high income countries in 2017. 10% of all international migrants are refugees or asylum seekers, the majority from low income countries. most migrants migrate to the USA, Saudi Arabia, Germany, or Russia.
• 3 to 4% of the global population live outside their country of birth, however this proportion varies greatly between different countries as they have different international migration policies and engagement with the global economy. Australia has a points based system and high migrant population, while Japan has another strict immigration policy but a very small migrant population.
• environmental impact on patterns of migration: Climate change causes migrants to leave areas where agriculture is threatened. Syria's refugee crisis has been attributed at least in part to desertification. Climate change intensifies rural poverty, movers who might have previously been classed as economic migrants become refugees due to the increasingly hostile environment
• economic impact on patterns of migration: The 2008 global financial crisis saw world GDP shrink for the first time since 1945. Reducing migration, with net migration from Poland the lowest since the 1950s. The realisation that globalisation has a reverse gear means that future projections for global migration and urbanisation should be treated with caution. As when economic systems become unstable, migration can fall. In 2008 Japan paid migrants to leave to alleviate economic strain.
• political impact on patterns of migration: new conflicts can unexpectedly trigger of diversify global migration flows. On many occasions since the world war, political regime changes have driven ethnic groups to flee states. In parts of North and central Africa, as well as the middle east, political factors have become a more important influence on migration than globalisation. 14 million people have been displaced by the conflict in Syria since 2011
• migrants can be classified as voluntary economic migrants, refugees, or asylum seekers
• one reason for migration is to improve ones economic situation. Poverty in source regions, low primary commodity prices and poor access to markets within the global system drive this migration. The line between voluntary economic migrant and refugee can become blurred when fleeing extreme poverty.
• Another reason for migration is to rejoin family: spouses and children may follow workers overseas. In time extended family members may also migrate, leading to diaspora growth. Post-colonial migrant flows to the UK included flows of secondary migrants rejoining their families. (from former British colonies)
• another reason for migration is conflict: war, conflict and persecution displaces millions of people each year. In Myanmar, 1 million Rohingya muslims have fled the buddhist majority state to Bangladesh since 2012, fearing persecution. While in Syria conflict has internally displaced 10 million Syrians within their own country since 2011.
• Core periphery models of economic theory rely on migration, those from the periphery migrating to the core. maximised economic efficiency when goods, capital AND people can move freely across boarders. wage disparity between countries drives international migration, creates migrant flow from low to high wage areas. businesses like free movement when there are many workers around, wages fall as no issue filling jobs. workers like it as when employers experience a skill shortage they have to raise wages to attract employees. However free movement threatens national identity and sovereignty
• Within many nation states the movement of labour is unrestricted to ensure efficient allocation of resources. Hoping to optimise the economic output of a country. While source regions may suffer some negative externalities, like unemployment and pollution, the trickle down effect balances this out, providing investment, regional aid and diffusion of innovation from the core. Some global regions like the EU also capitalise on free movement in the Schengen zone to maximise economic output, but on a global Lebel unrestricted labour movement does not yet apply
• migration alters the ethnic and cultural composition of nation states, with ethnic being a group of people sharing common traditions from living in the same area. International migration may not increase ethnic diversity in terms of race, if migrants are of the same race as host country i.e white Australians living in London don't change the racial composition. But international migration always increases cultural diversity as migrants bring different traditions and life styles with them. i.e the 200,000 Australians in London have influenced the city's nightlife, entertainment, and language
• cultural assimilation is the process by which immigrants take on the culture of their host country, one measure of it is the proficiency of migrants in the national language. The rate of assimilation varies between countries and is influenced by: the amount of time spent in host nation, longer means more exposure to cultural traditions, language and community, migrants establish a role and feel integrated not isolated. Migrants who have lived in uk 30+ years, 77% have UK identity, recent migrants only 10%.
• state support also affects the rate of assimilation. When translation options for the website are funded migrants can access information about the country, while state funded language lessons allow migrants to better communicate. Ethnic enclaves may reduce the rate of assimilation. migrants become economically integrated only as established cultural living areas, religious facilities, and ethnic shops. i.e language proficiency of non uk born residents = 89%, but for Bangladesh born residents = 70%, established tower hamlets enclave
• There are differing perspectives and viewpoints in the migration debate, which leads to political tensions. some see migration as economically beneficial, helping to create a more varied and multicultural nation. While others see it as a burden on services, creating tensions between different ethnic groups.
• positive perception of migration: migrants create opportunity by opening new businesses. They contribute more in taxes than they take in benefits. Migrants fill important gaps in the labour force. Cultural diversity increases which creates vibrant communities. Migrants young so rebalance the population pyramid. Declining populations bolstered
• negative perception of migration: migrants take jobs that could have gone to the native population. Migrants send remittances rather than spending money in the new country. Migrants accept lower wages, pushing wages down for native workers. People may feel cultural identity is under threat. More people in an area puts pressure on services. People perceive their country as becoming overcrowded and full.
• There are variations in the ability of people to migrate depending on their skill and income. It's often based on a points based system, i.e the Uk where migration is regulated based a system prioritising highly skilled workers who wish to live and work in the Uk. A skills based system awards points for different skills and language proficiency, and age. They often prioritise applications for shortage occupations, that not enough people in the country have skills to do.
• illegal immigration occurs when states don"t have full control over their boarders. This can occur when the boarder is very long, particularly if its a coastline, like in Greece which has many islands. Conflict may reduce the central government control over the country. While conflict in neighbouring countries may strongly motivate people to migrate, which creates a market for people traffickers.
• nation states are political entities, which exist as single and complete units. A nation state has sovereignty over its boarders, with complete power and freedom to govern its own territory. Nation states have collective identities, based on their shared history and sometimes ethnicity. National unity is complex, affected by the nations history of population growth, the role of migration and the countries geographical and cultural isolation
• National boarders are often linked to physical boarders, like rivers, mountains and coastlines. While other national boarders may be cultural, marking the divide between groups with differing cultural identities. i.e between Czechia and Slovakia. Other boarders may be created to resolve political crisis, such as the Korean War or Cold War in Germany. However, other boarders may be a result of a colonial past and not take into account the ethnic and physical occurrences that would typically dictate a boarder. This can result in problems of sovereignty and legitimacy
• There are many contested boarders, as a nation state may want to take over another, not viewing it as a legitimate country i.e north and South Korea. There may also be a desire to unite a culturally and ethnically similar population, such as during the reunification of Germany. There may also be a desire to acquire new valuable new natural resources and physical features. Such as the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Not all nation states, like Taiwan, are universally recognised. With their boarders contested by the country which believes it incorporates that state, i.e China
• Nationalism is a shared feeling for a special, significant geographical area. This is expressed as political identification with and a sense of belonging to a nation. In the 19th century, growing nationalism fuelled empire development, and hence conflict. The British empire began due to trade opportunities, not nationalism, however, over time pride in British achievements and wealth created national unity, with people believing the huge empire proved Britain was a special country.
• In Europe in the 19th century, revolutions against the ruling elite led to formations of nations, which then industrialised and expanded, forming empires. The European states competed to take over more colonies, creating tensions and conflicts between nations that fuelled nationalism.
• empires created nationalism in their colonies, with people living in colonies resenting being controlled by another country. Independence movements have brought people together, who may not otherwise share culture or ethnicities, to recognise and promote shared history and look forward to independence of the nation state once free of colonial control.
• since 1945 decolonisation has occurred, with new nation states emerging as empires disintegrated, driven by two main factors: 1. after the cost of fighting two world wars countries, like France and Britain, could no longer afford the administrative and security costs of running an empire. 2. The Cold War superpowers, the USA and USSR, were ideologically opposed to colonialism, using their influence to help free oppressed people from colonialism. The support for independence and inability of the colonial powers to stop liberation movements by force resulted in rapid nation state creation.
• There are still evident patterns of migration between former colonies and imperial core countries. For example, following the collapse of the British empire, immigration from commonwealth countries was relied upon to fuel economic growth post world wars, bridging skills gaps. These migrant flows are important in changing the ethnic composition and cultural heterogeneity of the the imperial core countires
• Globalisation has encouraged the growth of states that have low tax regimes, tax havens. National governments reduce restrictions on who can invest in their countries, encouraging more foreign direct investment. Free movement of money encourages TNCs to move parts of their operations to the nations charging lower tax rates. Tax havens allow companies and people to shelter their assets from taxation.
• how to avoid tax: corporate profit shifting: TNC locates its headquarters in a low tax country and registers its profits there. Moving: individuals move to a tax haven and live there, benefiting the tax havens economy, less popular as have to move countries. Invest: individuals can invest in a trust in a tax haven while continuing to live in their home country.
• Governments and IGOs largely accept the emergence of tax havens and tax avoidance. As, they still contribute to global economic growth. Countries offering tax incentives can develop quickly and recover from severe recessions. When TNCs are located in several nations, it could be said to be unfair to tax them in all of them. NGOs have raised objections as tax havens reduce the amount of money invested in developing countries and increase corruption in both developing and developed countries. TNCs make huge profits in countries like the Uk, but don't pay tax so services see no benefit.
• Growing global economic disparity threatens sustainability of the global economic system. The Gini coefficient shows lessening inequality in sub saharan Africa and the Caribbean, in India and China there have been significant increases since 1990. Inequality has consequences, with unequal access to quality education, reduced life expectancy for poorest. This leads to low pay and skill jobs with no prospects for development. Health problems increase for the poorest. Political instability grows as people reject the established political classes who they identify with the rich elite.
• Political instability: Trumps political fan base includes a large chunk of working class voters who feel left behind by the global shift east. Protecting 'America first' to appease them threatened the global economic system based on free movement of capital, goods, and people. Trump's trade war with china in 2019 further threatened global growth.
• The UN was the first post war IGO to be established, aiming to reduce global tensions that had led to WW1 and WW2. It has grown in importance, but its role in global governance has been affected by differing views of the security council members and their power of veto. Differing branches of the UN, such as the UNEP and WHO, have had different levels of success in managing global social, economic, and environmental issues
• UN interventions: the UN assembly provides a forum for countries to discuss their issues, rather than going to war over them. When diplomacy fails, the UN does have hard power options, such as the economic sanctions reducing a countries ability to trade, and military interventions where UN peacekeeping forces go into conflict zones to prevent further fighting. The UN does not have its own army, members make their soldiers and equipment available to the Un
• Interventions indépendant of the UN: Some UN members have intervened in other countries without UN support or agreement. These interventions typically occur when member states get frustrated with UN inaction and delays. As UN Security Council members have different geopolitical interests, proposed interventions may be vetoed, but countries may act anyway. However, these independent interventions often have negative impacts, destabilising geopolitical relations
• IGOs, world bank, IMF and WTO, were established by allied nations post ww2 and have controlled world trade operations since. They have maintained western capitalism and free trade dominance, which has caused issues for developing countries. Countries pay money into the IMF, which then makes loans to countries in crisis so they don't become failed states. Countries pay into the world bank which then invests in developing countries, countries that pay more in have greater influence over where money is invested. The WTO promotes free trade, product standardisation and economic collaboration.
• IGOs global borrowing and trade policies have delivered growth to developed countries. impact on the developing world is disputed. Poverty has been reduced, but as developed countries contribute the most, they benefit most. The world bank made loans for large development projects in poor countries in the 1970s, but raised interest rates significantly in the 1980s, with developing countries struggling with debt repayment. Structural adjustment programs were used, these came with conditions removing barriers to free trade. This made developing governments poorer, and developed countries richer
• Membership of global trade and financial IGOs is near universal as these organisations are dominant and membership increases your agency in the global economic system. However, regional groupings have still emerged as proximity aids trade, so trade blocs are on the rise. Blocs like the EU and USMCA increase political unity. THE 2018 USMCA agrees tariff free trade on specific products, and includes protection for workers in the US and Canada car industry from low wage Mexican competition. As, 45% of a car must be made by workers making at least 16 dollars an hour.