Chapter 9: Global Demography and Migration

Introduction

The number of international migrants worldwide has continued to

grow rapidly in recent years, reaching 258 million in 2017, up from 220
million in 2010 and 173 million in 2000. Conflict, poverty inequality and
lack of sustainable livelihoods compel people to leave their homes to seek a
better future for themselves and their families abroad. (Daniels,2002).
Essentially, these comprise the major trigger factors for migration to persist.
An international migrant is a person who is living in a country other than
his or her country of birth. One cause confusion is the difference between
immigration and emigration. The difference between “immigrate” and
“emigrate” is the “immigrating” is the act of entering a foreign country to
live while “emigrating” is the act of leaving a country to live in another.
Then, there is the difference between the home country which is the
country of origin of an emigrant and the host country which is the country
of destination of an immigrant (Carrera et.al, 2009)

Learning Objectives:

At the end of the lesson the students will be able to:

1. Analyze the political, economic, cultural, and social factors
underlying the global movements of people
2. Display first-hand knowledge of the experiences of OFWs.
3. Reflect from personal point of view through listening to a song
about migration.

Discussion

Global Migration
The UN international Migration Report in 2017 noted that migrants
from developing countries sent home as estimated US $413 billion in
remittances. These remittances are important especially for the home
countries as these constitute a significant source of household income that
improves the livelihoods of families and communities through investments
in education, health, sanitation, housing and infrastructure (Lorenzo et, al,
2007). The Philippines is one country that enjoys a relatively large sum of

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remittances especially from its Overseas Filipino workers. On the other
hand, countries of destination or host communities benefit significantly from
migration as migrants often fill critical labor gaps.In the Philippines, again,
this is very noticeable as many expat migrants have put up foreign
investments that do not only create jobs but also contributed to the social
and cultural aspects of the country.
Refugees might be the face of migration in the media, but 90% of the
world’s 258 million migrants have moved across borders voluntarily, usually
for economic reasons. “Despite the significant benefits of migration,
some migrants remain among the most vulnerable members of the
society. What could be the reason for this assertion?”

Some people choose to migrate,

(e.g. someone who moves to
another country to enhance their
career opportunities.)
Reasons
for Global Some people are forced to
Migration migrate, (e.g. someone who
moves due to war or famine.)

I. Political (Civil Strife, Wars and the needs for Asylum)

 The deplorable state of displacement brought about by civil conflict
and insecurity places asylum seekers at the topmost of our list. As
stated, 90% of migration is borne out of economic reasons and the
remaining 10% are refugees and asylum seekers who have fled to
another country to escape conflict and persecution.
o Refugees - is someone who has left their home and does not
have a new home to go. Often refugees do not carry many
possessions with them and do not have a clear idea of where
they may finally settle.
 Half of the world’s 24 million refugees are in the Middle East and
North Africa, reflecting dominant pattern of flight to a neighboring
country. Globally, 20 people are newly displaced every minute.
Overall, more than 65 million people around the world have been
forcibly displaced. That’s the most since World War II, according to the
U.N. Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

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 o United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) -
is a United Nations agency with the mandate to protect
refugees, forcibly displaced communities and stateless people,
and assist in their voluntary repatriation, local integration or
resettlement to a third country.

Six Countries of Origin that account for most refugees in the world
today
1. Syria
o 5.6 million Refugees

o Almost 660,000 Syrians fled the country in 2017, according to the

UNHCR. That puts the total number of refugees from the 7-year-long
conflict to 5.6 million people. Most settled in neighboring countries
including:
a) Turkey (3.5 million people)
b) Lebanon (1 million people)
c) Jordan (658,000 people)
d) Iraq (247,000 people)
e) The vast majority of Syrian refugees remain in the
Middle East. The war has displaced an additional
6.6 million Syrians within the country (Abedine et.al
2013).
o The Syrian Civil War, which began in the spring of 2011 which has
been called “Arab Spring”, provides an extreme example of
relationship between internal violence and the emigration of refugees.
o The war has included horrific violence between government forces and
rebel groups attempting to overthrow the Assad regime, resulting in
more than 80,000 deaths as well as extensive human rights atrocities.
o As a result of the deteriorating conditions in Syria, which include the
alleged use of chemical weapons, torture, civilian massacres and etc.
As of May 2013, more than 4 million Syrians were internally displaced
and over 1.5 million had vacated the country to neighboring states as
refugees. 1 million of the total refugee population has fled during the
first five months of 2013.
o Neighboring Countries (Turkey, Lebanon, Iraq, Israel, and Jordan).

2. Afghanistan
o 2.5 million refugees

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 o About 2.5 million people from Afghanistan are living as refugees,
representing the second-largest refugee population in the world.
Pakistan hosts nearly 1.4 million, including some second- or third-
generation Afghanistan refugees who have never lived in their home
country.
o Some have been forced to return home from neighboring countries,
but increased violence there since 2015 has led to a new surge of
asylum seekers. As many as 1.5 million Afghanistan are displaced
within the country due to conflict.
3. South Sudan
o 2.4 million refugees

o The world’s youngest country sank back into violent turmoil in July
2016 after renewed fighting shattered a peace deal that was years in
the making. This forced more than 1.5 million people from their
homes between July 9, 2016 - South Sudan’s fifth birthday - and
March 31, 2018.
o Now, more than 2.4 million South Sudanese people are refugees,
nearly half of whom fled to Uganda. In, addition, 1.9 million people
have been displaced within the country.
4. Myanmar
o 1.1 million refugees

o More than 1.1 million Rohingya people have fled their homes in
Western Myanmar’s Rakhine state and have registered as refugees in
Bangladesh as of April 2018 because of fighting between inter-
community groups, minority groups and government military forces.
o The United Nations is calling this the world’s fastest developing
refugees crisis. About 375,000 people are also displaced within
Myanmar
5. Somalia
o 876,000 refugees

o The total number of registered Somali refugees sits almost 876,000 as

2018. most refugees have settled in Kenya, Ethiopia, or Yemen. Some
have lived massive refugee camps for years.
o About 100,000 have returned to the country since June 2016, largely
due to the Kenya government’s intent to eventually close Dadaab
refugee camp, once the world’s largest. But the widespread
humanitarian need as result of conflict and recurring and severe

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 drought inside Somalia continues. Within Somalia, an estimated more
than 15 million people are displaced because of insecurity.
6. Democratic Republic of the Congo
o 735,000 refugees

o The DRC has been mired in conflict for decades. The second-largest
country in Africa is fraught with political instability and violence has
forced almost 735,000 people to flee their homes and settle in other
countries as refugees.
o The latest conflict erupted in 2016 in the Kasai region, which includes
five provinces in the center of the country. It is yet another instance of
fighting between the military and splintered ethnic militias.
o Nationally, 1.9 million people were newly displaced in 2017, making
the DRC the African country with the highest number of internally
displaced people - 4.3 million.

II. Economic- in search For the Better Opportunities

o Immigration becomes rampant to seek an improvement or look for
opportunities offered by different countries because the living standards
or conditions in the migrants region are not sufficient.
o According to the International Labor Organization, approximately half
of the total population of current international migrants, or about 100
million migrant workers have left home to find better jobs and lifestyle
opportunities for their families abroad.

Economic Effects of Migration

o For receiving countries temporary worker programs help to address
skill shortages but may decrease domestic wages and add to public
welfare burden.
 A Swedish Professor notes, "the problem is not
immigration, it is integration, especially in the labor
market. If there are no jobs, the consequences are
segregation, housing problems and divided cities"
o For sending countries, the short term economic benefit of emigration
is found in remittances,
 According to WB, remittances totalled $529 billion
worldwide in 2012, with $401 billion of that money flowing
into developing nations.

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  The WB notes that remittances sent through informal
channels could add at least 50 percent to the globally
recorded flows(UNCTAD,2011)

o Developing countries can suffer from "brain drain"- the loss of trained
and educated individuals to emigration. For example, there are more
currently more African Scientist and engineers working in the US than
there are in all of Africa, according to the International Organization
for Migration.
 The sizeable portion of this growing migration stream has
been undocumented, a fact often called upon by
immigration opponents in their quest to limit immigration
rates. The backlash against immigrants from Latin
America in the US has resulted in the fortification of the
US-Mexico border, including the construction of physical
walls at popular entry points.
o Many individual states have recently passed legislation making it
difficult for undocumented immigrants to receive social services and
find work in the US, causing extensive backlash from immigrants and
supporters
o Areas in Europe have also experience influxes of immigrants in recent
years. Spain provides an interesting example ; the foreign born
population of the country increased by nearly 5 million people
between 2000 and 2009, growing from less than four percent to
nearly fourteen percent of the total population.
o Like immigration to the US, Spain's immigration is largely labor
driven, coming from areas in North Africa, Latin American, and
Europe. Unlike the US, However increases immigration in Spain has
not been the cause of extensive backlash. Alternatively, France has
experience of widespread resistance to immigration flows in recent
years. Former president Nicolas Sarkozy pursued highly restrictive
immigration policy during his term. During 2011 alone, france
deported nearly 33000 undocumented immigrants, a 17 percent
increase from previous year, and right wing government members
pushed for additional limits on legal migration as well.
o For developed countries, which are often on the receiving end of
migration streams, the positive economic gains from immigration are
largely the result of the infusion of inexpensive and eager laborers into
the company. In the US and Canada, for example, migrant workers
often fill low-wage job for which there is not enough local supply of
labor, such as in the agricultural and service sectors just as cheap
imports of industrial goods benefit the American economy. So too does
the import of low cost labor. Economist who support the notion of
these positive gains claim that immigration has little impact on wages

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 or job availability for domestic workers and that there is no correlation
between immigration and US income distribution and unemployment
rates
o

Case in point: The Plight of Filipino Nurses

 While the developed world is experiencing severe nursing shortages,
US hospitals have found a large pool of experienced nurses in the
Philippines. Offering higher salaries and better living standards, US
hospitals have had a little trouble luring Philippine nurses from their
home country.
 In fact, Filipino nurses have become such an integral part of the
American Health System that they have started their own national
organization, the Philippine Nurses Association of America.
 Filipino nurses began arriving in the US as early as the turn of the
20th Century under Pesionado Act of 1903. During the 1970's, the US
and other industrialized countries experienced nursing shortages, as
more work opportunities began to open to women, making nursing,
with its long hours and high stress, a less appealing option. But well-
educated and English-speaking Filipino nurses provided the perfect
replacement workforce. Without increasing wages, US hospitals were
able to fill necessary, but unwanted, jobs with Filipino immigrants.
POSITIVE EFFECT/S NEGATIVE EFFECT/S

• Once employed in the US, • The Philippines is losing one of

nurses can earn as much as its greatest sources of social
20 times what they were capital- educated workers. In
making back home. Part of other words, Philippines is
these earning is sent home to experiencing brain-drain.
support family and these
funds are called remittances.
These remittances help boost
the Philippine economy and
support local population.

• On top of remittances, if and • American nurses may see

when the migrant nurses
return to the Philippines they
will bring with them greater
amounts of training and
experience contributing to
social capital.
nursing salaries decrease as
Filipino immigrants enter the
labor market with lower wage
requirements.

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  Since the economic crisis (2007-2009), there are fewer nursing jobs
available throughout the developed world. The US and Europe have
passed strict visa requirements that restrict the immigration of
Filipino nurses as well as immigrant workers in general, in part to
reserve job opening for domestic workers. In the Philippines, nursing
schools are making it more difficult to obtain nursing degrees in order
to minimize the excessive supply of nursing school graduates who are
unable to find employments.
III. Environmental – Disaster driven migration
o Ireland experienced a famine never before seen in the country’s
history. By late fall 1845, the main staple of the Irish diet, the
potato, wiped out. With the government not clear on how to
respond, many people died of starvation. The famine killed
hundreds of thousands and forced millions of Irish to flee. Between
1841 and 1851, the Irish population decreased by 1.6 million
people, or approximately 17% of the total population, due to
starvation and emigration (Daniels,2002).
o These emigrants were also encouraged to leave Ireland by their
English landlords, who often rented out unseaworthy vessels that
became known as “coffin ships,” and by British government, which
offered cheap fares to Canada. The large population of Americans
and Canadians of Irish descent, especially in Boston, New York,
and Chicago, can trace their ancestry to this period (Daniels 2002).
More recently, the term “environmental refugees” has been adopted
to describe migrant fleeing environmental disasters.
o In recent years, the concept of “environmental refugees” has gained
new importance, as global climate change and desertification have
threatened the livelihood of millions of people, causing many to
leave home in search of new opportunities.
o “Environmental refugees”, a term coined by Essam El-Hinnawi,
describes “people who have been forced to leave their traditional
habitat, temporarily or permanently, because of a marked
environmental disruption (natural and/or triggered by people) that
jeopardies their existence and/or seriously affects the quality of
their life” (LISER.eu).
o In 2012, approximately 32.4 million people were displaced by
environmental disasters, including those who were forced to
relocate within their countries of origin and these who sought
refuge through international migration. Ninety-eight percent of this
displacement caused by climate and weather-related disasters,
especially flooding.
o While developing nations tend to be disproportionately affected by
such displacement, often due to “compounded vulnerability” of
repeated natural disasters and difficulty rebuilding infrastructure
and protections for the future, wealthy countries also suffered

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 considerable environmental-induced displacement during 2012
(IDMC, 20012).
o Desertification currently affects between 100 and 200 million
people worldwide. In Northern Africa, the region arguably most
affected by this environmental trend, desertification threatens
additional 50 million inhabitants of land at risk of becoming
inhabitable due to climate change and poor farming techniques.
o This trends have led to a wave of North African migrants fleeing to
Western Europe in order to escape crop failure and water shortage.
Although many environmental refugees would like to make it to
Western Europe, the vast majority end up migrating to neighboring
countries, which tend to be some of the poorest in the world. In
many of these places, refugees are seen as unwelcome guests,
putting further strain on already scare water and land supplies.
This social mistrust and competition may escalate to further
conflict and violence (Rethinking policies to Cope with
Desertification, 2006).
o According to Oxford-based environmental migration expert Norman
Myers, when global climate change takes hold, “there could be as
many as 200 million people overtaken by disruptions of monsoon
systems and other rainfall regimes, by droughts of unprecedented
severity and duration, and by sea-level rise and coastal flooding”.
Exposure to the negative effects of global climate change will, in
many cases, lead to massive waves migration. (Nordland,2008).
o Environmental refuges are particularly difficult problem for
government and policy-makers to cope up with due to the variety of
environmental disasters that can have dramatic impacts on the
forced migration of people.
 In Bangladesh, ring sea-levels and resulting floods have
caused many people to flee across the border in India.
 On the other hand, in the Sudan, drought have reduced
sources of water for consumption and traditional agriculture,
leaving many people without sufficient access to food or
water and increasing conflict over these resources.

Push-Pull factors of Migration
o This model differentiates between push factors that drive people to
leave home, from pull factors that attract migrants to a new location.
o Push factors occur within sending states, that is, those that send
migrants abroad, while pull factors occur within receiving states, that
is, states that receive immigrants from sending states abroad (Jonjic
and Mavrodi, 2012).
o In moving migrants must not only find a lack of benefits at home
(push factors) but also expect a surplus benefit abroad (pull factors);

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 otherwise the move would not be worthwhile. Whereas push factors
drive migrants out of their countries or origin, pull factors are
responsible for dictating where these travelers end up. The positive
aspects of some countries serve to attract more migrants than others
(Hanson,2012).
o There is also more ambiguous factor, called network factors that can
either facilitate or deter migration. Network factors include cost of
travel, the ease of communication, and international business trends.

Examples are thus given below.

Push factors are the reason why people leave an area. They include:
1. Lack of economic opportunities
2. Lack of safety
3. High Criminality
4. Crop failure
5. Drought
6. Flooding
7. Poverty
8. War
Pull factors are the reason why people move to a particular area. They
include:
1. Higher employment
2. More wealth
3. Better services
4. Good climate
5. Safer, less criminality
6. Political stability
7. More fertile land
8. Lower risk from natural hazards

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Migration usually happens as a result of a combination of these push
and pull factors.

Trends in Global Migration

Number of international migrants worldwide over the past 17 years.

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 Percentage of international migrants by income group, 2000 and 2017

2000 2017
High-income countries host almost two thirds of all international
migrants. As of 2017, 64 per cent of all international migrants worldwide -
equal to 165 million international migrants - lived in high-income countries.
Thirty-six per cent - or 92 million - of the world’s migrants lived in middle-
or low-income countries. Of these, 81 million resided in middle-income
countries and 11 million in low-income countries. In comparison to 2000,
the share of international migrants living in high income countries increased
slightly, while the share of middle- and low- income countries fell.

Figure 2. Number of international migrants (millions) by region of

destination, 20 and 2017

Analyzing data by geographic region provides additional insights into

current trends. More than 60 per cent of all international migrants

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worldwide live in Asia or Europe. In 2017, 80 million international migrants
were residing in Asia, compared to 78 million in Europe. Northern America
hosted the third largest number of international migrants (58 million),
followed by Africa (25 million), Latin America and the Caribbean (10 million),
and Oceania (8 million)
Between 2000 and 2017, Asia added more international migrants than
any other region. Asia gained some 30 million international migrants during
this period, representing a net increase of about 1.8 million migrants per
annum. Europe added the second largest number of international migrants
between 2000 and 2017 (22 million), followed by Northern America (17
million) and Africa (10 million). Latin America and the Caribbean and
Oceania added comparatively smaller numbers of migrants during this
period (3 million in each of these regions). Despite this continued growth,
international migrants accounted for two per cent or less of the total
population of Africa, Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean. By
contrast, in Europe, Northern America and Oceania, international migrants
comprised at least 10 per cent of the total population.

Figure 3. Twenty countries or areas hosting the largest numbers of

international migrants, 2000 and 2017, number of migrants
(millions)

Most of the world’s migrants live in a relatively small number of countries.

In 2017, more than 50 per cent of all international migrants in the world
were living in just ten countries or areas, while only twenty countries or
areas hosted 67 per cent of the global number of international migrants. The
largest number of international migrants resided in the United States of
America: 50 million, equal to 19 per cent of the world’s total (figure 3). Saudi
Arabia, Germany and the Russian Federation hosted the second, third and
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fourth largest numbers of migrants worldwide (around 12 million each),
followed by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
(nearly 9 million), and the United Arab Emirates (8 million). Of the twenty
largest countries of destination of international migrants worldwide, nine are
located in Asia, seven in Europe, two in Northern America, and one each in
Africa and Oceania.
Figure 4. Number of international migrants by region of origin, 2000
and 2017

Between 2000 and 2017, the number of international migrants

originating in Asia recorded the largest increase (40.7 million), followed by
the migrant population born in Africa (14.7 million), in Latin America and
the Caribbean (12.9 million), in Europe (11.6 million), in Northern America
(1.2 million) and in Oceania (700,000) (see figure 4). In 10 relative terms,
however, the number of international migrants originating in Africa
experienced the largest increase since 2000 (+68 per cent), followed by the
population of migrants born in Asia (+62 per cent), in Latin America and the
Caribbean (+52 per cent) and in Oceania (+51 per cent).

Migration and Globalization

 The great importance that we turn our attention to how migration and
globalization affects one another. We cannot over emphasize further
the intrinsic relation between Migration and Globalization. Both have
affected each other in a variety of ways.
 The ease of travel, technologically driven means transportation and
communication has definitely become an impetus to migrate

14 | P a g e
 especially with push and pull factors seemingly overwhelming and
hard to resist.
 On the other hand, the intermixing and conglomeration of people of
various races and nationalities has pushed the bounds of the nation
states towards becoming more dynamic imbued with a truly global
appeal.
 The development that several industrial countries experience and
continue to experience may have been spurred by trade liberalization
and increased economic integration (Espisova and Ray, 2009).
 In simplistic terms, just as anything and everything right now falls
within the ambit of Globalization, migration too is affected by
Globalization and in turn also affects Globalization (Geddes,2012).
 In fact, the UNFPA even opined that “Today, the number of people
living outside their country of birth is larger than any other time in
history. International migrants would now constitute the world’s fifth
most populous country if they all lived in the same place” (UNFP).
 For example: As a business grow and become more
internationalized they often outsource their production to
developing countries where labor cost are lower. This movement
of jobs from developed nations to the developing world mitigates
certain economic factors leading to migration. In the other
words, in a global economy jobs can move potential migrants
instead of migrants moving to potential jobs (Givens, and
Luedtke, 2004).

Challenges and Prospects

Human Trafficking (involuntary)
 UN defines human trafficking as, “the recruitment, transportation,
transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or
use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of
deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of
the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent
of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of
exploitation” (UNODC.org).
 Human trafficking forms the third largest illegal industry worldwide
following illicit drugs and arms trafficking and generating more than
$32 billion in revenue annually (dosomething.org)
Terrorism
 Criminal acts intended or calculated to provoke a state of terror in the
general public, a group of persons or particular persons for political

15 | P a g e
 purposes are in any circumstance unjustifiable, whatever the
considerations of a political, philosophical, ideological, racial, ethnic,
religious or any other nature that may be invoked to justify them (UN
General Assembly, 1994).
 In the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, many Americans
became hostile toward immigration because the terrorists who
perpetrated the attacks exploited gaping security holes in the U.S.
immigration system.
 Border security became both an immediate and long-term concern, as
the borders with Canada and Mexico were closed for days. The recent
terrorist attacks in London and Paris also prompted governments to
further regulate and enforce more stringent measures to control
migration.
Increased Racism
 Racism is the belief that characteristics and abilities can be attributed
to people simply on the basis of their race and that some racial groups
are superior to others. Racism and discrimination have been used as
powerful weapons encouraging fear or hatred of others in times of
conflict and war, and even during economic downturns (Davies, 2011).
 Recent turn of events in North America especially with the election of
Pres. Donald Trump has spurred reports that racism has resurfaced
in the US.

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References:

 Castles, Stephen. 2000. “International Migration at the Beginning of

the Twenty- First Century: Global Trends and Issues.” International
Social Science Journal 52 (165): 269–281.

 Coronacion, D.C., et.al. (2018). Convergence: A College Textbook in

Contemporary World. Chapter 9-10: Global Demography and Global
Migration pp. 183-219. Books Atpb. Publishing Corp.
 Lee, Ronald. 2003. “The Demographic Transition: Three Centuries of
Fundamental Change.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 17(4): 167–
190.
 Lesthaeghe, Ron. 2010. “The Unfolding Story of the Second
Demographic Transition.” Population and Development Review 36(2):
211–251.
 Livi-Bacci, Massiomo. 2005. “What We Can and Cannot Learn from
the History of World Population. Population Studies: A Journal of
Demography 69(S1): S21–S28.

 Walang Natira. (n.d.) Retrieved from https://youtu.be/DFJZUCg3_DQ

 Kahit Kunting Awa. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://you.be/a-
7ZiWdjQgc

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Name: Date:
Course: Score:

Reflection
Instruction: Listen to the song “Walang Natira” by Gloc9 and “Bagong Bayani” by
Nora Aunor and make a reflection paper about the message of the two songs.
Criteria:
Organization- 15%
Development of Ideas- 15%
Insight into Subject- 25%
Clarity- 20%
Style- 15%
Mechanics- 10%
Total 100%

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