Tides of Migration, Currents of History: The State, Economy, and the Transatlantic Movement of Labor in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

Abstract

SUMMARY: International migration has flowed and ebbed in two long waves over the last two hundred years. The major determinants of international migration have been the economy and the state. The economic forces impinging on migration are demography, technology, the level of wages, and geographical proximity, transportation, and communications. The state is the confluence of social and political forces within countries which define, encourage or curtail, and regulate movement across borders. The lesson of the nineteenth-century migration system is that states created it or allowed it to happen. They also always had the power to end it, and they eventually did. The huge break in the history of migration which accompanied the era of the world wars points to the decisive power of the state to control migration and, by extension, the direction of economic development itself. The present article reviews the major phases of the history of modern migration in order to put the present crossroads in perspective.

The Effect of Visas on Migration Processes

“…However, other scholars have argued that, on the whole, state policies have been largely effective (Brochmann and Hammar ; Strikwerda ). Despite extensive media and scholarly attention for irregular and other forms of officially “unwanted” migration, it can be argued that the vast majority of migrants abide by the rules and that bureaucratic systems set up to regulate migration are therefore largely effective, albeit not perfect.…”

The Effectiveness of Immigration Policies

“…Drawing on fieldwork done in the developing world, researchers like Carling (2002) have argued that it has become more difficult for poor people to migrate to wealthy countries as a result of the introduction of visa requirements and stricter border controls. Studies of historical and contemporary migration have also pointed to the major role of states in shaping migration patterns (Skeldon 1997;Strikwerda 1999). This line of argument seems to be supported by a growing number of quantitative empirical studies which indicate that immigration restrictions do significantly affect the magnitude and composition of immigration flows (Beine, Docquier, and Özden 2011;Hatton 2005;Mayda 2010;Ortega and Peri 2013).…”

The Determinants of Migration: A Theorizing and Conceptualizing of Policy Issues in Perspective of Sending and Destination Effects

“…However, the effectiveness of such policies has been often contested in the face of their oftsupposed failure to significantly affect the level of immigration and their hypothesized unintended, perverse and often counterproductive effects such as pushing migrants into permanent settlement, discouraging return and encouraging irregular movements and migration through alternative legal or geographical channels (Castles 2004b;Grütters 2003). However, other scholars have argued that, on the whole, state policies have been largely effective (Brochmann & Hammar 1999;Strikwerda 1999), which also seems to be partly confirmed by a limited number of quantitative studies indicating that specific policy interventions can have a significant effect on migration flows.…”