International Human Migration Research Articles

A Systematic Review on Pulmonary TB Burden and Associated Factors Among Immigrants in the UK.

The rapid growth of international human migration has positioned the UK in the top five countries in the world with 9.4 million immigrants in 2022. These immigrants originate from low- and middle-income countries and remain particularly at risk of developing TB. In the UK, the number of TB cases has been increasing, and the influx of immigrants could be a contributing factor. This review aims to map the burden of pulmonary TB among immigrants in the UK and investigate associated factors. It also reviews the TB management approaches among immigrants in the UK. The study utilized PRISMA guidelines to search electronic databases (PubMed and EMBASE) for articles published from 2000 to 2022 on TB prevalence and factors in immigrants and explored government websites for TB management strategies. Nineteen out of 530 initially identified articles were included. The included studies reported a prevalence rate of TB among immigrants ranging from 0.04 to 52.1%, showing a decrease in the burden over time. Additionally, a higher number of TB cases were observed among immigrants from the Asian region, particularly immigrants from South Asia, followed by those from sub-Saharan Africa. Stigma, misconception about the disease, language barrier, lack of confidentiality, and unfriendly healthcare system for immigrants were the main drivers of the TB burden among immigrants. The TB management approaches in the UK include pre-entry screening for active TB, LTBI testing for a specific population group, and antibacterial therapy for 3-6 months for TB patients. The UK's control and prevention efforts in reducing tuberculosis prevalence among immigrants show optimism, but challenges persist. Key improvements include healthcare delivery, TB improvement programs, and policies addressing stigma and patient confidentiality.

Environmental outcomes of climate migration and local governance: an empirical study of Ontario

PurposeThis study aims to examine the impact of migration growth on environmental outcomes and local governance and assess how well the existing local municipal governance has responded to the environmental impact of increased migration influx in Ontario, Canada using the annual data during 2012–2021.Design/methodology/approachThis study used the grey relational analysis (GRA) to examine the correlation degree between migrant growth, environmental outcomes and local governance, used coupling coordination degree model (CCDM) to access to what extent the existing local governance systems have responded to the environmental impact of immigrant growth.FindingsResults show that higher immigrant populations are associated with worse environmental outcomes and the need for more municipal environmental investment and service. The present local municipal environmental service in Ontario lags behind in response to the environmental impacts of increased migration. Good local governance practices and environmental services are required to improve the environmental adaptation capacity of host countries to migrant influx.Originality/valueClimate change has been regarded as an important driver of internal and international human migration. The mass influxes of migrants will threaten cities’ environmental quality and put considerable pressure on municipal services. This study provides empirical evidence for Ontario’s municipal environmental governance and relevant authorities on how to deal with the environmental impact of increased migration and contributes to call the attention of other countries to the urban environmental pressure caused by migration influx due to the changing climate world wide.

International migrant flows: Coalition formation among countries and social welfare

In this paper, we consider policy interventions for international migrant flows and quantify their ramifications. In particular, we further develop a recent equilibrium model of international human migration in which some of the destination countries form coalitions to establish a common upper bound on the migratory flows that they agree to accept jointly. We also consider here a scenario where some countries can leave or join an initial coalition and investigate the problem of finding the coalitions that maximize the overall social welfare. Moreover, we compare the social welfare at equilibrium with the one that a supranational organization might suggest in an ideal scenario. This research adds to the literature on the development of mathematical models to address pressing issues associated with problems of human migration with insights for policy and decision-makers.

On the effect of international human migration on nations' abilities to attain CO2 emission-reduction targets.

I merge publicly available data on CO2 emissions, with patterns of human movement, to analyze the anticipated effects of human migration on the abilities of nations to attain 2030 UNFCCC CO2 emission targets. I do so at both global (175 countries) and national (Canada and the USA) scales. The analyses reveal that mean per capita CO2 emissions are nearly three times higher in countries with net immigration than in countries with net emigration. Those differences project a cumulative migration-induced annual increase in global emissions of approximately 1.7 billion tonnes. For Canada and the United States, the projected total emissions attributable to migration from 2021 to 2030 vary between 0.7 and 0.9 billion tonnes. Although staggering, the annual and total emissions represent a small fraction of current global emissions totalling 36 billion tonnes per annum. Even so, the projected decadal immigration of nearly 4 million humans to Canada, and 10 million to the USA, represent significant additional challenges in reducing CO2 emissions. The challenges pale in comparison with poor nations that are minor contributors to climate change. Such nations face the incomprehensible burden of improving the quality of their citizens’ lives without increasing global CO2 emissions. National and international strategies aimed at lowering emissions must thus acknowledge, and cooperatively address, consumptive inequities and expected increases in human population size and migration.

An organizational perspective on brain drain: What can organizations do to stop it?

Brain drain is one of the major issues plaguing industries driven by knowledge workers in global south. Although it represents an excessively large component of total international human migration, organizational level factors as antecedents of brain drain remain mostly unexplored, although many of these migrants are already employed and, thus, organizational factors may influence their decision to migrate. This study, which draws from 260 professionals in the IT-BPO sector of Sri Lanka, shows that career growth opportunities, incentives, and perceived organizational politics (POP) directly influence brain drain. In addition, when employees perceive a high degree of organizational politics, presence of favorable career growth opportunities do not reduce migration intentions. Furthermore, although the workload is found not to cause brain drain, a close examination of the data and literature indicates that the relationship is likely to depend on several organizational and personal factors which lie beyond the scope of the present paper. This paper concludes by highlighting the importance of using the organizational theory to explain brain drain and several important implications for practice.

International human migration networks under regulations

International human migration has transformed economies and societies. The new millennium, with climate change and its impacts, and increasing conflicts and displacements, has experienced a great increase in international migrants, with associated challenges faced by governments. In this paper, we advance the modeling, analysis, and solution of international human migration problems by developing a network model with regulations. The formalism uses the theory of variational inequalities, coupled with Lagrange analysis, in order to gain insights as to the impacts of the regulations on utilities of multiple classes of migrants, and on the equilibrium flows. Our results add to the literature on operations research for societal impact, inspired by the real world.

HIV and tuberculosis co-infection among migrants in Europe: A systematic review on the prevalence, incidence and mortality.

BackgroundInternational human migration has been rapidly growing. Migrants coming from low and middle income countries continue to be considerably vulnerable and at higher risk for infectious diseases, namely HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) and tuberculosis (TB). In Europe, the number of patients with HIV-TB co-infection has been increasing and migration could be one of the potential driving forces.ObjectiveThis systematic review aims to improve the understanding on the burden of HIV-TB co-infection among migrants in Europe and to assess whether these populations are particularly vulnerable to this co-infection compared to nationals.DesignMEDLINE®, Web of Science® and Scopus® databases were searched from March to April 2016 using combinations of keywords. Titles and abstracts were screened and studies meeting the inclusion criteria proceeded for full-text revision. These articles were then selected for data extraction on the prevalence, incidence and mortality.ResultsThe majority of HIV-TB prevalence data reported in the analysed studies, including extrapulmonary/disseminated TB forms, was higher among migrant vs. nationals, some of the studies even showing increasing trends over time. Additionally, while HIV-TB incidence rates have decreased among migrants and nationals, migrants are still at a higher risk for this co-infection. Migrants with HIV-TB co-infection were also more prone to unsuccessful treatment outcomes, death and drug resistant TB. However, contradicting results also showed lower mortality compared to nationals.ConclusionsOverall, a disproportionate vulnerability of migrants to acquire the HIV-TB co-infection was observed across studies. Such vulnerability has been associated to low socioeconomic status, poor living conditions and limited access to healthcare. Adequate social support, early detection, appropriate treatment, and adequate access to healthcare are key improvements to tackle HIV-TB co-infection among these populations.

МОДЕЛЬ РЕГУЛИРОВАНИЯ ЭКОНОМИЧЕСКИХ СИСТЕМ В УСЛОВИЯХ КРИЗИСА СРЕДЫ ОБИТАНИЯ

The article describes globalization processes taking place in society and reveals a recessional trend of their impact on the environment. The specific features of modern capitalism are characterized. The main distinctive feature of modern capitalism is the freedom of movement of human, information, production and nonproductive resources between countries, which in turn, promotes capability implementation, competition and economic growth. The strengthening of resources mobility is primarily connected with the aforementioned process of removing borders, which has not only positive, but also negative consequences. The manifestation of the duality of driving forces of globalization in the production of public goods, in the processes of regional integration, in the activities of transnational corporations and international human migration has been clarified. The interdependence of the artificial habitat and the biosphere has been established and negative consequences of social activity have been indicated. The paper presents a mathematical model of interaction of the social and economic system and an ecosystem based on the information-entropy approach. On the basis of such a model, it is possible to create a unified regulatory framework that allows to ensure acceptable levels of environmental safety.

Labour Migration Trends in the Slovak Republic

IntroductionThe origins of scientific research which can be traced back to second half of 19th century mark beginning of exploring other sciences, both social and economic ones. In this period of time, empirical science research was developed, such as ethnography, geography, political science and many others that laid foundations for exploration of a number of theories of international human migration and made them interdisciplinary in character. In 1885, E. G. Ravenstein published a paper entitled Laws of Migration. Having utilized statistical data on British migration, he inferred laws of migration, such as for instance distance, types of migrants, gender-specific motives for migration, etc. (Ravenstein, 1885; Gress, 2014).Ageing population, in particular in EU countries made investigation of labour migration, as well as its causes and effects for individual labour markets of primary concern (Cajka et al., 2014). There are various reasons for labour migration. Generally, there are two reasons for international migration, i.e. economic and non-economic ones. Economic reasons include differences between wages, searching for farmland and striving to acquire new skills in labour market. Non-economic reasons include political, religious, racial or ethnic motives (Muchova et al., 2011, p. 102; Kumpikaite, Zickute, 2012).Approaches of countries to migration (Czaika, de Haas, 2013; Sadova, 2010) will depend on whether or not there is a need for migrants in a given country. Presently, need is mainly associated with maintaining economic performance of country and demand for workforce from either quantitative or qualitative perspective.Effective management of migration processes has become a political priority in most countries. There has been an overwhelming consensus on migration - if managed effectively, it can be greatly beneficial to countries of both and destination (Lipkova et al., 2011, p. 331; Bilan, 2014; Streimikiene et al., 2016).Migration is a relatively complex concept which refers to several different types of human movements, such as for instance change of residence, labour migration, seasonal migration, circular migration, etc. The most common categorization takes into account geographical aspect of human mobility, and thus international migration, internal migration and cross-border migration are distinguished. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) defines international migration as the movement of a person or a group of persons from one geographical unit to another across an administrative or political border, for temporary or permanent settlement, in a place other than their place of origin (IOM, 2003; Divinský, 2009; Vojtovic, 2013; Thomas, 2016).Therefore, term international migration will be used throughout paper. In paper, motivating factors of Slovak citizens to move abroad for employment purposes were examined. The issue of migration of Slovak workers to other EU countries seems to be a problem for Slovak economy. That is why Slovak government are preparing measures to tackle it. Apparently, there are no exact and real data on number of labour migrants, so extent and seriousness of problem cannot be judged objectively. Surveys conducted on migration of Slovak citizens for employment purposes abroad provide only a vague picture of development of problematic issue. There are several reasons why there is a lack of clear and unambiguous data: plurality of migration channels (through which Slovak citizens seek and find employment abroad - EURES, agencies offering jobs abroad, temporary employment agencies, individual job search etc.), variety and incompatibility of methodological approaches (immigration cards, personal identification numbers, residence permits, work permits - changing jobs often requires a new registration in register of immigrant workers, when quitting jobs, leaving labour market or country, there is no need to get unregistered), periodicity of statistical data and their nature (terms of processing and publishing data on migrant workers differ across EU). …

International migration: The state-sovereignty-migration nexus

Commonly, international human migration is blamed for corroding states sovereignty, especially stemming from policy circles, academic literature and citizens of the host countries. This has attracted the attention of the media highlighting hazards of being a migrant, with some countries viewing migrants as enemies; and, Cuba provides a vivid case. Yet in other countries, migrants are viewed as important contributors to social and economic development, with Mexico, the Dominican Republic and India serving as examples. This article locates migrants in the framework of human rights as guided by international law without prejudice to the demands of state sovereignty, but linking the two in the context of developing international standards. Migration is seen as a feature of human history dating back to primordial time. Nothing appears surprising in the movement of people across borders, defining a migrant through emigration and immigration while giving due respect to the sovereignty of states, both sending and receiving. The article discusses the nexus between migrants and state sovereignty in order to highlight the mutual benefit grounded in international law. It attempts to portray a more positive image of the migrant person in light of the global world, socio-economic development and human rights fundamentals. The main challenge remains that of implementing human rights, which appear to be at the crossroads of individual rights and state sovereignty. The paper reveals how the challenge can be overcome while maintaining the structure of rights and freedoms without infringement on states’ sovereignty. It concludes that migrants remain on the periphery of effective protection from the vagaries of the citizens, partly because the state has a tendency to confine certain rights to its citizenry. States possess discretionary authority to control the ingress of foreign nationals into their territories though sometimes they fail to do that as evidenced by hundreds of millions of irregular migrants around the world. The paper reveals that, the symbiotic relationship between migrants, regular or irregular, and state sovereignty should be strengthened.

Does human migration affect international trade? A complex-network perspective.

This paper explores the relationships between international human migration and merchandise trade using a complex-network approach. We firstly compare the topological structure of worldwide networks of human migration and bilateral trade over the period 1960–2000. Next, we ask whether pairs of countries that are more central in the migration network trade more. We show that: (i) the networks of international migration and trade are strongly correlated, and such correlation can be mostly explained by country economic/demographic size and geographical distance; (ii) centrality in the international-migration network boosts bilateral trade; (iii) intensive forms of country centrality are more trade enhancing than their extensive counterparts. Our findings suggest that bilateral trade between any two countries is not only affected by the presence of migrants from either countries, but also by their relative embeddedness in the complex web of corridors making up the network of international human migration.