International Migration Statistics [antikvár]

PREFACEThe sweeping economic and political reforms taking place in the worldtoday have not only created the prospect of dramatic changes in labour migra-tion patterns, but have also affected the whole approach to migration policies.Policy-makers are now showing much greater interest in migration issues,together with a greater willingness to bring these issues to the core of policydialogue and international cooperation.While concerns about international population movements have in-creased in recent years, adequate and reliable data for understanding theprocesses shaping such movements and for developing an appropriate policyresponse are still lacking.Recent concerns about international migration stem from two majorfactors. First, increasing globalization of economic networks, rapid populationgrowth in the South, and growing poverty have led to increased pressurestowards emigration. More than 70 million people, mostly from developingcountries, are now working (legally or illegally) in other countries. Second,increasing unemployment, mounting nationalism and xenophobic sentimentshave led to social tensions in the migrant-receiving countries in the North andhave encouraged many governments to adopt more restrictive immigrationpolicies.Some of these perceptions about the causes and consequences of inter-national migration are not necessarily based on sound analysis. Rather, theyoften reflect a broader social unease stemming from poverty and growing socialand economic imbalances. They sometimes develop in reaction to migrationepisodes that, even if of limited dimensions, have been quite visible and strikingin the eyes of the public and of the media.There is thus a growing interest among governments and scholars, in bothNorth and South, in quantifying the volume of international migration flowsand in assessing their economic and social implications. The carving up of theworld into distinct regional blocs, the liberalization of trade, and the relocationof production units in labour supply countries are also likely to have importantimplications for intra-regional and inter-regional migration flows, and for typesof labour movement. It will be necessary, therefore, to study the impact of thesechanges on future migration trends.