Globalisation & Migration

Globalisation & Migration

1. Globalisation: increasing interconnectedness across national boundaries

   • Growth of communication systems & global media
   • Creation of global markets
   • Fall of communism in Eastern Europe
   • Expansion of European Union

2. Trends in Global Migration

   • Acceleration
     • ^ Rate of migration
     • UN 2013: 2000-2013 international migration ^ by 33% to reach 3.2% of world's population
     • UK 2013: 862,000 entered/left
   • Differentiation
     • Types of migrant:
       • Permanent settlers
       • Temp workers
       • Spouses
       • Forced migrants
         • Refugees
         • Asylum seekers
       • Legal entitlement or without permission
       • Globalisation = ^ type diversity
         • Students major group: UK 2014 - more Chinese-born than UK-born postgrads
     • Pre-1900's: citizens from narrow range former British colonies forming small no. stable geo concentrated & homogenous ethnic communities
     • Vertovec (2007): Since 1990's = Super-Diversity
       • Immigrants = wider country range
       • Legal status (citizen/spouse) differs within ethnic group
       • Culture/religion divides ethnic groups
       • Dispersed within UK
     • Cohen (2006): 3 Types Migrant
       • Citizens
         • Full rights
         • Since 1970's - harder to aquire
       • Denizens
         • Privileged foreign nationals welcomed by state
         • Billionaire 'oligarchs'; ^ paid employees multi-national companies
       • Helots
         • 'Slaves' - exploited
         • 'Disposable units of labour power'
         • Unskilled, poorly paid work
         • Illegally trafficked workers; legally tied to employer e.g. domestic servants
   • The Feminisation of Migration
     • Past mostly men; today 1/2 female
     • 'The globalisation of the gender division of labour'
       • Female migrants: patriarchal stereotyped jobs: carers, sexual service providers
     • Ehrenreich & Hochschild (2003): Care work, domestic work & sex work ^ women from poor countries
       • Result of several trends
         • 1) Expansion of service occupations in western countries ^ female labour demand
         • 2) Western women = labour force = less willing/able to do domestic work
         • 3) Western men unwilling to do domestic labour
         • 4) Failure of state to provide adequate child care
       • Shutes (2011): 40% adult care nurses in UK migrants, mostly female
     • Global transfer of women's emotional labour
       • Nannies: care & affection for employers children at expense of own
     • 'Mail order brides'
       • Reflects gendered & racialised e.g. 'subservient oriental' stereotypes
       • Illegally trafficked sex workers, slave like conditions

3. Migrant Identities

   • Sources of identity: family, friends, neighbourhood, ethnicity, religion, nationality = sense of belonging
     • Migrants: origin country additional/alt source of identity
   • Eade (1994): Hybrid identities - 2nd gen Bangladeshi Muslims in Britain hierarchal identities: Muslims > Bengali > British
     • Others challenge identity claims, accuse of not 'fitting in'
   • Transnational Identities
     • Eriksen (2007): Globalisation = ^ diverse migration patterns - back & forth movement through networks rather than perm settlement
       • Develop neither/nor identities & loyalties
     • Modern tech = global ties with no travel
     • Globalised economy: more links to other migrants around world than to either origin country or settlement country
     • Erikson: Chinese migrants in Rome - more useful to speak Mandarin than Italian
       • Mandarin important for global connections with Chinese in other countries
         • Globalised world = less likely want to assimilate into host country

4. The Politicisation of Migration

   • Recent immigration policy focus on national security & anti-terrorism
   • Assimilation
     • Encourage adoption of lang, values & customs of host; 'like us'
     • Transnational migrants + hybrid identities = unwilling to abandon culture of see as belonging to just one nation-state
     • Castles (2000): Counter-productive - label minority groups as backward or 'other'
       • Response: emphasise difference e.g. Islamic fundamentalism = ^ 'enemy' idea = promotion of targeting anti-terrorism policies = further marginalisation
     • Divided Working Class
       • Encourages blame for unemployment = racist scapegoating
       • Castles & Kosack (1973): benefits capitalism by creating racially divided w/class preventing united action in defence of interests
   • Multiculturalism
     • Allow to retain sep cultural identity
     • Limited to superficial aspects of cultural diversity
       • Eriksen:
         • Shallow diversity
           • e.g. Chicken tikka masala = Britain's national dish
         • Deep diversity
           • e.g. Arranged marriages, veiling of women = not acceptable by state
     • Educational policies = shallow diversity
       • 'Samosas, saris & steel bands'
       • Fail to tackle deeper problems e.g. racism
     • 1960's = multiculturalism > 9/11 2001 = assimilation
       • France 2010 - veiling of face illegal