Geography migration

• Economic globalisation


  • The growth of multinational corporations (MMC) accelerates
  • Cross-border changes of raw material, components
  • Traded manufactured goods, shares, portfolio investment
  • Purchasing
  • Information and communications technology (ICT) support the growth of complex spatial divisions of labour for firms and a more international economy
• Online purchasing


  • Using Amazon on a smartphone
• Social globalisation


  • International immigration has created extensive family networks that cross national borders
  • World city-societies become multi-ethnic and pluralistic
  • Global improvements in education and health can be seen over time, with rising world life expectancy and literacy levels, although the changes are by no means uniform or universal
  • Social interconnectivity has grown over time thanks to the spread of universal connections such as mobile phones, the internet and e-mail
• Political globalisation


  • The growth of trading blocs (e.g. EU, NAFTA) allows MNCs to merge and make acquisitions of firms in neighbouring countries, while reduced trade restrictions and tariffs help markets to grow
  • Global governance concerns such as free trade, credit crunch and the global response to natural disasters (such as the 2011 Japanese tsunami)
  • The World Bank, the IMF and the WTO work internationally to harmonise national economies
• Cultural globalisation


  • Success Western cultural traits come to dominate in some territories, e.g. the 'Americanisation' or 'McDonaldisation' of food and fashion
  • Glocalisation and hybridisation are a more complex outcome that takes place as old local cultures merge and meld with globalising influences
  • The circulation of ideas and information has accelerated thanks to 24-hour reporting; people also keep in touch using virtual spaces such as Facebook and Twitter
• Modern globalisation is the continuation of a far older, ongoing economic and political project of global trade and empire building
• Economies have been interdependent to some extent since the time of Earth's first great civilisations, such as ancient Egypt, Syria and Rome
• There is nothing new about the global power-play and ambition of strong people, nations and businesses; one way of looking at globalisation is to see it as the latest chapter in a long story of globally connected people and places
• Modern globalisation differs from the global economy that preceded it in three important ways

  • Connections between people and places have lengthened
  • Connections between people and places have deepened
  • Connections between people and places have become more complex
• The UK has the highest number of migrants from EU countries, with over 2 million people.
• Different kinds of global flow

  • Flows of food
  • Flows of manufactured goods
  • Flows of money and financial services
  • Flows of people
  • Flows of psychology and culture
• In 2015, the value of world trade in food, resources and manufactured commodities exceeded US$25 trillion in value
• Emerging economies


  Countries that have begun to experience higher rates of economic growth, often due to rapid factory expansion and industrialisation
• Emerging economies correspond broadly with the World Bank's 'middle-income' group of countries and include China, India, Indonesia, Brazil, Mexico, Nigeria and South Africa
• Global middle class


  People with discretionary income they can spend on consumer goods. Definitions vary some organisations define the global middle class as people with an annual income of over US$10,000 others use a benchmark of US$10 per day income
• One reason for this heightened activity is the rapid development of emerging economies, especially China, India and Indonesia (combined, these countries are home to 3 billion people)
• Rising industrial demand for materials and increasing global middle class consumer demand for food, gas and petrol are responsible for almost all growth in resource consumption across nearly every category shown
• In 2013, the volume of daily foreign exchange transactions reached US$5 trillion worldwide
• Every day, huge capital flows are routed through stock markets in world cities such as London and Paris, where investment banks and pension funds buy and sell money in different currencies
• Free-market liberalisation has played a major role in fostering international trade in financial services. For instance, the deregulation of the City of London in 1996 removed large amounts of red tape and paved the way for London to became the world's leading global centre for financial services
• Within the European Union, cross-border trade in financial services has expanded in the absence of barriers. Large banks and insurance companies are able to sell services to customers in each of the EU's member states
• MNCs channel large flows of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) towards the many different states they invest in
• A record number of people migrated internationally in 2015, either for reasons of work or survival (sometimes the two are hard to distinguish)
• The value of the international tourist trade doubled between 2005 and 2015, it is thought to be worth US$1 trillion annually (it is hard to make a precise estimate because of the many indirect benefits tourism creates). The number of international tourist arrivals doubled in the same period and now exceeds 1 billion people. Much of the new growth in touristic activity has been generated by movements within Asia
• China now generates the highest volume of international tourism expenditure, while Europe receives more tourist arrivals than any other continent
• Global data flows have grown rapidly since the 1990s. Much recent expansion can be attributed to the growth of social media platforms and the arrival of on-demand media services
• Faster broadband and powerful handheld computers have allowed companies such as Amazon and Netflix to stream films and music on demand directly to consumers
• In Gray's worldview, the divisive international borders that separate states are no longer present. Physical separation poses no obstacle to information flows between places in the internet age. The result is a borderless world of nodes and hubs, all connected by multi-coloured flow lines
• The global flows in Table 1 have expanded mainly over time. However, growth has in some cases slackened or stalled since the global financial crisis (GFC) of 2007-09
• The GFC originated in US and EU markets, where sales of high-risk financial services and products valued at trillions of dollars eventually triggered the failure or near-collapse of several leading banks and institutions
• The resulting shockwaves undermined the entire world economy. The rate of global gross domestic product (GDP) fell in 2009 for the first time since the end of the Second World War
• Trade flows fell in value, as migrants and tourists made fewer international arrivals than in the previous year
• Although global GDP has since begun to grow again, recent data indicates that a cyclical or longer-term downturn in world trade flows has continued to affect developed, emerging and developing economies alike since the GFC
• International flows of trade, services and finance grew rapidly between 1990 and 2007 before collapsing and stagnating. 2016 was the fifth consecutive year where global trade did not grow
• Oil and some natural resource prices have fallen because of the global industrial breakdown
• Economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa lagged between 2004 and 2016, leading several countries to ask the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for help
• A significant slowdown of emerging economies hit Brazil, Russia, South Africa and Nigeria, which recorded minimal growth or extended recession in 2015
• In contrast, global internet use and social networking have increased year-on-year, including the period 2007-09
• It is hard to give an overall judgement about what is happening to global flows. Some flows are increasing while others have passed or are in stagnation
• In 2013, 750 million internal migrants were residing in cities across the world, around one-third were Chinese rural-urban migrants