Since the dawn of our civilization, human beings have been trying to find the best conditions for them to live and prosper. In this context, the phenomenon of migration enters the people’s life as a life-long companion of the homo sapiens. Nowadays, as thousands of years earlier, people still care about the place they live to be comfortable and safe. If these requirements are not satisfied, naturally, people seek to find something more suitable. Therefore, migration is a process, which roots deep in the subconscious.
Nevertheless, the wish to move to another place as all the other basic instincts appear to shape and cause some integral tendencies of the modern world. Thus, migration supports people all over the history, even though it changes from time to time. Today, as the trends of society are different, the concept of migration changed too. Under the impact of globalization, migration has found a new way to express itself. It needs no evidence that human migration in the world of globalization is almost a distinct phenomenon when comparing it to the same phenomenon of the previous times.
Globalization
Globalization is the process which makes the whole world a unique united system. Due to the inventions of the past few centuries, the borders of the countries and even the huge water ponds have become a little obstacle between the people from different corners of the world. New kinds of transport and, in fact, new ways to transport people and things have made it easier to establish the links between parts of the earth, which were never meant to be connected (Giddens 606). Due to this, the world started shrinking in the human minds. As nowadays it is not a problem to talk to a person, who is miles away, the distances seem not to exist at all. Therefore, the easy flow of goods and services from one country to another is the simplest model of what human migration could be under the terms of globalization (Robinson).
Still, globalization does not erase the borders of the countries. Therefore, human migration does not gain legality under the impact of globalization. Different countries still exist as different worlds; even though globalization erases the boundaries on the ground, it does not illuminate the boundaries of the countries’ systems and the public mood.
Globalization and internationalization
The idea of the common international financial and labor market under the terms of globalization is hard to make come true as it is closely connected to the terms of internationalization. Internationalization still points the nation to be the most important part of the trade relations, which does not mean unity but cooperation. When talking about globalization, cooperation is not the right world.
Therefore, internationalization and globalization do not follow the same aims, as well as they do not use the same devices. Globalization uses integration as the integral factor and it does not highlight anything like states’ competition or nation domination. Internationalization, in turn, offers national disintegration with a number of nations dominating in the labor market and in the international relations. This idea shows its influence on the international policy of many countries, which follow the same doctrine, stated by Monroe at the beginning of the 19th century. “América para los americanos” is the motto, which represents the meaning of internationalization and erases the ideas of globalization.
Global inequality
In sociology, “global inequality refers to the systematic differences in wealth and power between countries” (Giddens 253). For example, according to one of the main classificatory factors, which is gross national income, all the countries of the world are divided into three huge groups. The classification, based on GNI also demonstrates the quality of life in the countries and the difference between the conditions of living of different citizens.
The research of the World Bank has shown that the difference between the population number and the income per capita for an average low-income country and for a high-income one are different. Even though about 900 million people live with the income 500$ per capita, there are almost 1 000 million people whose income is 39 thousand dollars per capita (Giddens 255). The figures of this research demonstrate the meaning of the global inequality in its worst manifestation.
However, the GNI data and the status of the country as a high-income or a middle-income one does not reflect the social status of all the citizens. The most impressive example of how the finance within one high-income country is separated in the hands of its population. Nowadays a lot of economists claim that the USA is a new type of oligarchy when almost both national budget and political power belong to the same people. This creates a huge difference between social classes and income groups. Such a crack in the income level is also inequality, which globalization is not able to resolve. Actually, globalization is the one to blame that this crack has become so visible in the last years as the best achievements of globalization are under the impact of the wealthiest people.
As the global inequality creates the difference between the social groups within one country, it also highlights the contrast between the countries. The general idea about the financial status of the country gives a slight, not even precise, view of how people of the country live.
For example, China has made its way to the middle-income countries quite fast only due to the acceleration of its GNI amount. When talking about the level of income of Chinese citizens, there still remain many poor people, whose number is considerable bigger than the number of the rich ones (Giddens 254). Still, China is an attractive variant for those people, who live in less developed countries with lower income. For the citizens of Pakistan and Bangladesh China is a perspective variant for migration.
This side-effect of the globalization is the reason which causes new waves of human migration.
Human migration and globalization
The main point, which influences the scale of migration and its intensiveness, is the labor market situation. As society has always claimed to be eager to make all the people obtain equal rights and equal capital, it would be reasonable for the cheap labor to move where the capital is. Nowadays everything happens vice versa. The high-income countries send their capital to wherever the cheap labor is. This creates a specific turnover of finance in the country, which receives capital. However, this does not mean that the country-receiver or the workers gain any benefits; the costs and prices of goods and services, and thus the wages are the same as in the country-sender.
This trend creates a visible difference between the different sides of this deal. Economic globalization, which influences the international labor market and migration tendencies, has a lot to do with integration. Globalization tends to encourage countries and states to create one united market of goods and services whith the same goods, services and prices. The capital turnover there can be beneficial for all the countries, which participate in it, as the idea of this united market guarantees the continuous turnover of labor too (Rauhaus).
The moves, caused by the active internationalization are very frequently seen as the trends of globalization. That means that people does not always want to work in the same conditions as their neighbors from overseas but live in the worse ones.when the capital flows to the low-income country, it does not make its way right to the capital of this country. Therefore, it only appears to influence the labor at the particular factory or plant. The country does not win much from this, except for the fact that it is an opportunity to reduce unemployment rates. At the same time for the workers, it is more suitable to enter the world of the high-income countries to work there at the same plants or factories while getting the same wages but living in the better conditions.
Conclusion
The freedom of capital, goods, and services on the world trade market creates the demand for the same free exchange of labor and people. Human migration in these terms is the most natural process which can appear in such conditions. Under the impact of globalization, human migration has become the demand, which can be satisfied. On the other hand, under the terms of internationalization, human migration cannot satisfy the demands of all the people as countries are still far from integration.
Works Cited
Rauhaus, Alma. "Immigration: Then And Now". The Occidental Observer. N.p., 2012. Web. 31 July 2016.
Giddens, Anthony. Introduction To Sociology. New York: W.W. Norton, 1996. Print.
Robinson, William. "The New Global Capitalism And The War On Immigrants". Truthout. N.p., 2016. Web. 31 July 2016.
