Immigration
A two-part post – firstly, statements of background; secondly, a Q&A assessed
(a) Background - with thanks to Arthur Snell (a former British diplomat and podcaster)
(i) With some minor exceptions, every country in Europe, North America, East Asia and Australasia has a rapidly ageing population, and economies that need manpower, particularly regarding growing the workforce to meet pension liabilities and social care.
(ii) A US Congressional Budget Office Report in February 2024 stated that there was a need for five million new workers in the USA over the next decade.
(iii) In the UK, according to the latest ONS statistics, there are nearly 1 million unfilled vacancies, despite record immigration.
(iv) Meanwhile, in Africa a ‘youth quake’ means that a quarter of the world’s population will be African by 2050. India’s population will continue to grow until the 2060s.
The combination of the above is that the world has now passed ‘peak child’ – see graph below. The numbers of future children/young people will fall globally, acutely in the ‘developed world’.
So, on the one hand we have a series of countries with declining populations and economies that urgently require manpower. On the other hand, we have regions with growing populations.
Add to these an impending climate crisis that will displace millions of people.
You can read a BBC report about the latest ONS report on immigration to the UK here.
(b) A Q&A based on immigration (assessed)
A reminder: for A level Geography, there are two key Assessment Objectives (AOs):
AO1: demonstrate knowledge and understanding of places, environments, concepts, processes, interactions, and change, at a variety of scales.
AO2: apply knowledge and understanding in different contexts to interpret, analyse, and evaluate geographical information and issues.
So, as on previous occasions, here are two versions of an answer to an exam question (note the self-imposed 600 word maximum).
The first answer is unannotated.
The second answer is in two formats:
(a) AO1 in italics
(b) AO2 in bold.
Evaluate the view that globalisation inevitably results in international migration. (20 marks)
Globalisation has created an interconnected and interdependent world where countries are connected by networks of trade, social media, transport and finance. Especially since the 1990s, the internet and mobile communications have ‘shrunk’ the world because communication is now so fast. World trade has grown too due to the rise of China and other emerging Asian countries as export powerhouses. International migration is when people, usually economic migrants, cross a country border seeking a new life and job, for example Mexican migrants moving to the USA both legally and illegally. Globalisation has led to more international migration, but some international migration is not caused by globalisation and some migration caused by globalisation is not international.
There is a strong link between globalisation and international migration. Growing global hubs such as Qatar and the UAE have attracted millions of South Asian migrants who work in construction and services, as well as ‘ex-pat’ workers from Europe and North America. Global TNCs have fluid workforces and offices and factories in dozens of countries that require international migration to staff. Globalisation has made migration easier due to the global air travel network and the internet that reduces the friction of distance. If the world gets more interconnected in the future, international migration is likely to increase, but other factors also drive migration.
Internal migration caused by globalisation could be argued to be much more significant than international migration. In India, there are 200 million rural-to-urban migrants and over 250 million in China. These economic migrants are attracted to cities like Shanghai, Shenzhen and Mumbai by jobs. Often, they work in factories and offices where western TNCs like Nike, Apple and Tesco have outsourced and offshored work to cheaper Asian locations. This migration flow is larger than the 270 million migrants who live outside the country they were born in.
Although globalisation is an important driver of international migration, some major migrant flows are caused by war and conflict. Since 2011, up to 4 million Syrians have fled civil war to Jordan, Turkey and Greece. Since 2022, millions of Ukrainians have moved to Poland and other EU countries to escape the Russia–Ukraine conflict. Globalisation makes this migration more well known and perhaps easier than in the past because there are more transport and communication routes. But this conflict-driven movement of refugees has existed for centuries. In the 1840s, several million Irish migrated overseas to escape the Irish Potato Famine.
Lastly, although international migration can be good for economic wealth because it fills skill gaps and labour shortages, there has been a reaction against large-scale immigration in countries such as the USA, UK, Hungary and France. New nationalist movements such as the AfD in Germany and politicians like Donald Trump in the USA have made immigration into a political issue and some political parties and people are in favour of greater restrictions on immigration, which suggests that globalisation does not always increase migration.
To conclude, international migration has grown during the era of rapid globalisation since the 1990s, so that 4% of the world’s population now live outside their country of birth. Globalisation makes travel and communication easier; it has created demand for labour, and this reduces the friction that prevents people moving for better economic opportunities. But internal migration is a much larger migration flow driven by globalisation compared to international migration, and some migration flows have a limited link to globalisation as they are caused by war and natural disasters. In some cases, nationalist political decisions to restrict international migration are stronger than the forces of globalisation. (593)
Evaluate the view that globalisation inevitably results in international migration. (20 marks)
Globalisation has created an interconnected and interdependent world where countries are connected by networks of trade, social media, transport and finance. Especially since the 1990s, the internet and mobile communications have ‘shrunk’ the world because communication is now so fast. World trade has grown too due to the rise of China and other emerging Asian countries as export powerhouses. International migration is when people, usually economic migrants, cross a country border seeking a new life and job, for example Mexican migrants moving to the USA both legally and illegally. Globalisation has led to more international migration, but some international migration is not caused by globalisation and some migration caused by globalisation is not international.
There is a strong link between globalisation and international migration. Growing global hubs such as Qatar and the UAE have attracted millions of South Asian migrants who work in construction and services, as well as ‘ex-pat’ workers from Europe and North America. Global TNCs have fluid workforces and offices and factories in dozens of countries that require international migration to staff. Globalisation has made migration easier due to the global air travel network and the internet that reduces the friction of distance. If the world gets more interconnected in the future, international migration is likely to increase, but other factors also drive migration.
Internal migration caused by globalisation could be argued to be much more significant than international migration. In India, there are 200 million rural-to-urban migrants and over 250 million in China. These economic migrants are attracted to cities like Shanghai, Shenzhen and Mumbai by jobs. Often, they work in factories and offices where western TNCs like Nike, Apple and Tesco have outsourced and offshored work to cheaper Asian locations. This migration flow is larger than the 270 million migrants who live outside the country they were born in.
Although globalisation is an important driver of international migration, some major migrant flows are caused by war and conflict. Since 2011, up to 4 million Syrians have fled civil war to Jordan, Turkey and Greece. Since 2022, millions of Ukrainians have moved to Poland and other EU countries to escape the Russia–Ukraine conflict. Globalisation makes this migration more well known and perhaps easier than in the past because there are more transport and communication routes. But this conflict-driven movement of refugees has existed for centuries. In the 1840s, several million Irish migrated overseas to escape the Irish Potato Famine.
Lastly, although international migration can be good for economic wealth because it fills skill gaps and labour shortages, there has been a reaction against large-scale immigration in countries such as the USA, UK, Hungary and France. New nationalist movements such as the AfD in Germany and politicians like Donald Trump in the USA have made immigration into a political issue and some political parties and people are in favour of greater restrictions on immigration, which suggests that globalisation does not always increase migration.
To conclude, international migration has grown during the era of rapid globalisation since the 1990s, so that 4% of the world’s population now live outside their country of birth. Globalisation makes travel and communication easier; it has created demand for labour, and this reduces the friction that prevents people moving for better economic opportunities. But internal migration is a much larger migration flow driven by globalisation compared to international migration, and some migration flows have a limited link to globalisation as they are caused by war and natural disasters. In some cases, nationalist political decisions to restrict international migration are stronger than the forces of globalisation. (593)
[I will re-post my general advice to students about the differences between Descriptive writing (AO1) and Evaluative writing (AO2) soon. The exam season is fast approaching.]