Nouvelles tendances de migration

INTRODUCTION 3

NEW MIGRATION TRENDS 4

DIFFERENT REASONS TO MIGRATE 5

HUMAN CAPITAL THEORY 5

RISK AVERSION AND RISK TOLERANCE 6

THE NEW ECONOMICS OF MIGRATION 6

THE DUTY OF THE GOVERNMENT TOWARDS THE LOCAL LABOR COMMUNITY 7

CONVENTIONAL LABOR MARKET POLICIES 8

APPLIED ECONOMICS, THEIR CONCLUSION 8

CONCLUSION 9

REFERENCES 10

Introduction

According to the United Nation Department of Economic and Social Affairs, there are an approximate 232 million people around the world, which are working outside of their home country. Even though, that this number has been relatively stable over the last 40 years, as it represents an approximate of 3.2% of the world population, the interest into the migration and it’s correlation with the development of the world economy has increased and even is used by politicians. “The economic impacts of international migration have become a source of concern to policy-makers and the public at large” (O. Damette and V. Fromentin, Migration and labor markets in OECD countries: a panel cointegration approach, April 2012).

In OECD countries, migration has led to be the main reason for it’s population growth, as the average children per couple is lower than 2 and therefor only immigration can increase the population of OECD countries. Policy-makers are more and more attracted to the subject of migration, as the working force is constantly afraid of loosing their jobs to immigrants or even the wages to be lowered due to the foreign influence. In addition to this matter comes the globalization which leads many manufacturers to outsource their manufacturing plants to countries, such as China and India, where the labor force is almost unlimited and the production costs much lower than in developed countries.

In the article “Migration, Risk, and Uncertainty: Theoretical Perspectives” from 2012, there are several risks and uncertainty which are linked to migration, such as the uncertainty of the place of where the migrants go, the uncertainty of the people which are in the host country about their jobs or the risk which is taken by the immigrants in order to provide for their families in their home country, this phenomena is often the case in more developed countries, as the immigration is much higher in these countries (Graphic 1). In this essay, we will elaborate some theoretical approaches to the migration of workforce, the different migrations and what is the link between the labor market, migration and the governments.

Entwikelte Gebiete = Developed Regions

Welt = World

Weniger entwikelte Gebiete = Less developed regions

New Migration Trends

People migrate due to different reasons. First, their mobility might be forced, due to conflicts, migration politics, environmental dangers and technological risks, illnesses or political expulsion. But in most cases, migration appears out of financial interests from an individual or a group of family members. Migration is a basic phenomenon of today’s globalization, last but not least due to demographical factors.

As the population is decreasing in the developed countries, and increasing in developing countries, this leads to an over supply of workforces, which leads to a higher migration pressure from the developing countries to the developed countries. The increase of burocratic workload in developed countries and the automatically exchanges of personal information between most of the world countries, has lead to a more difficult migration process or even forced migrants to take more difficult and risky roads.

Countries around the world have been able to trace most of their immigrants and history, which led in several western countries to a higher alert level. Many countries have decided over the last couple of years to “higher their walls” and make immigration more difficult. The two latest example were Switzerland, which voted for a reintroduction of the “valve clause”, which enables the government to limit the number of immigrants (even OECD members) or the UAE, which decided to make the accusation of visas for Iranian citizen more difficult, or even impossible for new comers.

Different reasons to migrate

It is important to understand the reasons, why people might feel the urge to migrate to other countries and leave their families behind, in their native country. There are many theories, which are still being elaborated and often lead to different economical opinions. In the following paragraphs, a short explanation of the main reasons for migrants to travel have been elaborated and explained.

Human Capital Theory

Many studies have been using the human capital theory as a model for their researches. It is understood that migration is seen as an investment from the part of the migrants, which is simply explainable by comparing the same jobs in different locations, such as the reward (pecuniary or non-pecuniary) from a car seller in Africa and Europe. They reward in Europe is far higher then the one in Africa, therefor the car seller might decide to go and work in Europe.

Risk aversion and Risk tolerance

Behavioral and psychological economics are emphasizing on the fact that people’s decisions are influenced by each and everybody’s psychological profile. This kind of researches is very recent and quite new to the study of migration. There are few discoveries in this area, such as:

• Women are often avoiding risks more than men

• That the decision in taking risks is influenced by people’s age (decreasing the older people get)

• The more educated somebody is the more he is willing to take risks

• The risk appetite is differing from one country to an other

The New Economics of Migration

One of the most attractive and newly studied areas is taking place at the household, rather than at the

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