Abstract
It is commonly assumed that international migration has been increasing over the past decade, reported as mainly due to conflicts in Africa and the Middle East. Globalization has accelerated migration, though it is not the sole cause of migration. In the developing world, globalization is displacing millions of people and set in motion population movements across international borders (Dokos, 2017). Globalization and Migration: A World in Motion authored by Eliot Dickinson, articulates the relationship between globalization and migration by taking a historical point of view into account. Dickinson provides theoretically rich and interpretively convincing analysis in connecting globalization and migration with everyday life experiences.
The book is structured into five chapters. In the first chapter, the author highlights the 2015 terrorist attacks in Europe by immigrants and discusses how Euro-sceptic and far-right politicians use these attacks to campaign for less welcoming European Union (EU) immigration policy. Tracing back, the second chapter discusses the early movement of people from Africa to Americas in the form of slavery and tarns-Atlantic European migration, illustrating how everyone has an immigrant background if he/she goes back into history and studies his/her ancestor’s early movement. Describing neocolonialism and the involvement of former colonists in the internal political and economic affairs of former colonies, Dickinson demonstrates how movement has not always been one way, and while presently there are people migrating to the EU, these have been preceded by resource extraction and intervention into internal affairs. The third and fourth chapter form the main parts of the volume. In the third chapter, Dickinson demonstrates how collaborations between multinational corporations in the Global North and local elites in the Global South destroy environments, impoverish the destitute and expropriate them from their lands, collectively pushing people to migrate internationally. In the fourth chapter, the author discusses how, post-World War II, European countries encouraged migration from former colonies to fill labor requirements; a narrative which has changed more recently due to pressure from far-right politicians. Moving towards future trajectories of migration, in the fifth chapter, Dickinson explores possible future scenarios and discourses around climate change-induced migration.
The chapters in this book are theoretically rich and offer a thought-provoking array of perspectives on migration and globalization. For instance, Dickinson briefly shows how unequal relationships between the Global South and Global North, disparate impacts of climate change and poverty and unemployment drive migration. The volume provides valuable insights into the link between globalization and migration by critically examining the reasons that lie behind migrations from half a million years ago to modern times. The author’s argument about everyone’s immigrant background is very useful to make aware far-right, populist and anti-immigrant politicians in the Global North who argue in favor of fences and ‘fortress Europe’ and to minimize extreme nationalism and nativist ideologies.
Even though the volume is well organized and articulate, some omissions are concerning. For instance, the first chapter could have started with highlighting the migration–globalization nexus in brief before proceeding into the two concepts. Some definitions seem redundant, for example, Dickinson gives the United Nations, International Labour Organization and International Organization for Migration definitions of migration repeatedly. Another concern was that the author largely discusses neocolonialism through the lenses of history and colonialism, viewing it as a continued existence of a client–patron relationship between ex-colonial powers and the ruling elitist governments in former colonies. However, a discussion of ongoing neocolonialism practices such as from emerging neocolonial powers like China is missing.
Dickinson reveals the complex relationship between the Global North and Global South that cause mass emigration. Nonetheless, the author gives much analysis of the situations in Central America with little attention to African and Asian countries of the Global South. It would have been better for him to define the scope of the Global South before proceeding to a larger context. The section devoted to the Global North lacks details from Global North countries. The author focuses on Europe, with less attention given to the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. To prevent future impacts of high-end climate change scenarios, the author urges global organizations and countries of the industrialized Global North to take strong action. However, he fails to call for the Global South to cope with as well as prevent climate change impacts. By assigning responsibility for the causes of and solutions to climate change and income inequality to developed countries, a critical opportunity to call for concerted and transnational action is missed.
Focusing on the intersection between globalization and migration, Globalization and Migration: A World in Motion traces how the evolution of global politics and unequal relationships have shaped present-day inequalities. The author succinctly reveals the imbalanced power and economic relationships between the Global North and Global South under the banner of neoliberal globalization. For university students and scholars with an interest in migration, Dickinson’s book provides detailed linkages between migration and globalization. This book is an excellent resource and a timely contribution to the field. It is well articulated in a clear language and is very useful for diverse readers.