International Migration Review

In the last quarter of a century, migration theory has undergone fundamental change, moving from the classic “individual relocation” genre initiated by Ravenstein a century ago, to a variety of new approaches which nevertheless share important elements: they tend to be historical, structural, globalist and critical. Historicization implies a constant modification of theoretical concerns and emphases in the light of changing social realities, and commitment to a critical approach entails a view of research as one element in a broader project concerned with the elucidation of social and political conditions. The article uses elements from two major theoretical traditions — a modified world-systems approach and state theory — to project current trends. Global inequality is considered as a structural given. The article then reviews major topics, including the persistence of restrictive immigration policies as barriers to movement, changing patterns of exploitation of foreign labor, liberalization of exit from the socialist world and the refugee crisis in the developing world. It concludes with a brief consideration of the normative implications of these trends.

This article provides a general overview of international migration trends and types during the postwar period. Its thesis is that international migration consists of a set of spatial networks which share many of the processes that create them, but that the networks are characterized by factors which vary geographically and distinguish one from another. Fuller analysis of these requires a systems approach to provide a framework within which to study the processes that produce flow patterns. It concludes that our ability to forecast future world patterns of international migration must be based on an assessment of the likely behavior of the component macro-regional systems we can recognize.

The modern literature on the economics of immigration focuses on three related issues: 1) what determines the size and skill composition of immigrant flows to any particular host country; 2) how do the immigrants adapt to the host country's economy; and 3) what is the impact of immigrants on the host country's economy? This article reviews the theoretical framework and empirical evidence provided by the economics literature on these questions. It demonstrates that the economic approach, using the assumptions that individual migration behavior is guided by the search for better economic opportunities and that the exchanges among the various players are regulated by an immigration market, leads to substantive insights into these issues.

Recent research on the impact of labor migration on the socioeconomic development of developing countries has provided opportunity to try and resolve some of the long-standing polemics that have pervaded the literature on migration and development. This article focuses on findings concerning the labor, remittance and social impacts of emigration oh countries that have participated in labor emigration. While a great deal more research needs to be done, recent findings confirm that in some situations the short-term impacts of labor migration on sending countries have been considerable.

Two evaluative views of worker remittances draw opposite conclusions. The negative one posits that remittances increase dependency, contribute to economic and political instability and development distortion, and lead to economic decline that overshadows a temporary advantage for a fortunate few. The positive view sees remittances as an effective response to market forces, providing a transition to an otherwise unsustainable development. They improve income distribution and quality of life beyond what other available development approaches could deliver. The implications are tested for labor supply countries to Europe and to the Middle East. The implications of the negative view are not supported. Although the dire predictions of the pessimistic view have not materialized, the converse — contributions of remittances to economic performance — should not be overstated due to lack of data.

Notwithstanding human rights linkages, migrants and refugees are often on the periphery of effective international protection. State sovereignty and self-regarding notions of community are used to deny or dilute substantive and procedural guarantees. Recently, even nondiscrimination as a fundamental principle has been questioned, as has the system of refugee protection. This article locates both migrants and refugees squarely within the human rights context, contrasting inalienable rights with the demands of sovereignty, and juxtaposing the two in a context of existing and developing international standards. Migration and refugee flows will go on, and the developed world, in particular, must address the consequences — legal, humanitarian, socioeconomic and cultural. Racism and institutionalized denials of basic rights daily challenge the common interest. This article shows how the law must evolve, responding coherently to contemporary problems, if the structure of rights and freedoms is to be maintained.

Classical learning recognizes no role for international law in affecting migration policy and practice, but in modern times the salutary effects are increasing, although they remain modest. International law influences migration policy primarily through effective invocation of various forms of “soft law” in internal and international political forums. More limited prospects exist for beneficial changes enforced by international institutions and domestic courts. The article cautions against inflated expectations in the latter settings, however, particularly because overly ambitious claims can be counterproductive. It then offers a few predictions about near-term effects of international law, having to do with departures from a country, refugee law and the integration of migrants into their new homelands.

This article examines the evolution of the current international system for responding to refugee problems and the climate within which the legal and institutional framework has developed. It reviews the background and handling of some of the key refugee movements since World War II and traces the legal and institutional adjustments that have been made to deal with new refugee movements that have occurred predominantly, but not exclusively, in the developing world. Finally, it assesses the adequacy of the present system to meet the challenges ahead.

This article will elucidate the threat towards the established system for asylum in Europe which originates from the increase of asylum seekers with very weak or no genuine claims at all. This increase might be the early sign of new intercontinental movements of migration.

This article reviews conventional theories about different aspects of labor migration: its origins, stability over time, and patterns of migrant settlement. For each of these aspects, we provide alternative explanatory hypotheses derived from the notions of increasing articulation of the international system and the social embeddedness of its various subprocesses, including labor flows. A typology of sources and outcomes of contemporary immigration is presented as an heuristic device to organize the diversity of such movements as described in the empirical literature.

International migration is a vast, complex and heterogeneous field of study. It requires not only knowledge about dynamic processes in the past and at present and in various regions of the world, but also interdisciplinary cooperation, not least in order to achieve a good theoretical development.

Family, friendship and community networks underlie much of the recent migration to industrial nations. Current interest in these networks accompany the development of a migration system perspective and the growing awareness of the macro and micro determinants of migration. This article presents an overview of research findings on the determinants and consequences of personal networks. In addition, it calls for greater specification of the role of networks in migration research and for the inclusion of women in future research.

Recent theoretical interest in migration systems calls attention to the functions of diverse linkages between countries in stimulating, directing and maintaining international flows of people. This article proposes a conceptual framework for the nonpeople linkages in international migration systems and discusses the implications for population movement of the four categories and three types of linkages that define the framework.

Recent literature on migration, international relations and foreign policy is reviewed in this article, stressing applications of global systems paradigms, studies of state entry and exit rules, and anatomies of domestic policy-setting processes on migration. After a concise assessment of the contemporary theory of global political economy, the paper argues for seeking midrange generalizations on the international relations of migration. It also suggests that analysis begin with the policy-setting processes of the state. Especially through the use of comparative perspectives available from domestic policymaking studies and from the field of international comparative public policy, this approach offers the opportunity to fix empirically the political roles of transnational social forces, which often present themselves as participants in domestic policy contests. Promising future directions in the study of state-to-state relations are also evaluated, with the anticipation that verifying regional or other intermediate patterns of world migration politics may contribute to more general theories of international political economy.