CHED FACULTY TRAINING FOR THE TEACHING OF THE NEW GENERAL EDUCATION(GE)

CORE COURSES: SECOND GENERATION TRAINING

I. Title: GLOBAL MIGRATION

II. Learning outcomes:

At the end of this chapter/lesson, the students will be able to:

define migration and recognize its two major types;

differentiate the categories of international migration;

discuss the causes of migration;

illustrate the historical trends of global migration;

examine whether migration assists or hinders development;

assess whether immigration leads to settlement and ethnic and cultural

diversity;

verify the impact of migration to the nation-state through a

formal/informal interview with OFWs; and

examine the migration in East Asia in terms of Policy regime of labor

sojourning.

III. Introduction:

Globalization seems to lead inexorably towards more diverse societies

and multicultural citizenship.

In the second half of the twentieth century, international migration

emerged as one of the main factors in social transformation and development in
all regions of the world. Its significance sets to increase as the population mobility
grows in volume and takes on new forms. It is a cause of further social
transformations in both migrant-sending and receiving countries. Traditionally,
many people spent their whole lives in their native village or neighborhood.
However, in the modern era, migration is becoming increasingly common as
people move in search of security and a better livelihood.

108
 CHED FACULTY TRAINING FOR THE TEACHING OF THE NEW GENERAL EDUCATION(GE)
CORE COURSES: SECOND GENERATION TRAINING

Migration is often a result of economic and social development. In turn, it

may contribute to further development and improved economic and social
conditions, or alternatively may help to perpetuate stagnation and inequality. It
helps to erode traditional boundaries between languages, cultures, ethnic groups
and nation-states. Thus, challenging cultural traditions, national identity and
political institutions, and contributing to a decline in the autonomy of the nation
state.

IV. Content:

A. NATURE AND TYPES OF MIGRATION

Migration means crossing the boundary of a political or administrative

unit for a certain minimum period (Boyle et al., 1998). It refers to the
movement from one region or country to another.

There are two major types of migration:

Internal Migration- refers to a movement from one area (a

province, district or municipality) to another within the country. It can span
great distances and bring together very different people. For example,
movements of Uigar national minority people from the western provinces
of China to cities in the East.

International Migration- means crossing the frontiers which

separate one of the worlds approximately 200 states from another. It may
be over short distances and between culturally similar people, for
example, between the southern Philippines and Sabah in Malaysia.

The great majority of border crossings do not imply migration: most

travelers are tourists or business visitors who have no intention of staying for
109
CHED FACULTY TRAINING FOR THE TEACHING OF THE NEW GENERAL EDUCATION(GE)
CORE COURSES: SECOND GENERATION TRAINING

long. Migration means taking up a residence for a certain minimum period say
6 months or a year. Most countries have a number of categories in their migration
policies and statistics.

There is nothing objective about definitions of migration: they are the result
of state policies, introduced in response to political and economic goals and
public attitudes. International migration arises in a world divided up into nation-
states, in which remaining in the country of birth is still seen as a norm and
moving to another country as a deviation. That is why migration tends to be
regarded as problematic: something to be controlled and even curbed, because it
may bring about unpredictable changes.

One way in which states seek to improve control is by dividing up

INTERNATIONAL MIGRANTS INTO CATEGORIES:

a. Temporary Labor Migrants (also known as guest workers or overseas

contract workers). These refer to men and women who migrate for a
limited period (from a few months to several years) in order to take up
employment and send money home (remittances).

b. Highly Skilled and Business Migrants. These refer to people with

qualifications as managers, executives, professionals, technicians or
similar, who move within the internal labor markets of transnational
corporations and international organizations, or who seek employment
through international labor markets for scarce skills.

c. Irregular Migrants (also known as undocumented or illegal migrants).

These are the people who enter a country, usually in search of
employment, without the necessary documents and permits.

d. Refugees. According to the 1951 United Nations Convention relating to

the Status of Refugees, a refugee is a person residing outside his or her
country of nationality, who is unable or unwilling to return because of a

110
CHED FACULTY TRAINING FOR THE TEACHING OF THE NEW GENERAL EDUCATION(GE)
CORE COURSES: SECOND GENERATION TRAINING

well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality,

membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.

e. Asylum-seekers. They are the people who move across borders in

search of protection, but who may not fulfill the strict criteria laid down by
the 1951 Convention.

f. Forced Migration. This includes not only refugees and asylum-seekers

but also people forced to move by environmental catastrophes or
development projects (such as new factories, roads or dams).

g. Family Members (also known as family reunion or family reunification

migrants). This refers to migration to join people who have already entered
in immigration country under one of the above categories.

h. Return Migrants. These are the people who return to their countries of
origin after a long period in another country. They are often looked on
favorably as they may bring with them capital, skills and experience useful
for economic development.

None of these categories are explicitly based on the race, ethnicity

or origins of migrants, and, indeed, there are few countries today which
admit to discriminating on the basis of such criteria.

B. CAUSES OF MIGRATION

International migration is an integral part of globalization which may be

characterized as the widening, deepening and speeding up of worldwide
interconnectedness in all aspects of contemporary social life (Held et al., 1999).
The key indicator of globalization is the rapid increase in cross-border flows of all
sorts: finance, trade, ideas, pollution, media products and people.

The key organizing structure for all these flows is the transnational
network, which can take in the form of transnational corporations, global markets,

111
CHED FACULTY TRAINING FOR THE TEACHING OF THE NEW GENERAL EDUCATION(GE)
CORE COURSES: SECOND GENERATION TRAINING

international governmental and non-governmental organizations, global criminal

syndicates, or transnational cultural communities. They key tool is modern
information and communications technology, including internet, improved
telephone connection and cheap air travel.

The following are the causes of migration:

1. Disparity in levels of income, employment and social well-being between

differing areas. According to neo-classical economic theory, the main
cause of migration is individuals efforts to maximize their income by
moving from low-wage to high-wage economies.

2. Differences in demographic patterns with regard to fertility, mortality, age-

structure and labor force growth.

3. Rapid increase in cross-border flows of all sorts (finance, trade, ideas,

media, and etc.) which are organized mainly by transnational networks.

4. In the event of a catastrophe (such as war or environmental degradation)

which destroys minimal subsistence levels, even the poorest may be
forced to migrate, usually under very bad conditions.

Migration is thus both a result and a cause of development. Development

leads to migration, because economic and educational improvements make
people capable of seeking better opportunities elsewhere. A useful approach to
analyzing the various factors causing emigration is to be found in the migration
systems theory.

A migration system is constituted by two or more countries which

exchange migrants with each other. Migratory movements generally arise from
the existence of prior links between sending and receiving countries based on
colonization, political influence, trade, investment or cultural ties. Typically,
migratory chains are started by an external factor, such as recruitment or military
service, or by an initial movement of young (usually male) pioneers.

112
CHED FACULTY TRAINING FOR THE TEACHING OF THE NEW GENERAL EDUCATION(GE)
CORE COURSES: SECOND GENERATION TRAINING

In the long run, migrations may lead to international communicative

networks, which affect economic relations, social and political institutions, and
the culture and national identity of all the countries concerned (Basch et al.,
1994).

C. HISTORICAL TRENDS

Population movements in response to demographic growth, climactic

change and economic needs have always been part of human history. Warfare
and formation of nations, states, and empires have all led to migrations, both
voluntary and forced.

From the 15th century onwards, European nation-state formation,

colonialism and industrialization led to a rapid growth in migration. Colonialism
involved overseas emigration of Europeans as sailors, soldiers, farmers, traders,
priests, and administrators. This was provided first through the forced migration
of African slaves (some 15 million between the 15 th and 19th centuries), and later
through the use of indentured workers, who were transported large distances
within colonial empires.

Industrialization in Western Europe led to landlessness and

impoverishment, which encouraged mass emigration to other continents.
Economic growth and nation-building in the USA relied heavily on immigration,
with an estimated 30 million people entering from 1861 to 1920.

Economic stagnation and political turmoil led to reduced migration

between 1918 and 1945. In the USA, the congress enacted a national-origins
quota system which stopped large-scale immigration until the 1960s. France was
the only country to recruit foreign workers in this period: colonies of Italians and
Poles sprang up in the heavy industrial towns of the North and East. In the
depression of the 1930s, many migrants were deported and the foreign
population fell half a million by 1936.

113
CHED FACULTY TRAINING FOR THE TEACHING OF THE NEW GENERAL EDUCATION(GE)
CORE COURSES: SECOND GENERATION TRAINING

After the Second World War, international migration expanded in volume

and scope. There were two main phases being distinguished during this period:

The first lasted from 1945 to 1973: the long boom stimulated large-scale
labor migration to Western Europe, North America and Oceania from less-
developed areas. This phase ended around 1973 with the Oil Crisis
which triggered a major recession.

In the second phase from the mid-1970s: capital investment shifted away
from the old centers, and transnational forms of production and distribution
reshaped the world economy.

The late 1980s and early 1990s were a period of unprecedented

migration.

D. MIGRATION AND DEVELOPMENT

The increasing growth of international migration over the last half-century

poses new challenges for societies and policy-makers all over the world.
Migration often involves a transfer of the most valuable economic resource
human capital from a poor country to a rich one.

Both labor-importing and labor-exporting countries often pursue short-term

aims. The former are concerned with obtaining a flexible, low-cost labor force.
The latter are mainly concerned with generating jobs for an under-utilized
workforce and with getting the maximum possible inflow of worker remittances.

Many countries encourage emigration for employment. This may mean

actual government involvement in recruitment and deployment of workers,
regulation of non-governmental recruitment agencies, or simply laissez-faire with
regard to spontaneous movements. However, regulation of emigration from less-
developed countries is often ineffective, as the large number of irregular migrants

114
CHED FACULTY TRAINING FOR THE TEACHING OF THE NEW GENERAL EDUCATION(GE)
CORE COURSES: SECOND GENERATION TRAINING

demonstrates. This allows exploitative employment and abuses like the trafficking
of women and children for prostitution.

Remittances are a key objective: they make a massive contribution to the

national accounts of many emigration countries, and could help to fund
development investments. Global migrant remittances increased from US$2
billion in 1970 to US$70 billion in 1995.

Most emigration country governments have policies to prevent abuse or

exploitation of their citizens while abroad, and to provide assistance in case of
illness, accident, death, trouble with the law, disputes with employers or other
emergencies. For instance, the Philippines has set up the Overseas Workers
Welfare Administration (OWWA), which provides a range of services, including
pre-departure orientation seminars and special officials at consulates to assist
migrants (Tomas, 1999). However, they are not available to irregular migrants
who may face the worst problems.

E. SETTLEMENT AND ETHNIC DIVERSITY

In the 1960s, Western European policy-makers thought that guest-

workers would not settle permanently. However, after the Oil Crisis, family
reunion and community formation took place. It seems that migration almost
inevitably leads to settlement of a certain proportion of the migrants. This is partly
due to the social nature of the migration process, which is sustained by informal
networks, and the increased strength of human rights safeguards in many
countries which make it difficult for governments to deport migrants or to deny
them the right to live with their families.

Immigrants often differ from the receiving populations in many ways:

They may come from different types of societies (e.g. agrarian-rural rather
than urban-industrial) with different traditions, religions and political
institutions;
115
CHED FACULTY TRAINING FOR THE TEACHING OF THE NEW GENERAL EDUCATION(GE)
CORE COURSES: SECOND GENERATION TRAINING

They often speak a different language and follow different cultural

practices;

They may be visibly different, through physical appearance (skin color,

features, hair type) or style of dress;

Concentrated in certain types of work (generally of low social status) and

live in low-income residential areas; and

The position of the immigrants which is often marked by a specific legal

status that of a foreigner or non-citizen.

The social meaning of ethnic diversity depends to a large extent on the

significance attached to it by the population and states of the receiving countries.

Culturally distinct settler groups almost always maintain their languages

and some elements of their homeland cultures, at least for few generations.
Where governments have recognized permanent settlement, there has been a
tendency to move from policies of individual assimilation to acceptance of some
degree of cultural difference.

In such cases, immigrants tend to turn into marginalized ethnic minorities.

In other cases, governments may accept the reality of settlement, but demand
individual cultural assimilation as the price for granting of rights and citizenship.

F. MIGRATION AS A CHALLENGE TO THE NATION-STATE

Migration is one of the forces eroding the power of the nation-state. One
area in which this is particularly apparent is that of border control which is
usually seen as a crucial aspect of the nation-state sovereignty.

Indeed, the very fact that large number of people have to go abroad to
seek reasonable livelihood exposes the inability of the state to bring about the
economic development, and may lead to a crisis of confidence. Where the state
of the country of origin is unable to provide effective protection to nationals

116
CHED FACULTY TRAINING FOR THE TEACHING OF THE NEW GENERAL EDUCATION(GE)
CORE COURSES: SECOND GENERATION TRAINING

abroad, this may lead to a public outcry, as was shown dramatically in the
Philippines in the Flor Contemplacion case in 1995 (Castles et al., 1998)

In an increasingly international economy, it is difficult to open borders for

movements of information, commodities and capital and yet close them to
people. Most states welcome tourists and students, and favor international labor
markets for highly skilled personnel, yet seek to limit flows of manual workers,
family members, and asylum-seekers. Such distinctions are hard to enforce, and
millions of people move irregularly. They are aided by a transnational migration
industry consisting of recruiters, labor brokers, travel agents working both
legally and illegally.

The nation-state is premised on the idea of cultural as well as political

unity. In many countries, ethnic homogeneity, defined in terms of common
language, culture, traditions, and history, has been seen as the basis of the
nation-state. Immigration and ethnic diversity threaten such ideas of the nation,
because they create a people without common ethnic origins. Democratic states
tend to integrate immigrants by offering them and their children citizenship.
However, the failure of assimilation policies and the growth of ethnic communities
mean that the new citizens are often not nationals (in the sense of sharing
dominant culture).

The classical countries of immigration have been able to cope with this
situation most easily, since absorption of immigrants has been part of their myth
of nation-building. But countries which place a common culture at the heart of
their nation-building process have found it very difficult to resolve the
contradiction.

The recent trend to development of transnational communities is a further

challenge to the nation-state: modern form of transport and communication make
it possible for immigrants and their descendants to maintain long-term links with
the ancestral homeland or with diaspora groups elsewhere (Cohen, 1997). Thus,

117
 CHED FACULTY TRAINING FOR THE TEACHING OF THE NEW GENERAL EDUCATION(GE)
CORE COURSES: SECOND GENERATION TRAINING

the idea that a state must be based on a relatively homogeneous nation is

becoming increasingly difficult to sustain.

V. Learning activity/assessment:

A. Comprehension Check:

Directions. Read each item carefully and answer it briefly and correctly.

1. Discuss briefly the concept of global migration as a result of globalization.

2. With the various causes of global migration, point out one and explain it
briefly in relation to its possible impact to the countrys development.

3. Illustrate in a graphical presentation the historical trends of global

migration. Point out the significant trend/event that took place in each
period.

4. Does global migration assist or hinder the countrys development?

Expound your answer.

5. Does immigration lead to settlement, formation of ethnic communities,

and new forms of ethnic and cultural diversity? Support your answer.

B. Matching Type

Directions. Match the description in Column A with the terminologies relating to

the nature of migration and categories international migration in Column B.
Write the letter of the best answer on the space provided in each item.

118
 CHED FACULTY TRAINING FOR THE TEACHING OF THE NEW GENERAL EDUCATION(GE)
CORE COURSES: SECOND GENERATION TRAINING

Column A Column B
___1. This is a type of migration which means a. Irregular Migrants
crossing the frontiers which separate one of the
worlds approximately 200 states from another. It
may be over short distances and between
culturally similar people.
___2. This a type of migration which refers to a b. International Migration
movement from one area (a province, district or
municipality) to another within the country. It can
span great distances and bring together very
different people.
___3. They are the people who move across c. Highly Skilled and
borders in search of protection, but who may not Business Migrants
fulfill the strict criteria laid down by the 1951
Convention.
___4. This refers to migration to join people who d. Refugee
have already entered in immigration country under
one of the above categories.
___5. These refer to people with qualifications as e. Temporary Labor Migrants
managers, executives, professionals, technicians
or similar, who move within the internal labor
markets of transnational corporations and
international organizations, or who seek
employment through international labor markets for
scarce skills.
___6. He/she is a person residing outside his or f. Asylum-seekers
her country of nationality, who is unable or
unwilling to return because of a well-founded fear
of persecution on account of race, religion,
nationality, membership in a particular social
group, or political opinion.
___7. They are also known as undocumented or g. Forced Migration
illegal migrants. They are the people who enter a

119
 CHED FACULTY TRAINING FOR THE TEACHING OF THE NEW GENERAL EDUCATION(GE)
CORE COURSES: SECOND GENERATION TRAINING

country, usually in search of employment, without

the necessary documents and permits.

___8. They are also known as guest workers or h. Internal Migration

overseas contract workers. These refer to men
and women who migrate for a limited period in
order to take up employment and send money
home (remittances).

___9. These are the people who return to their i. Family Members
countries of origin after a long period in another
country.
___10. This includes not only refugees and j. Return Migrants
asylum-seekers but also people forced to move by
environmental catastrophes or development
projects

C. Collaborative Activity

Task/s: The class will be divided into five (5) groups. Each group will be asked to
interview at least two (2) former or current OFW (face-to-face or online).
They will be asking the OFWs about the factors and the reasons of global
migrations (why they choose to migrate/work abroad). Each group will
make a short video clip of their interview and present it to the class.

D. Movie Analysis

The teacher will present a video about the case of Flor Contemplacion in
1995.

Task/s: The student will make a movie analysis, composed of at least 200 words,
regarding the case of Flor Contemplacion in relation to global migration.

E. Reading

120
 CHED FACULTY TRAINING FOR THE TEACHING OF THE NEW GENERAL EDUCATION(GE)
CORE COURSES: SECOND GENERATION TRAINING

Task: The students will read the journal on Differentiating Sedimented from
Modular Transnationalism: The View from East Asia. They will be making
a reflection/reaction paper about the journal in relation to global migration
and Policy regime of labor sojourning.

***See attached document about the journal article.

VI. References:

Aguilar, F. V., Jr. (2009). Differentiating Sedimented from Modular

Transnationalism: The View from East Asia. Asian Pacific Migration, 21
(2), 2012th ser.

Basch, L. et al. (1994). Nations Unbound: Transnational Projects, Post-Colonial

Predicaments and Deterritorialized Nation-States. New York: Gordon and
Breach.

Castles, S. (2000). International Migration at the Beginning of the 21 st Century:

Global Trends and Issues. UNESCO

Castles, S. and Miller, M. (1998). The Age of Migration: International Population

Movements in the Modern World. London: Macmillian.

Tomas, P. S. (1999). Enhancing the Capabilities of Emigration Countries to

Protect Men and Women destined for Low-skilled Employment: The Case
of the Philippines. International Migration, 37: 319-54.

121