Migration
Migration is defined as people’s movement (Martin and Zürcher, 2008). Originally migration is the movement of people from one region to another to find food, but with the development of society and globalisation, the reasons for migration are more complicated than searching for food (Martin and Widgren, 2002). International migration involves movement across nations (Martin and Widgren, 2002), which can be for many varying
21 reasons. Dustmann and Glitz (2011) raise a point that in the category of international migration, some immigrants’ single motive for immigration is education accumulation. They are students, and their single motive to immigrate is education. Their migration plan and future development plan are uncertain; they may choose to return to origin country after graduation, stay in current destination country to study or work, or move to another destination country to study or work. Therefore, understanding the push and pull factors influencing international migration could help to understand the push and pull factors influencing international students’ decision to study abroad as they share commonalities. More importantly, the push and pull factors of international immigration are helpful to provide a theoretical framework for push and pull factor of international education.
International migration decisions are normally made by individuals or families, and international migration is not common as people are not motivated to move from their home country to a foreign country and leave their family, friends and environment with which they are familiar. Also, international migration mostly depends on the foreign country’s (also known in the literature as receiving country or host country) relevant policies, which introduce uncertainty to the migration process (Martin and Widgren, 2002; Martin and Zürcher, 2008). Nevertheless, the rate of global migration has increased in past decades (Martin and Widgren, 2002). The amount of migrants in industrialised countries has increased from approximately 55 million to 120 million between 1985 and 2005 (Martin and Zürcher, 2008). In 2005, 3 percent of the world’s population moved from their home countries to foreign countries to live for at least one year. Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States are the four most popular migration destinations and their governments have a positive and welcoming attitude towards international migrants regardless of whether for temporary stays or as a permanent resident. An example is that the United States accepts around 800,000 official migrants every year (Statistics Canada, 2001; Martin and Widgren, 2002; Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2014). Foreign workers who must leave the host country after a certain number of years’ working, but there will always be a number of migrants who enter and/or stay in host countries illegally which violate the immigration laws and regulations of host
22 countries (Martin and Widgren, 2002). It is important to discover the reasons that migrants leave their home country, away from their family and friends, and perhaps even violate laws.
Generally, the factors that trigger international migration are economic growth and population growth (Martin and Widgren, 2002; Martin and Zürcher, 2008), differences in resources, employment opportunities, social welfare, and human rights (Martin and Widgren, 2002). Economic divergence and inequalities, improvements in telecommunications, transportation and other infrastructure, also have become new accelerators of migration growth (Martin and Zürcher, 2008). The main reasons for international migration can be separated into two categories, economic reasons and non- economic reasons. The factors that actually make migrants move to foreign countries can be grouped into three areas, demand pull factors, supply push factors and network factors (Binational Study on Migration, 1997; Martin and Widgren, 2002; Nurse, 2004; Martin and Zürcher, 2008; Parkins, 2010). Table 2.1 presents a summary of several factors which may impact on an individual’s decision. Factors could be related to each other, for example, supply (push) factor is home country’s lack of job opportunities; demand pull factor is destination country has many of job opportunities; and network factor is the flow of job recruitment information between friends and family members. These three factors are related to each other, especially for supply push factor and demand pull factor. They could be the same factor, the relative difference makes the factors work differently in home country and destination country.
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Table 2.1 International Migration Determinants
Reasons for International
Migration
Factors of International Migration
Demand Pull Factors
Supply -Push Factors
Network Factors
Economic Reasons Job opportunities; Level of wages
Unemployment; Underemployment (national wide); Relative low level of wages; Social welfare
Job recruitment and wages’ information flows
Non-Economic Reasons
Family reunion War, persecution and unstable political
environment (in this situation, migrants are mostly refugees and/or asylum seekers) Infrastructure (especially communication and transportation); availability of relevant assistance organisations and quality of their work; motivation of having different life experience
Source: Martin and Widgren (2002)
The factors listed above are relative, using job opportunities as an example, home country’s lack of job opportunity is a push factor which pushes migrants to leave their home country to look for jobs. The availability of job opportunities in the host country is a pull factor here, as it attracts migrants to come to work. Even though Martin and Widgren (2002) listed infrastructure as non-economic area of network factors, it may be more appropriate to add it as economic area of network factors. Infrastructure is a signal of the level of the destination country’s economy. Its availability and quality could influence migrants’ decision to migrate.
In many studies, demand push factors, supply pull factors and network factors do not weigh equally in the international migration process (Martin and Widgren, 2002; Martin and Zürcher, 2008; Parkins, 2010).
24 Demand pull) factors which include wages, working conditions, job opportunities, information network, and transportation to host countries, encourage migrants, including skilled migrants to move to developed countries to work and explore opportunities (Lowell and Findlay, 2002). Information about wages, working environment and conditions could spread through the network of family, relatives and friends which are available to more people who would like to migrate to other countries.
Other supply push factors, the factors of economic contraction and decline, social inequality and instability, rising of crime, life quality and political crisis have become the main forces that drive people to move to host countries (Nurse, 2004; Quinn and Rubb, 2005; Parkins, 2010). In research by the World Bank (World Bank, 2004), unemployment rate, lack of job opportunities, and slow even downward economic growth were the main reasons that push people to leave Jamaica, and migrate to host countries. One of the supply push factors is that an individual’s job does not match his/her skills and/or knowledge (Parkins, 2010). Migration can happen when an individual is not able to find a job that matches their skill and knowledge, highlighting that the “education-occupation” factor works in the international migration decision-making process (Quinn and Rubb, 2005). They also conclude that government policy also influences international migration, especially education and employment policy. In the case of Jamaica, the push factors also included crime and violence, economic instability causing unequal social and economic opportunities and competitions, and career shortage, and social safety (Parkins, 2010).
In other research (Martin and Widgren, 2002), non-economic factors are also important to the international migration. It includes family reunion, wars and political instability, and risk. The migrant could move to a foreign country due to demand pull factors or supply push factors in the beginning, and his/her husband/wife, parents, children and other family relatives may also move to the host country. This is known as family chain migration behaviour (Martin and Widgren, 2002). This is also known as social ties by Babcock and Conway (2000), that migrants move to the destination country where their
25 family and friends are. The reason that they would like to move to the specific destination country could be because of family reunion (Martin and Teitelbaum, 2005). Adamson (2006) explained family chain migration behaviour from the angle of voluntary migration and economics migration, and in both situations, the family chain migration behaviour is triggered by the wish to be reunited with their family. Koser (2010) also explained social ties as migrants choosing to move to destination countries where their family/friends have stayed. Social ties build up migration networks. Migrants’ family/friends who have settled in the destination country could provide information, financial help and other economic and social support to migrants so as to attract them to migrate to the destination country. Social ties also work in the international students’ foreign study decision, however there is still a difference between the social ties on migration and on international education. For example, it is common to see migrants move to another country to reunite with their family, which is not common to see on international students’ decision to study abroad. International students use social tie networks to get the information that they are interested in. Their family members and/or friends could have been to the destination country before or are in the destination country currently. Their recommendations are useful to international students even though some of their family/friends have left the destination country already. In the migration process, migrants tend to choose the destination country where their family members/friends are. Family/peers’ influence on international students’ foreign study decisions will be discussed in the next two sections, Page 29, Section 2.2.3 Push Factors of International Education Choice and Page 33 Section 2.2.4 Pull Factors of International Education Choice.
They also posit that as the result of wars, political instability, and risk, some migrants move to the other countries as refugees which is according to the 1951 Geneva Convention. Moreover, recently many people have begun to study abroad or migrate for personal achievement and enrichment rather than migrate simply because of wages, citizenship, and job opportunities. This is more apparent in younger age group.
26 There is also a trend in international migration which is influenced by the relationship between home country and host country. Even after colonial independence, a link remains in the history and relationship between colonies and colonisers, and migration still continues between the home country and host country. An example is the migration stream between India and the United Kingdom. Government immigration policy also influences international migration (Martin and Widgren, 2002). The policy’s main purpose is attracting more tourists and workers with high levels of education and skills, and to refuse the unwanted migrants. The more strict the host country’s immigration policy is, the less migrants go to that host country and vice versa (Martin and Widgren, 2002).
Network factors, including the networks of personal connections such as through family relatives and friends, and the networks of business connections such as through recruiters and labour brokers, expands the scale of migrants moving from Mexico to America. For Mexican-born migrants, it opens more choices of occupations for them (Binational Study on Migration, 1997). Through existing networks and new networks, newly-arrived migrants’ family members and/or friends who have settled in America provide them with financial help, suggestions, shelter and employment opportunities even if some of those newly-arrived migrants are illegal and unauthorised (Binational Study on Migration, 1997). By using these channels and relying on the help from different networks, unauthorized migrants finally join their family in America and become legal migrants under family unification policies (Binational Study on Migration, 1997).
Most Latin American and Caribbean counties export labour to other countries and are also influenced by the three main factors, demand pull factors, supply push factors and network factors. Supply push factors are mainly economic contraction, nationwide social and economic inequality, poverty, crime, income gaps, and political risk, and the main demand pull factors are population age and slow, even downward population decrease in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development membership countries (Nurse, 2004). The population decrease results in inadequate labour availability in
27 agricultural, science, services and other areas. Particularly affected are jobs with lower wages and relatively poor working environment, which local people are rarely interested in (Nurse, 2004). Migration decisions are made by migrants’ families, and moreover, over 80% of the money earned by the migrant, are sent home to pay for expenses, welfare and business investment (Nurse, 2004). In the case of Mexico (Chimhowu et al., 2003), results show that in Mexico, 20% of migrants’ remittances are used to invest in small businesses in the urban areas.
Caribbean countries, such as Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and Guyana, are also migrant-sending countries. A large portion of Caribbean migrants move to America, Canada and European countries (Nurse, 2004). From 1971 to 1998, approximately 2.4 million Caribbean migrants moved to the United States (United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, 2002). Using Jamaica as an example, crime and violence contributes a lot to Jamaicans’ international migration decisions, the research also states that without government deterrence of crime and violence, Jamaica cannot be a harmonious country to live in (Thomas-Hope, 1992). In Parkins (2010) the research focuses on highly-skilled Jamaican workers. The lack of social and economic opportunities, inequality of their opportunities for the great majority people in Jamaica make it difficult for them to refuse the attractiveness of lifestyle and living environment and chances in developed countries.
There have been two main waves of Caribbean migration (Nurse, 2004). First wave happened after the Second World War and was the result of the economic development in Western countries, the demand pull factors, such as inadequate labour in host countries played an important role in this stage (Nurse, 2004). The second wave began from the late period of 1970s because of demand pull factors such as increasing recruitment in areas such as education and healthcare in North Atlantic countries. Additionally, political instability and risk also contributed to the second wave of migration (Migration and ONU, 2000; Nurse, 2004). Caribbean migrants could be regarded as an expanded kinship group (Segal, 1996). Similarly, another study (Schmid, 2003) also showed this kinship
28 migration; a large number of children, generally companied with their grandparents, elder siblings, and other family members and family’s friends, stay in their home countries until their parents are settled in the host countries to collect them for family reunification or return back to the home countries. Additionally in 1998, 98% of migrants move to foreign countries from Caribbean countries through kinship, family unification and as refugees (United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, 2002).
Moreover, the huge labour outflow from Caribbean countries brings a problem, brain drain (Carrington and Detragiache, 1998). Caribbean countries have the highest levels of brain drain. Brain drain in Caribbean countries is caused by the labour export to the host countries of highly educated and skilled people rather than surplus or under-qualified labour. These highly educated and skilled migrants are higher educated than the average education level of the migration home countries’ population. They are also highly demanded by Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development membership countries, at the meantime, they are able to pay for the migration costs (Nurse, 2004). Caribbean-born migrants, generally occupy a bigger portion of employment in the areas such as finance, education, and services (United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, 2002).
The income gap between migration host countries and home countries attracts highly educated and skilled labour to leave as it makes the home countries less attractive and competitive in the international labour market (Nurse, 2004). In other words, the wage does not match the job. The high quality human capital outflow has drained Caribbean significantly, causing slow growing economies and brings social, community and family displacement problems to those migration-sending countries (Nurse, 2004).
This section discussed the push and pull factors that influence migration decision. The factors are categorised as demand pull factors, supply push factors and network factors. From the explanation, it is clear to see that some of the pull and push factors are different
29 sides of the same coin. For example, a home country that lacks employment opportunities is a supply push factor that pushes migrants to move abroad. A destination country that has many job opportunities is a demand pull factor that attracts migrants.
International students are a special type of migrant. Their migration decision is not finalised. Their decision on the destination is uncertain. It is unclear whether they will go back to home country after graduation. They may stay in current destination country or move to another destination country. The length of time that they will stay in the current destination country or another destination country is also uncertain. However, there are similarities between international students’ decision to study abroad and migrants’ decision to migrate. Some of the supply push and demand pull factors are also common to see in the push and pull factors of international education, such as availability of job opportunities, social safety, and political stability.
Network factors of migration focus on migrants’ social ties. They can get financial and social support from their family members/friends who have settled in destination countries. They may also want to move to a destination country because to reunite with family members. Network factors also work on international students’ foreign study decisions. There are differences on how network factors work on migration decisions and foreign study decisions. For example, it is common to see migrants migrate to reunite with their family, but not common to see on international students study abroad for the same reason. Migrants tend to move to countries their family/friends are settled in. International students collect information from their family/friends/peers that are currently living or have lived in the destination country, even though they may have left the destination country. In the following sections, these factors will be discussed.