Social Transformation and Human Mobility: Reflections on the Past, Present and Future of Migration

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article examines the development of international migration in the context of broader changes in global economic and political formations since the late 1940s. It also reflects on changing official policies and public attitudes to migration, as well as on the emergence of migration studies as a special interdisciplinary area of the social sciences. Four phases are discussed: 1. The period of concentration of investment in the old industrial areas of Western Europe up to the mid- 1960s , which led to attraction of mainly lower-skilled labour as ‘guestworkers’ or post-colonial migrants. Prejudice against newcomers was interpreted mainly in social-psychological terms as a ‘natural reaction’ against newcomers. 2. The beginnings of a new wave of globalisation in the 1970s and 1980s. Manufacturing employment in old core industrial areas fell, while new industrial economies (based largely on low pay and anti-union policies) burgeoned. Western European governments tried to send home the ‘guestworkers’. The failure of such policies led to the emergence of multicultural societies. At the same time, the growing economies of the Gulf oil states and some Asian ‘tigers’ pulled in millions of workers, bound by very strict and often discriminatory contracts. 3. From the late 1980s to the recession of 2008 the globalisation of investment and production reached new heights. Cheaper transport and the growth of new media supported the growth of international migration at all skill levels. Developed countries cut back on education costs by importing human capital from countries like India and China, while denying the need for low-skilled workers. Yet the lack of nationals willing to take such jobs fuels the growth of temporary contract migration and irregular movement. Increasingly, migrants have come to be seen as a threat to jobs for low-skilled nationals and as a danger to national security. 4. The article argues that a new phase in global change is emerging following the 2008 crisis, and examines possible trends and their meaning for human mobility in the 21st century.