Globalization Lecture 4: Labour Markets and Migration/Culture

Question 1

What is International Migrant Stock?

Answer 1

Mid-year estimate of the number of people living in a country or area other than the one in which they were born or, in the absence of such data, the number of people of foreign citizenship.

Question 2

What are some of today’s migration trends?

Answer 2

1. The number of international migrants worldwide reached an all-time high in 2013 (In 2013, the number of international migrants worldwide reached 232 million, up from 175 million in 2000 and 154 million in 1990)
2. Europe and Asia host the largest number of international migrants
3. Half of all international migrants worldwide reside in just ten countries. The largest number of international migrants resided in the United States of America: 46 million in 2013
4. Globally, women account for about half of all international migrants. Women comprise 48 per cent of the international migrant stock worldwide.
5. Refugees account for a relatively small proportion of the global migrant stock. In 2013, the total number of refugees in the world was estimated at 15.7 million, representing about seven per cent of all international migrants

Question 3

What determines migration?

Answer 3

1. Demand for migrant workers is mainly in developed countries due to growth of the service sector, Minimum Wage laws, Demographic considerations.
2. Supply of migrants from the developing countries due to wage disparity because of surplus labour, stability, security. Destination is based on proximity, history, social networks, familiarity with language

Question 4

What are the positive impacts of migration for the host country?

Answer 4

• Job vacancies and skills gaps can be filled – agriculture, manufacturing and the service sector rely on migrant workers who work for low wages.
Economic growth can be sustained.
• Services to an ageing population can be maintained when there are insufficient young people locally
• the pension gap can be filled by the contributions of new young workers and they also pay taxes.
Immigrants bring energy and innovation.

Question 5

What are the negative impacts of migration for the host country?

Answer 5

• Depression of wages may occur but this seems to be temporary or non-existent.
o Problem for real wages of the unskilled workers comes from laborsaving technical change
o Mainly the new migrants feel any decline in wages.
• Having workers willing to work for relatively low pay may allow employers to ignore productivity, training and innovation.
• Increases in population can put pressure on public services.
• Integration difficulties and friction with local people

Question 6

What are the positive impacts of migration for the country of origin?

Answer 6

• Developing countries benefit from remittances
• Unemployment is reduced and young migrants enhance their life prospects.
• Returning migrants bring savings, skills and international contacts.

Question 7

What are the negative impacts of migration for the country of origin?

Answer 7

• Economic disadvantage through the loss of young workers
• Loss of highly trained people, especially health workers
• Social problems due to separated families - children left behind or growing up without a wider family circle

Question 8

What are the impact of remittences?

Answer 8

• Raises income and reduce poverty rates – offsets cyclical fluctuations
• Increases spending on education and health care
• Can increase investments – depends on unmet consumption demand
• Positive impact on economic growth if spent in the agricultural sector, investment and education rather than consumption

Question 9

What is cultural Imperialism?

Answer 9

• Can be either the forced acculturation of a subject population, or to the voluntary embracing of a foreign culture by individuals who do so of their own free will.
• It is often referred to the proliferation of Western moral concepts, products, and political beliefs, particularly those of the US around the globe. It is argued that many cultures around the world are disappearing due to the overwhelming influence of corporate and cultural America
• Some believe that the newly globalized economy of the late 20th and early 21st century has facilitated this process through the use of new information technology. This kind of cultural imperialism is derived from what is called “soft power”.

Question 10

What is the distinction between cultural imperialism and cultural synchronization?

Answer 10

• people accept cultural values in a selective manner and are quite resistant to manipulations or invasions of Western (American) cultures.
• We have become a more homogenized society, where all cultures take some aspects of different other cultures but retaining its own cultural identity.
• United States is not necessarily the model of cultural imperialism.
• World culture is marked by an organization of diversity rather than by a replication of uniformity