This document discusses international migration trends and provides definitions and frameworks from various international organizations. It begins by defining key terms like migrant, migrant worker, and related rights as outlined by the United Nations and International Labour Organization. It then summarizes the UN Convention on the Protection of Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, including its scope and establishment of minimum standards. Finally, it discusses rationales for migration like pull factors drawing migrants to new countries and push factors compelling migration from home countries, as well as effects on both sending and receiving countries.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
International migration is a global phenomenon that is growing in scope, complexity and
impact. Migration is both a cause and effect of broader development processes and an
intrinsic feature of our ever globalizing world. While no substitute for development,
migration can be a positive force for development when supported by the right set of
policies. The rise in global mobility, the growing complexityof migratory patterns and its
impact on countries, migrants, families and communities have all contributed to
international migration becoming a priority for the international community.
This assignment focuses on the following topics:
Definition of migration
Reasons for migration
Effects of migration
The data used in this assignment is of secondary nature. a majority of the data is from the
data collected by various international organisations like UN, ILO, European Union etc.
3. INTRODUCTION
DEFINITION AS PER UNITED NATIONS
As per the UN Convention, International migrants refer to - “Persons who live
temporarily or permanently in a country of which they are not nationals”. As the term
‘migrant’ refers to cases where the decision to migrate has been taken freely by the
individual concerned, i.e. without the intervention of external compelling factors,
migrants are differentiated from refugees and asylum seekers.
According to the Convention on Migrants’ Rights, the term ‘migrant worker’ refers to a
person who is to be engaged, is engaged or has been engaged in a remunerated activity in
a State of which he/she is not a national. This definition therefore encompasses both
documentedand undocumentedmigrants. ‘Members of the family’ are persons marriedto
migrant workers or having with them a relationship that, according to applicable law,
produces effects equivalent to marriage; as well as their dependent children, and other
dependent persons who are recognized as members of the family by applicable
legislation.
CONVENTION ON THE PROTECTION OF THE RIGHTS OF ALL MIGRANT
WORKERS AND MEMBERS OF THEIR FAMILIES
The UN Convention on Migrant Workers’Rights is the most comprehensive international
treaty in the field of migration and human rights. It was adopted in 1990 and it entered
into force in 2003. The convention sets a standard in terms of access to human rights for
migrants. However, it suffers from amarkedindifference: onlyfortystateshave ratified it
and no major immigration country has done so. This highlights how migrants remain
forgotten in terms of access to rights. Even though their labour is essential in the world
economy, the non-economic aspect of migration – and especially migrants’ rights –
remains a neglected dimension of globalisation.
4. The Convention opens a new chapter in the history of determining the rights of migrant
workers and ensuring that those rights are protected and respected. It incorporates the
results of over 30 years of discussion, including
United Nations human rights studies, conclusions andrecommendations from meetings of
experts as well as debates and resolutions on migrant workers in the United Nations.
The Convention seeks to establishminimum standards that the States parties should apply
to migrant workers and members of their families, irrespective of their migratory status.
The concept behind the recognition of rights of undocumented migrant workers is also
reaffirmed in the preamble, in which the States parties consider, inter alia, that irregular
migrants are frequently exploited and that they face serious human rights violations and
that appropriate action should be encouraged to prevent and eliminate clandestine
movements and trafficking in migrant workers while at the same time ensuring the
protection of their human rights.
SCOPE
Part I of the Convention contains the most comprehensive definition of migrant workers
found in any international instrument concerned with migrants. It defines a migrant
worker as “a person who is to be engaged, is engaged or has been engaged in a
remunerated activity in a State of which he or she is not a national.” It defines which
persons constitute the members of the migrant worker’s family as “persons married to
migrant workers or having with them a relationship that, according to applicable law,
produces effects equivalent to marriage, as well as their dependent children and other
dependent persons who are recognizedas members of the family by applicable legislation
or applicable bilateral or multilateral agreements between the States concerned.”
HUMAN RIGHTS OF ALL MIGRANTS
Part III of the Convention grants a fairly broad series of rights to all migrant workers and
members of their families, irrespective of their migratory status. Many of these articles
specify the application to migrant workers of rights spelled out in the International
Covenants on Civil and Political Rights and on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and
the other core human rights treaties. The Convention also includes a number of rights
5. addressing specific protection needs and providing additional guarantees in the light of
the particular vulnerability of migrant workers and members of their families.
OTHER RIGHTS OF MIGRANT WORKERS AND MEMBERS OF THEIR FAMILIES
The Convention assigns additional rights to migrant workers and members of their
families who are documentedor in a regular situation. These rights include the right to be
fully informed by their States of origin and employment about conditions applicable to
their admission and concerning their stay and the remunerated activities they may engage
in, the right to freely move in the territory of the State of employment and freely choose
their residence there, the right to form associations and trade unions, and to participate in
public affairs of their State of origin, including voting and election.
COMMITTEE ON MIGRANT WORKERS
The implementation of the Convention rests with its States parties. It provides that this
process is monitoredby a committee—the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of
All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families—consisting of 10 experts to be
elected by the States´ parties and serving in their personal capacity, the number is rising
to 14 when 41 States will have become participants of the Convention.
Members of the Committee are elected by the States ‘parties by secret ballot, with due
regard to fair geographical distribution, including both States of origin and States of
employment of migrant workers, and to representation of the world’s main legal systems.
Members serve in their personal capacity for a term of four years.
DEFINITION AS PER INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANISATION
The International Labour Organization (ILO) is a United Nations agency dealing
with labour issues, particularly international labour standards, social protection, and work
opportunities for all. The ILO has 186 member states: 185 of the 193 UN member states
plus the Cook Islands are members of the ILO.
International Labour Organization (ILO), specialized agency of the United Nations (UN)
dedicated to improving labour conditions and living standards throughout the world.
6. Established in 1919 by the Treaty as an affiliated agency of the League of Nations, the
ILO became the first affiliated specialized agency of the United Nations in 1946. In
recognition of its activities, the ILO was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1969.
The functions of the ILO include the development and promotion of standards for
national legislation to protect and improve working conditions and standards of living.
The ILO also provides technical assistance in social policy and administration and in
workforce training; fosters cooperative organizations and rural industries; compiles
labour statistics and conducts research on the social problems of international
competition, unemployment and underemployment, labour and industrial relations, and
technological change (including automation); and helps to protect the rights of
international migrants and organized labour.
In its first decade the ILO was primarily concerned with legislative and research efforts,
with defining and promotingproper minimum standards of labour legislationfor adoption
by member states, and with arranging for collaboration among workers, employers,
government delegates, and ILO professional staff. During the worldwide economic
depressionof the 1930s the ILO sought ways to combat widespread unemployment. With
the post-war breakup of the European colonial empires and the expansion of ILO
membership to include poorer and less developed countries, the ILO addressed itself to
new issues, including the social problems created by the liberalization of international
trade, the problem of child labour, and the relationship between working conditions and
the environment.
Among intergovernmental organizations the ILO is unique in that its approximately 175
member states are represented not only by delegates of their governments but also by
delegates of those states’ employers and workers, especially trade unions. National
representatives meet annually at the International Labour Conference. The ILO’s
executive authority is vested in a 56-member Governing Body, which is elected by the
Conference. The International Labour Office in Geneva, Switzerland, composed of the
permanent Secretariat and professional staff, handles day-to-day operations under the
supervision of an appointed director general. The ILO has international civil servants and
technical-assistance experts working in countries throughout the world. Among the ILO’s
many publications are the International Labour Review and the Year Book of Labour
Statistics.
7. MISSION AND OBJECTIVES
The main aims of the ILO are to promote rights at work, encourage decent employment
opportunities, enhance social protection and strengthen dialogue on work-related issues.
ORIGIN AND HISTORY
The ILO was founded in 1919, in the wake of a destructive war, to pursue a vision based
on the premise that universal, lasting peace can be established only if it is based on social
justice. The ILO became the first specialized agency of the UN in 1946.
WORKING SYSTEM
The unique tripartite structure of the ILO gives an equal voice to workers, employers and
governments to ensure that the views of the social partners are closely reflected in labour
standards and in shaping policies and programmes.
8. RATIONALE (REASONS) BEHIND MIGRATION
People have moved from their home countries for centuries, for all sorts of reasons. Some
are drawn to new places by ‘pull ‘factors, others find it difficult to remain where they are
and migrate because of ‘push’ factors. These have contributed to the recent movement of
people here but are also the reason why people from here have emigrated to other
countries. Over 80 millionpeople inthe world have Irish blood; 36.5 millionUSresidents
claimedIrish ancestryin 2007. Historicallysomewere transported or sold into slavery or
left because of poverty, hunger, persecution, discrimination, civil war, unemployment
and, more recently, simply for education and better jobs. Migrant numbers have risen
rapidly in the last decade. In 2013 there were thought to be over 230 million international
migrants.
PULL FACTORS
Migrants are drawn increasinglyto countries such as the UK and Ireland by the following
factors:
Developed countries, or industrialised city areas within countries, draw labour from
countries or areas where incomes are lower.
International transport has never been easier and is cheaper than ever, relative to incomes.
The telephone and internet make it easier to access information.
Falling birth rates in developed countries contribute to labour shortages and skills gaps.
Extra people are required when there is rapid economic expansion.
People are drawn to stable democracies where human rights and religious freedoms are
more likely to be respected.
Many people in other parts of the world speak English.
Young people move in order to get better jobs or improve their qualifications, including
their language skills.
9. PUSH FACTORS
Negative factors at home add to the reasons why people feel compelled to move.
Lack of prospects for career advancement
Poverty and low incomes
High unemployment rates
Persecution and poor human rights
Internal conflict and war
Natural disasters, climate change and famine
10.
11. ROOT CAUSES OF RISING MIGRATION
Globalization drives migration
Migration is a complex process and has been a feature of human societies for
many centuries. There are many reasons why people choose to migrate, including:
Poverty
Armed conflict
Social strife
Political turmoil
Economic hardships
These and other types of events displace millions of people across the globe every day.
Since the mid-twentieth century, however, the nature of migration has also
become largely influenced by globalization. Advances in communication and
transportation technology have driven globalization forward, allowing us to live in
a world where distances between countries and travel time are no longer as
significant an obstacle.
In this age of migration and globalization, the world's economies have become
more integrated. As a result, it is now common for migrants to send remittances to
their home country and, not surprisingly, many developing nations depend on
these funds. Overall remittances sent in 2004 totalled 226 billion dollars and
remittances accounted for approximately 20 percent of GDP in Bosnia and
Herzegovina, Haiti, Jordan, Lesotho, the Republic of Moldova, and Tonga.
Additionally, disparities between developing and developed nations have
accelerated with globalization. In 1900, the ratio of the average income of the five
richest countries in the world to the 5-10 poorest countries was about 9:1, today
that ratio is 100:1 These disparities among countries combined with limited
opportunities for employment that provides high enough wages to care for one's
family has stimulated increased migration from developing to developed nations.
12. During 2000-2005, the more developed regions of the world gained an estimated
2.6 million migrants annually from the less developed regions. This amounts to
about 13.1 million migrants over the whole period. Northern America gained the
most from net migration: 1.4 million migrants annually.
Root Causes of Migration
Globalization is not the only factor affecting global migration: U.S. economic and foreign
policy decisions-such as the war in Iraq or NAFTA-have fuelled migration and
immigration. This has created an influx of both economic and political refugees here in
the U.S. In many ways, American foreign policy has created migration flows, but
American domestic policy has failed to create a system to account for the consequences
of its foreign policy.
FREE TRADE AGREEMENTS
Free trade agreements like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
and the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) have imposed
practices on other countries, such as Mexico, that ultimately benefit corporations
but devastate local governments and economies and force people to migrate.
After NAFTA came into force, more than 1.3 million Mexican farmers were
driven out of business. US agri business, subsidized by our tax dollars, sold corn
in Mexico at lower prices than farmers in that country could produce. As a result,
undocumented immigration from Mexico has risen from 332,000 since 1993 to
530,000 in 2000--a 60 percent increase since the passage of NAFTA.
Big corporations in the United States have also gladly taken advantage of cheap
labour, sending labor recruiters into economically depressed areas of Mexico,
Central America, and elsewhere. This pattern of behavior has existed since this
country's formation.
WAR AND GOVERNMENTAL OPPRESSION
Map: Major Countries of Origin of Refugees (End-2008)
13. The end of the cold war saw a shift from inter-state conflicts to a dramatic number of
intra-state conflicts.
From 1990-1995 over 70 states were involved in 93 wars that left 5.5 million
people dead. Nearly all of 60 refugee flows studied in the 1990's can be attributed
to internal conflicts.
The persistenceof genocide throughout the 1990's has contributed substantially to
the number of refugees and internally displaced persons. The involvement of
developed countries through weapons trade have prolonged conflicts and made
them deadlier.
Government oppression and brutality in countries like China, Iran, El Salvador,
Cambodia, Somalia, and other countries that have tortured, detained, and killed its
citizens have also contributed to refugee flows.
Most recently, the U.S. war on Iraq has created well over two million refugees
who have no home.
In 2008, there were 15.2 million refugees and 827,000 asylum-seekers (pending
cases).
Today, approximately 279, 548 refugees and an additional 69,228 asylum seekers
reside in the U.S.
14. DEMAND FOR LABOUR/NEED FOR JOBS
There are a number of "pull" factors that draw people towards countries like the United
States to seek a better life.
Aging populations and low fertility rates in industrialized countries have resulted
in a decline in "replacement workers" entering the workforce, while also creating
greater demand for service-sector jobs and low-skill employment.
Developed countries like the U.S. have come to rely on immigrant labour to fulfil
their labour needs and will need to so even more in the future as the country faces
a mass retirement of baby boomers.
Also, consider that the average per capita income in Haiti is less than $400 per
year-in the United States, an undocumented day labourer could potentially earn
that much in just one week.
In the absence of a liveable wage, access to credit, insurance, or social welfare
benefits, the value of migration is greater than its hardship or potential for
exploitation. In other words, for most people in desperate situation-as the factors
above have illustrated-migration is worth the risk.
15. EFFECTS OF MIGRATION
Migration can have positive and negative effects on the areas that "export"people and the
areas that "import" people. Below are two tables explaining the positive and negative
effects for both the country losing migrants, and the country gaining immigrants.
For the country losing people:
Advantages Disadvantages
Fewer people to be fed and housed Loss of young and most able
Income sent home e.g. by Turkish "guestworkers"
(gastarbeiter) in the German car industry
Loss of young men creates an
unbalanced population structure
Reduces pressure on jobs and resources Loss of working age people
Loss of those most likely to have
education and skills
Division of families
Elderly population remains, so
there's a higher death rate
For the country gaining people:
Advantages Disadvantages
Cheap labour Language problems
Helps overcome labour
shortages
Racial / ethnic tensions
Immigrants are often
prepared to do unskilled
jobs
Jobs lost to incoming workers
16. Advantages Disadvantages
Some immigrants are
highly skilled
Loss of those most likely to have education and skills
Cultural diversity Pressure on housing and services. Immigrants tend to be less
healthy, placing strain on the health service, and they tend to
live in low quality housing
Limited skills/education in immigrant population
POSITIVE EFFECTS
Job vacancies and skills gaps can be filled.
Economic growth can be sustained.
Services to an ageing population can be maintained when there are insufficient young
people locally.
The pension gap can be filled by the contributions of new young workers and they also
pay taxes.
Immigrants bring energy and innovation.
Host countries are enriched by cultural diversity.
Failing schools (and those with falling numbers) can be transformed.
NEGATIVE EFFECTS
Depression of wages may occur but this seems to be temporary.
Having workers willing to work for relatively low pay may allow employers to ignore
productivity, training and innovation.
Migrants may be exploited.
Increases in population can put pressure on public services.
Unemployment may rise if there are unrestricted numbers of incomers.
There may be integration difficulties and friction with local people.
Large movements of people lead to more security monitoring.
Ease of movement may facilitate organised crime and people trafficking.
17. IMPACTS ON COUNTRIES OF ORIGIN
POSTIVE
Developing countries benefit from remittances (payments sent home by migrants) that
now often outstrip foreign aid.
Unemployment is reduced and young migrants enhance their life prospects.
Returning migrants bring savings, skills and international contacts.
NEGATIVE
Economic disadvantage through the loss of young workers
Loss of highly trained people, especially health workers
Social problems for children left behind or growing up without a wider family circle.
What are the Effects of Increased Migration Locally?
An Oxford Economics research study published by the Department of Employment and
Learning (DEL) concluded that migrant workers had helped maintain an adequate labour
supply to fuel the 2004–2008 economic booms. The availability of migrant labour seems
to have made the difference between some businesses surviving, or in the case of food
processing, not needing to relocate production abroad. The authors quote a survey of 600
businesses where 31% said that migrants were important in the survival of their
organisation and this rose to 50% in health and social care and agriculture.
In addition the study indicated that migrants have
Facilitated growth in the economy
Brought benefits to the tourism industry through the development of new air routes
Had a positive influence on the productivity or efficiency of local workers
Contributed new ideas and a fresh approach to firms
Greater cultural links with developing nations that will prove useful in growing
international trade
18. MERITS & DEMERITS OF MIGRATION
Relief of shortages such as jobs,
housing for country of departure
Emigrants send money back to
their families
If migrants return they take back
new skills with them
Reduction of birth rate as it is
mainly the young males who leave
the country
The host country acquire young
energetic workers with enterprise
Cultural diversification and a more
multi-ethnic society develops
Unwanted jobs are filled by cheap
labour
The country of departure loses its most
enterprising individuals
Only the very young and old remain
creating a vicious circle of decline
Growth of emigration culture
Inhabitants depend on remittances from
the people who have emigrated
In the host country there is increased
pressure on resources such as housing
Discrimination can develop against the
ethnic minorities
Congestion can develop in cities
Disease can spread - TB
Social problems can develop due
predominance of young male migrants
Benefits of Migration Costs of Migration
19. CASE STUDY #1
Crises inMiddle East and Africa lead to fourfoldincrease inmigrationto Europe Onus on
EU to formulate strategyas conflict in Syriaand forcedconscriptioninEritrealeadto
arrival of 170,000migrants onItalian shores in2014.
The number of migrants landing on Italian shores quadrupled last year, as more than
170,000people from the Middle East and Africa fled humanitarian crises, piling pressure
on the EU to form a long-term migration strategy.
Syrians fleeingcivil war and Eritreans escapingforcedconscriptioncomprisednearlyhalf
of all Italian boat arrivals in 2014, according to the International Organisation for
Migration (IOM). Refugees from Mali, Nigeria and Gambia were also common. Many
migrants brave a perilous journey across the Mediterranean to Italy before travelling
overland to other European countries.
Last year, a total of 170,100 refugees arrived in Italy by boat, the IOM said. This marked
a rise of nearly 300% from 2013, when Italian authorities recorded 42,925 arrivals.
“Many of these people are fleeing war, persecution and totalitarian regimes,” said
Federico Soda, the IOM’s head of Italian operations.
Refugees used to attempt crossings only in warmer months, but a growing desperation to
gain asylum in Europe has created a year-round smuggling business, the IOM said. As a
result, more ill-equipped boats are journeying across the Mediterranean, leading to a
sharp rise in migrant deaths. More than 3,200 fatalities were recorded last year; in 2013,
the total was 700.
“These figures suggest that the flows are linkedto the deteriorating multiple and complex
humanitarian crises near Europe’s external borders, including the war in Syria and the
unrest caused by the political instability in Libya,” The sharp rise in Syrian and Eritrean
refugees journeyingto Europe is a major factor in rising migration flows. Last year, more
than 11,000 Syrians landed in Italy, while this year more than 40,000 made the crossing.
Nearly 35,000 Eritreans came to Italy in 2014, up from just less than 10,000 in 2013.
20. The hazardous nature of the journey across the Mediterranean faced by many migrants
was highlighted in 2013, when a boat carrying mostlyEritreans sank near Lampedusa, off
the coast of Italy, killing nearly 300. For Eritreans, many of whom have fallen victim
to torture and trafficking in Sudan and Egypt over the past 10 years, travelling overland
has often proved equally unsafe.
Syrian migrants have started paying “unscrupulous smugglers” up to $6,000 (£3,943) to
be smuggled on Turkish cargo ships destined for southern Italy, the IOM said.
Operation Mare Nostrum, run by Italy’s navy, saved about 85,000 lives last year,
according to the IOM. But its high cost has raised concerns that it may be discontinued
unless the EU agrees to contribute funding.
“It is urgent to respond collectively to these migratory flows. Migration can only be
managed by the EU as a whole: and its scale and complexitynecessitatescooperation and
collective action,” said Soda.
In November last year the EU’s border agency, Frontex, launched its Triton operation,
which monitors migration using two aircraft, three ships and seven teams of officers for
“debriefing/intelligence gathering and screening/identification purposes”. The operation
has €2.9m a month in funding, but this expires in 2015.
Triton has less funding and a more limited geographic scope than Mare Nostrum,
according to Judith Sunderland, Human Rights Watch’s senior Western Europe
researcher. “It tooka long for the EU to even take up the migration issue … their primary
focus is surveilling maritime borders, but of course they are involved in rescue
operations,” said Sunderland.
Sofa said: “This is not a crisis of an excess of migrants reaching Europe and
overburdening the continent – an area with a populationof about 500 million people. It is
an emergency in the sense that more migrants now need protection, aid and safe
migration channels.”
21. CASE STUDY # 2
Migration - Mexico to the USA
What is the situation?
There is a 2000km border between
USA and Mexico.
1 million + Mexicans migrate to the
USA every year.
Illegal migration is a huge problem
for USA and Mexico
US Border Patrol guard the border
and try to prevent illegal immigrants
850,000 were caught in 1995 and
were deported
Push Factors
Poor medical facilities - 1800 per
doctor
Low paid jobs - (GNP = $3750)
Adult literacy rates 55% - poor
education prospects
Life expectancy 72 yrs
40% Unemployed
Pull Factors
Excellent medical facilities - 400 per
doctor
Well paid jobs - GNP = $24,750)
Adult literacy rates 99% - good
education prospects
Life expectancy 76 yrs
Many jobs available for low paid
workers such as Mexicans
What are the impacts on the USA
Illegal migration costs the USA millions of dollars for border patrols and prisons
Mexicans are seen as a drain on the USA economy
Migrant workers keep wages low which affects Americans
They cause problems in cities due cultural and racial issues
Mexican migrants benefit the US economy by working for low wages
Mexican culture has enriched the US border states with food, language and music
The incidents of TB has been increasing greatly due to the increased migration
What are the impacts on Mexico?
The Mexican countryside has a shortage of economically active people
Many men emigrate leaving a majority of women who have trouble finding
marraige partners
Young people tend to migrate leaving the old and the very young
Legal and illegal immigrants togethersend some $6 billion a year back to Mexico
Certain villages such as Santa Ines have lost 2/3 of its inhabitants.
22. CONCLUSIONS
It is time to take a freshlookat international migrationin the light of the need to slow the
economic growthof the developed nations, rather than stimulate it, and in turn to promote
the economic growthof the less developedcountries, at least to some minimal acceptable
standard. Current migrationpolicy pushes both considerations in the wrong direction, and
stimulates overall population growth as well.
As certain portions of the globe deal with their problems more effectively than others,
they will stabilize more quickly. This will doubtless increase their attractiveness,
especially if other regions are not making progress or are even slipping backwards. This
will increase pressures for international migration which, if it is allowed, will tend to
destabilize those regions otherwise approaching stability. Thus international migration
will have to be stringently controlled, or no region will be able to stabilize ahead of
another. If no region can stabilize ahead of another, then it is likely that no region
whatsoever will be able to stabilize in an orderly and humane fashion. A more hopeful
scenario calls for some regions stabilizing at an early date, and then helping others to do
so.
Given the demographic and development situation of the world, the control of
international migration will be one of the chief problems the developed countries will
face in approaching equilibrium conditions
.
Immigration may be good for the vast majority of the migrants themselves. They find
new economic opportunities and in the special case of refugees, new freedoms. It
emerges, however, that their migrationin the main runs counter to the real interest of both
the countries of origin and the recipient countries, and the world as a whole. This is true
whether the analysis is conducted in the traditional growth framework, or in the context
of the stationary state. What first appears as a new area of conflict between the interests
of the individual and those of society, is really a conflict between the interests of the
individuals who migrate and those who do not. It is time for the larger and longer range
23. interests of the latter to prevail. We needin particular to give more weight to the interests
of the unseen countrymen of the immigrant who are left behind, to live with the
conditions the migrant might have helped to change.
Future historians may well recordsucha broadenedexamination as one of the factors that
led to the end of the age of international migration, one of the alterations that will
necessarily accompany the transition to a stationary state.
The question we face is not whether immigration should restricted, for it has been for
decades in all countries. Rather, the question is, what restrictions are appropriate to
today's world? Re-examination of this question is made easier by the realization that
current limits are arbitrary in their origins. Many were set decades ago without
consideration of population, resource, environmental, and other facts that can and should
be taken into account today.
Happily, it is possible to envision a world in which international migration could become
free and unfettered. Appropriately, it is the world of a stationary state, in which people in
different regions are in equilibrium with resources, and in which there is a reasonable
chance in each region for self-fulfillment, matched with social equity. Under these
conditions, international migration could be unfettered, because there would be little
incentive to move. Contentment with conditions at home, coupled with man's strong
attachment to things familiar, would serve to keep most people in place. While the
freedom to migrate at will is incompatible with the physical realities of today's world, it is
one of many things that can be restored as man achieves balance with his environment.
