Chapter 2 - Two Centuries of International Migration

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Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of trends and developments in international migration since the Industrial Revolution. We focus principally on long-distance migration to rich destination countries, the settler economies in the nineteenth century and later the OECD. The chapter describes the structure, direction, and determinants of migration flows and the assimilation experience of migrants. It also examines the impact of migration on destination and source countries, and explores the political economy behind the evolution of immigration policy. We provide an historical context for current debates on immigration and immigration policy and we conclude by speculating on future trends.

Section snippets

Evolving migration systems

Long-distance migration is not new. For thousands of years humans have moved around the globe in search of food, in flight from enemies, or in pursuit of riches, spreading their cultures, languages, diseases, and genes. Human settlement spread through Europe, Africa, and Asia but the process was very slow. In the Middle Ages, short-distance migration was curtailed by European feudalism but, even after its demise, many workers were tied to the land and urban dwellers jealously guarded their

Long-run trends

The decline in international migration of the interwar years was reversed in the postwar era as economic conditions improved but the revival was constrained by immigration policies that were established in the previous era. For the world as a whole there has been an upward trend since the 1960s but the globalization of labor has been much more limited than that of international trade and finance. As shown in Table 2.2, the total number of international migrants increased by a factor of almost 3

How many migrants?

Will international migration increase or decrease? Some observers think that the potential for migration is vast and that pressure will continue to build. Thus, Pritchett (2006, p. 138) writes that “there are five irresistible forces in the global economy creating growing pressures for greater movement of labor … from poorer to richer countries.” These include divergences in demographic trends and differences in economic growth across world regions. The most obvious indicator of these pressures

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