Intro: Why

study
migration?
I. Who is a migrant?
Who is perceived as a migrant?

• People who are from developing countries

• People who are poor
• People who are unskilled
• People from Africa
• Refugees
• People coming across the Mediterranean in boats
Who is a migrant? IOM definition

”A person who moves away from his or her place of usual residence,
whether within a country or across an international border,
temporarily or permanently, and for a variety of reasons.” (IOM)

For a list of migration-related definitions, see the IOM terminology list

II. Types of migrants
Internal vs international migration

Internal migration: “The movement of people within a State

involving the establishment of a new temporary or permanent
residence.” (IOM)

International migration: “The movement of persons away from

their place of usual residence and across an international border to a
country of which they are not nationals.” (IOM)
Emigration vs immigration

Emigration: “From the perspective of the country of departure, the act of moving
from one’s country of nationality or usual residence to another country, so that the
country of destination effectively becomes his or her new country of usual
residence.” (IOM)

Immigration: “From the perspective of the country of arrival, the act of moving
into a country other than one’s country of nationality or usual residence, so that the
country of destination effectively becomes his or her new country of usual
residence.” (IOM)
Voluntary versus involuntary migration

Voluntary migrant: A person “who has moved as a result of their

own desires and motivations” (CARFMS, 2019)

Involuntary migrant: A person “who has migrated because they

have been displaced from their home country, have a fear of
persecution, or have been moved by deception or coercion”
(CARFMS, 2019)
Refugee vs Asylum Seeker

Asylum seeker: An individual who is seeking international protection but whose claim has
not yet been finally decided on by the country in which he or she has submitted it.
(UNHCR)

Refugee: A person who has fled war, violence, conflict or persecution and has crossed an
international border to find safety in another country. (UNHCR)
Refugees are defined and protected in international law. The 1951 Refugee Convention is a key legal
document and defines a refugee as: “someone who is unable or unwilling to return to their country of
origin owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality,
membership of a particular social group, or political opinion.”
Regular versus irregular migrant

Regular migrant: Someone who migrates ”through recognized, legal

channels” (IOM)

Irregular migrant: Someone who’s movement “takes place outside

the laws, regulations, or international agreements governing the entry
into or exit from the State of origin, transit or destination.” (IOM)
Irregular migration
Skilled versus unskilled migrant

Skill is a multifaceted concept and hard to observe, so economists often use education as a
proxy for skill.

Criterium depends on type of country (high income countries require tertiary education
while low income countries require primary to classify a migrant as skilled).

The skill levels of immigrants relative to the skill levels of natives in the destination and
relative to the skill levels of non-migrants in the origin play an important role in the
economic impact of immigration.
III. Measuring migration
Migrant flows vs migrant stocks (knowledge clip)

Statistical migration data have great value but come with limitations!

• The flow of migrants: the number of migrants who enter a country (inflow, entries or immigration) in
a given period (usually a year), or who leave the country (emigration, departures or outflow).
The balance between these figures is known as net migration.
• The stock of migrants: the number present in a country on a specific date.
Note: many have arrived years ago

 Flow figures are useful for understanding trends in mobility, while stock figures help us to examine
the long-term impact of migration on a given population.
Classification of migrants (knowlegde clip)

By country of By citizenship/
birth nationality

By background
(children born to
By previous immigrant
residence parents, by
ethnicity, by
race, ...)
Caution needed!

When using statistics it is therefore very important to be aware of

o the definition of terms (which should always be given clearly in presenting
data)
o the significance of different concepts
o and the purpose of the specific statistics
(Castles et al., 2014, The Age of Migration)
IV. The history of
migration
Early migration

“The history of migration begins with the origins

of mankind in the Rift Valley in Africa, from
where between about 1.5 million and 5000 BC
Homo erectus and Homo sapiens spread initially
into Europe and later into other continents.”
(Koser, 2016)
Migration is of all times...

Greek colonization & Mesopotamian, Inca, Indus and Zhou

Roman expansion empires
Migration is of all times...

Vikings (late 8th-mid 11th cent.) Crusaders (11-13 century)

Migration is of all times...

Slave trade (16th-19th cent.) Migration to the colonies

Migration is of all times...

Industrialisation Building America

Evolution of migration since WWII

• 1945-1970
oMigrant workers to Western Europe (guest workers)
o‘Colonial worker’ migration
oPermanent migration to North America, Australia (first from Europe and then Asia and Latin America)

• Late1970-90
oFormer emigrant countries became immigrant countries
o Decline of government organized programs in Developed countries
o Family reunification
o Refugees and asylum seekers
o Increased mobility of highly skilled workers
o Irregular migration
Migration continues to matter today

Economic opportunities in industrial

centra Globalisation
 global events: revolutions, wars, the
rise and fall of empires

Hence,
significant change: economic
migration is expansion, nation-building, political
associated transformations
with…
significant problems: conflict,
persecution and dispossession
V. Facts and figures
 Between 25 and 35%

What percentage of Between 15 and 25%

the world
population lives in
Between 10 and 15%
another country
than the one in
which they were Between 5 and 10%
born?
Below 5%
A billion migrants

Migration is a global phenomenon

with around 1 billion migrants
worldwide (=1/7 of the world
population), composed of:
• 280,6 million international
migrants in 2020 (=3.5%
world pop)
• 763 million internal
migrants
More people => more migration

Source: http://heindehaas.blogspot.com/2017/03/myths-of-migration-much-of-what-
we.html
”Feminization” of international migration

The share of female migrants has not changed significantly in the past 60 years (quantitatively little change)

However, more female migrants are migrating independently for work, education and as heads of
households (qualitative change)
• Gender-selective demand for labour
• The right to family reunion
• Domestic work, organized marriage, and the trafficking into the sex industry

Since 2013, the labour force participation rates of female migrants are higher than that of non-migrant
women, while there is little difference in the labour force participation rates of male migrants compared to
non-migrant males (ILO, 2015, 2018).
 Between 25 and 35%

Between 15 and 25%

What percentage of
the foreign-born Between 10 and 15%
was a refugee in
2020?
Between 5 and 10%

Below 5%
A record number of displaced people

78.5 million (1 in 110) people worldwide are forcibly displaced

• 1/3 are asylum seekers (4.1 million) who are looking for international protection abroad and
refugees (26.4 million) who have received international protection abroad
• 2/3 are Internally Displaced Persons (48 million IDP’s)

The total number of refugees is the highest on record, although the annual rate of growth has
slowed since 2012.

Majority of refugees (38%) is <18 years and thus extra vulnerable (UNHCR)
International Migration: Trends, Determinants, and Policy Effects

Population and Development Review, Volume: 45, Issue: 4, Pages: 885-922, First published: 08 October 2019, DOI: (10.1111/padr.12291)
Where do refugees go?

86% of all refugees worldwide reside in a developing country, and increasingly in the least
developed countries of the world (33% according to UNHCR)
 Potential source for new conflicts

The vast majority of refugees (80%) were hosted in neighbouring countries

 Only when conflict escalates and spreads across the entire country, people head to
international destinations
 The fact that existing conflicts prevale and new conflicts come to rise explains why more
and more refugees head towards OECD countries and why return has been limited
VI. Why do people move
and where to?
Reasons/motivations for migration
How do people
decide where
to go?
VII. Perceptions and attitudes
towards migration
Migration: Top
priority in
political and
social debate
Migration: Perceived as threat
 Perceptions about immigrants characteristics

Perceived share of Muslim immigrants Perceived share of Christian immigrants

Source: Alesina, A., Miano, A., & Stantcheva, S. (2018). Immigration and redistribution (No. w24733). National Bureau of Economic Research.
 Perceptions about immigrants characteristics

Perceived share of unemployed immigrants Perceived share of poor immigrants

Source: Alesina, A., Miano, A., & Stantcheva, S. (2018). Immigration and redistribution (No. w24733). National Bureau of Economic Research.
© 2015 International Organization for Migration (IOM)
VIII. Regulating
migration
Do migration
restrictions
reduce
migration?
Effectiveness of migration policy

Migration restrictions do not necessarily reduce migration. They:

- change the nature of the movement
- mainly change the way in which people move
- affect who migrates (selection) ”Migration policies work as filters rather than taps”
(De Haas et al., 2019)

But they don’t change the underlying processes driving migration like development,
social transformation and labor markets.
In conclusion:
Much of what we think we
know is wrong

The debate over migration is plagued by a

variety of inaccuracies and
misunderstandings. In this course, we’ll look
into what the research really shows!