After settling in a new country, most migrants maintain social and economic ties with their families and societies of origin. This can quite often take the form of remittances; these monetary transfers have come to represent a significant percentage of the capital flow into many developing countries.
A New Perspective on Migration
"To capture migrants' multiple attachments realistically, researchers proposed that migrants be understood as forming part of two or more dynamically intertwined worlds. They defined
transnational migration as ‘the processes by which immigrants forge and sustain multi-stranded social relations that link together their societies of origin and settlement' (Basch et al. 1994:6). Thus, sending and receiving societies became understood as constituting one single field of analysis."
(Levitt, P.,
The Transnational Turn in Migration Studies,
Global Migration Perspectives, 2004, N.6, visited 2011-09-23)
Towards an International Migration Policy
Although governments generally seek to increase labour mobility according to their domestic labour needs, international cooperation has been relatively restricted. Some form of cooperation exists in virtue of ILO conventions and the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) with regard to high-skilled migrants and, increasingly, illegal migration, human smuggling and trafficking.
Work Permits and Citizenship
In addition to growing state concerns about the control of immigration in Western receiving countries, there has been a general shift towards granting legal status and rights to those who have settled as legal immigrants. There are also measures facilitating access to nationality through automatic acquisition for children born in the territory, easier naturalization for immigrants, and dual nationality.
(adapted from Baubock, R., "Citizenship: International, State, Migrant and Democratic Points of View," in
Globalizing Migration Regimes: New Challenges to Transnational Cooperation (eds). K. Tamas and J. Palme, Ashgate Publishing, 2006, pp. 144-165)
Efforts have been made to establish new norms for citizenship policy at the international level, notably in the European Union. However, "it is important to emphasize that numerous temporary admission policies do not permit the eventual acquisition of citizenship. Many people migrate under intergovernmental agreements or visas that formally dictate that they must leave the host country after a specified time. Guest workers and contract laborers […] are often legally prohibited from settling, forming families, or becoming citizens."
(Gilbertson, G.,
Citizenship in a Globalized World,
Migration Fundamentals, 2006, visited 2011-09-23)
The Case of Domestic Workers
The migration of female workers has attracted public attention in the last decade, notably because their migration tends to create transnational households:
"Many of the international domestic workers and caregivers who leave their homes to care for others abroad also have their own children and elders to look after. Migrant women usually either pass on this responsibility to other female relatives - or, with their higher foreign earnings, hire lower-income domestic workers to manage their own households. This phenomenon is known as the ‘global care chain,' an international system of caregiving stratified by class and, often, ethnicity."
(UNFPA State of the World Population 2006,
A Mighty but Silent River: Women and Migration, visited 2009-09-23)
Brain Drain
Most scholarship on this subject focuses on the movement of labourers and the poor, who are forced to migrate to escape poverty, or for reasons of oppression. However, students, wealthy entrepreneurs and other highly educated individuals also migrate (e.g. migrants from Hong Kong in Vancouver). Although sending countries can benefit from an eventual transfer of knowledge and skills, for some developing countries this type of migration can be the cause of a "brain drain" that is harmful to their economies. This is particularly true in the industry and health sectors.
(adapted from Mitchell, K., "Transnationalism in the Margins: Hegemony and the Shadow State,"
Transnational Spaces, eds. P. Jackson, P. Crang, C. Dwyer, Routledge, 2004, pp. 122-147)