Globalization of international migration: social challenges and policy implications

Source: author's estimates based on [12; 13]

3. Qualitative changes in the structure of international migration

The profound global changes in the second half of the XX century were determined by the development of the post-industrial sector of economy and the corresponding transformation of the global labor market demands, as well as by liberal reforms and democratic shifts in the post-communist and developing countries. They encouraged a qualitatively new stage in the development of international migration with the following key changes: a shift from permanent to temporary migration, from unqualified to qualified migration, and to the feminization of migration.

The current researches do not provide reliable information on the temporary migration for temporary movements are not recorded and there is no detailed or regular information about temporary migrants. However, the surveys conducted in some countries of destination and statistics on migration prove that in the recent five decades the number of permanent (or long-term) migrants was rising gradually, while the number and frequency of short-term movements were growing much faster.

Within the international migration, the labor migration was growing most rapidly. This has to do with the greater availability of transport facilities that make migration easier and “reduce” the distance between countries and continents. Under these conditions, the temporary work abroad is more preferable than emigration, because it involves fewer material and non-material costs. On the other hand, globalization of the labor market requires more flexible migration behavior that can be partially guaranteed by the labor migration. Attraction of foreign workers on a temporary basis also corresponds to the immigration policy goals in the developed countries that form the “globalization elite” and in many respects define conditions for other countries participation in the globalization processes. The labor markets of developed countries are in a constant demand for foreign labor of two “polar” types': unqualified workers and workers highly qualified in technologies. At the same time, the demand for foreign labor in countries of destination evolves towards more qualified labor, and receiving countries encourage the qualified immigration for the needs of the national economy branches that face labor deficit.

The current shifts in the qualitative structure of migration flows mean mainly the growth of the number of professionals among international migrants. This trend is closely related to probably the most painful phenomenon within the international migration, the so-called “brain drain”, i.e. the non-return migration of highly qualified specialists -- scientists, engineers, physicians, etc. (including potential intellectuals such as students, post-graduate students, trainees). The policy aimed to attract skilled personnel from other countries is widely used by the developed countries, primarily by the USA. On the other hand, low- and non-skilled migrants face new barriers to access the countries of final destination, while the push factors in less developed states still exist together with the pull factors in receiving countries. Thus, the receiving states are to develop guest workers programs for temporary attraction of low-skilled migrants [6. P. 127--151].

Traditionally it is believed that the majority of international migrants are males, while females migrants are usually family members of male migrants. However, at the beginning of the 1990-s the researchers noticed that today more women migrate not to join their partner, but in search of better-paid employment. In 2015, women's share of international migrants in the developed countries exceeded 51% (in the world -- 48%). The share of female migrants is biggest in Nepal (69%), Moldova (65%), and Latvia (60%) [12]. In many respects, the latter fact is related to the structural modifications of the world economy that accompany globalization processes. The development of the services economy leads to the changes in the labor market structure in the developed countries (textile industry, leisure industry, social services, sex services, etc.) and to the constantly growing demand for female migrants including those occupied in unqualified jobs.

Thus, the feminization of migration flows is one of the important trends in the contemporary international migration, which is accompanied by the increase of human trafficking, smuggling of migrants and other exploitative practices. The latter is due to the fact that women tend to work in the gender-segregated sectors of economy, such as domestic services and a leisure sphere, and they are much more likely to suffer gender discrimination than male migrants [10. P. 20]. These trends generate the challenge for defending human rights of labor migrants (mainly women) as a priority task of national and international institutes focused on migration issues.

4. Types of the contemporary global migration

The international migration flows develop under the influence of different factors, among which economic factors are preliminary. The growing role and scale of economic migration (mainly labor migration) is the most stable and long-lasting trend of international migration. It gained crucial impulse under the expansion of capitalist economy and commercialization of labor. Under the globalization of the world economy the most important challenge is the formation of the world labor market with export and import labor resources of the unprecedented scale.

Despite the fact that it is difficult to estimate the international labor migration flows for not all countries monitor such and a considerable part of labor migration is illegal, the international labor migration has gained a considerable scale and is still growing. According to the recent ILO estimates, there were 150.3 million migrant workers in the world in 2013 compared to 86 million in 2000 and 3.2 million in 1960. Almost half (48.5%) of migrant workers are concentrated in two broad sub-regions -- North America and Northern, Southern and Western Europe (Table 4). These sub-regions together make up 52.9% of female migration and 45.1% of male migration [7].

Table 4 Distribution of migrant workers by sub-regions in 2013