Migration Theory

by Dhirendra Kumar
 THEORIES
1. The Economic approach
2. The Sociological approach
3. The mobility transition
4. The Contribution of political
science
 1. The economic approach

“The migration of workers is caused by

differences in the supply of and
demand for labour in different
locations” (A. Smith)
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the
Wealth of Nations), 1776
 The economic approach
1. The Neoclassical Theory of migration
2. The New Economic of Migration
3. Family Migration and Selectivity of
Migration
4. The Dual Labour Market Theory
5. The World System Theory
 1. The Neoclassical Theory of Migration
Main proponent: Hicks (1932)

The existence of wage

differential across the space is
the main cause of immigration
 1. The Neoclassical Theory of migration
Main proponent: Harris-Todaro (1976)

• Level of analysis: macro

• Type of migration: internal or international labour
migration
• These studies argue that migrants make a rational
decision by moving in the direction where they are
expected to get the highest benefits
• As a result of that movements, the supply of labour
decreases and wages rise in the countries of origin,
the supply of labour increases and wages fall in the
countries of destination, leading eventually to a new
equilibrium. At that point international migration
ceases
 1. The Neoclassical Theory of migration (to
be continued)
• Micro counterpart
• Migrant is a racional actor and decides to
migrates on the basis of cost-benefit calculations
• People move to wherever their skill can be more
productive. They must invest in their migration
wich involves tangibile and intangibile costs
(cost of travel, of research of job, of adaptation
to a new enviroment)
 Net returns (NT)
• NT are estimated as the difference
between expected earnings in the country
of destination and expected earnings in
the country of origin
• The subtraction of estimated costs leads
to a measure of the expected gains from
migration
 Expected earnings in the country of
destination

Expected earnings in the country of

destination estimated on the basis of an
individual’s skills multiplied by the
probability that individual gets a job at
destination
Expected earnings in the country of origin

Expected earnings in the country of

origin estimated on the basis of an
individual’s skills multiplied by the
probability that individual gets a job
at country of origin
 Limitations

• This theory does not take into account the

international political and economic
environment, as well as the effects of state
level economic and political decisions that
influence individual decision regarding
migration (Papademetriou and Martin 1991).
• There is homogeneity of skills between area of
origin and area of destination. The labour is
completely interchangeable. It’s true?
• Level of analysis: macro
• Unit of analysis: country
 2. The New Economics of Migration
Main proponent: Stark and Taylor (1989)

• This theory assumes that people act, within

households or families, to maximize expected
income and to minimize risks by diversifying
the allocation of family labour

• Households diversify risks

• Remittances can also help the community of

origin
2. The New Economic of Migration (to be continued

• Migration is considered to be
particularly important in
developing countries where
capital markets are week, many
people do not have access to
banking services
2. The New Economic of Migration (to be continued

• Household send family members to

work abroad
• to improve income in absolute terms
• to increase income relative to others
households in a reference group
 2. The New Economics of Migration (to be
continued
• If in a community the income of aflluent
households increases, whereas that of
poor households remains unchanged the
relative deprivation of the latter increases
and their incentive to partecipate in
international migration rises as well, even
if no change in expected wages takes
place.
 2. The New Economics of Migration

• Limitations:
• The studies available focus on the experience
of just a handful of rural communities, which
are not selected to be representative of the
whole population
• Level of analisys: micro
• Unit of analysis: family
3. Family Migration and Selectivity of Migration
Main proponent: Mincer (1978)

• Movements of complete family.

• Difference between the individual’s and the couple’s optimal
strategy depends on the degree of correlation in the gains from
migration of the husband and wife. When there is perfect
correlation do the optimal strategies of the individual and the
married couple coincide.
–
• Level of analysis :micro
• Unit of analysis : family/couple
 3. Family Migration and Selectivity of
Migration
• If income inequality is greater at place of
destination,
• “People with higher than average skills have
an incentive to migrate because they can earn
a higher relative wage in area of destination”.
• If income inequality is greater at place of
origin, such person have less incentive to
migrate than those with lower skill
 . Family Migration and Selectivity of
Migration
• When married couples are
considered, the selectivity effects
weakens because some low-skilled
who would not have migrated on
their own to a place with a high level
of income inequality may do so if
they are married to skilled person
 “… migration is the result of rational
choices made by individual or family”

According to :

• The neoclassic economic theory of migration

• The new economics of migration
 4. The Dual Labor Market Theory
Main proponent: Piore (1979)
• International migration is mainly the product of
international force that transcend individual choice
and set constraints on it.
• International migration results from a permanent
demand of foreign labour that is inherent to the
economic structure of developed countries
• Structural constraints at destination reduce social
mobility
• Level of analysis: macro
• Unit of analysis: country
 4. The Dual Labor Market Theory
Main proponent: Piore (1979)

• Several factors contribute to

create structural demand for
foreign workers
 4. The Dual Labor Market Theory
Main proponent: Piore (1979)
• A) Wages not only reflect condition of supply and demand.
• They also confer status and prestige. Consequently to
preserve an established occupational hierarchy, wages
cannot simply respond freely to changes in the supply of
workers.
• Employers seeking to attract unskilled workers cannot for
jobs at the botton of hierarchy cannot simply raise wages
because by so doing they would change the defined
relationships between status and reminaration
• The cheaper solution the importation of foreign workers to
work for low wages.
•
 4. The Dual Labor Market Theory
Main proponent: Piore (1979)

• B) Wages not only reflect condition of supply

and demand, Foreign workers from low
income countries are usually willing to satisfy
that need because even a low wage in
developed country can be several time greater
than the average wage in developing country
 4. The Dual Labor Market Theory
Main proponent: Piore (1979)
• Coexistence of a capital intensive primary
sector and of a labour intensive secondary
sector. Segmented labour market. Workers in
second and or in low-productivity be laid off at
any time. They became the means of
adjustment during cyclical downturns.
Experience of labour importing countries of
Europe during the late 1950s and 1960s
through official recruitment programs. Ethnic
enclaves
 Migration theories and the role
of demographic factors
• One exception: the dual labour market theory (Piore
1979, Massey et al. 1993)

 emphasis on the socio-demographic dynamics of the

labour force as a factor shaping demand for migrant
labour
 supply in the ‘secondary’ labour market provided by
specific socio-demographic groups: women (before
marriage or first birth), teenagers and rural-urban
migrants
 5. The World System Theory
Main proponent: Wallerstein (1970/80)

World-system refers to the international

division of labor, which divides the world
into
core countries,
semi-periphery countries
periphery countries.
5. The World System Theory
 The core
, The Core is the place where
resources and wealth masses. The
Core has high technological
development and it creates complex
technological products
• Core countries focus on higher skill,
capital-intensive production
 The core
• Europe gained control over most of the world
economy, presiding over the development and
spread of industrialization and capitalist
economy, indirectly resulting in
unequal development
• Demand for cheap labor arises (agricolture,
service base, etc.)
 The core

Unites States and Europe gained control over

most of the world economy, presiding over the
development and spread of industrialization
and capitalist economy, indirectly resulting in
unequal development
2012
 The Periphery
• The source of cheap labour, raw
minerals and agricultural products
that serve the Core.
• focuses on low-skill, labor-intensive
production and extraction of raw
materials
 From the Periphery to the Core
• In the peripheral countries, the
commercialization of agricultural
production leads to land consolidation,
the substitution of cash crops for staples
• Mechanization of agricultural reduces the
labour demand
• Rural-urban migration in peripheral area
From the Periphery (PA) to the Core
Growing urban labour force in PA difficult to absorb
↓
Rise in unemployment/underemployment
↓
Marginalisation of many families →
Unmet labour demand in Core →
PA → Core international migration
 2. The Sociological approach
Main proponent: Lee

• Conceptual approaches in migration research

include push and pull factors as determinants
to explain contemporary migrations.
• Both areas of origin and destination are
characterized by sets of positive factors (pull
factors), or forces of attraction, and negative
factors (push factors), or forces of repulsion
 Push factors (1)
caused by a variety of reasons:
• economic causes – income inequality between
developing and developed countries -
• demographic causes - Population pressure in
area leads to out migration
• political changes, for example the collapse
Berlin’s Wall (1989)
 Push factors (2)

• geographical causes as proximity, migration is

an inverse function of distance;

• evaluation of place utilities and disutilities

plays an important role in migration decision
 Macro explanations
1. Push/Pull factors

- Demographic imbalances
– Economics imbalances
– Political factors

In the origin country

Sustained demographic
growth high potential labour supply

Unemployment,
High pressure underemployment, low lyfe style
towards emigration
53
• Diagram 1 Diagram 1
 Pull factors
caused by a variety of reasons:
• Segmented Demand labour market – low
skilled
• Migratory chain, Family riunification
• Weak immigration law system (no boundaries
control)
 Demographic reasons Political change
Economic reasons

Population pressure
in area leads to out
migration Asylum seeking
Income inequality
between developed
Push
countries and
factors
developing
countries The collapse Berlin’s
Contemporary Wall, 1989
Migration

Pull Geographical proximity

factors
Black market

Segmented Weak immigration

Migratory chaine, law system
Family riunification Demand labour
market – low skilled
 Some lessons from the literature
• There is limited theoretical understanding and
empirical evidence of the impact of demographic
trends on migration. Emphasis on demography as a
‘push’ factor

• Demographic ‘pull’ forces have been particularly

neglected

• A demographic gap is neither necessary nor sufficient

for migration to take place

• The socio-demographic composition of the workforce

matters more than overall numbers