Migration, Labor Markets, and Global Economic Shifts

Posted on Mar 11, 2025 in Social sciences

Economic Theories of Migration and Labor

Neoclassical Economics: Macro focuses on the demand and supply of labor, influencing wages. Micro focuses on individual migration to areas with opportunities, leading to higher income through human capital in the long run.
New Household Economics: Migration decisions are made within the family context. Households collectively aim to maximize expected gains.
World Systems Theory: Migration flows are non-random. Migrants move from the periphery to the core, driven by political, economic, or military connections. Immigration is a consequence of the disruption caused by capitalist development as markets expand.
Dual Labor Market: Developed regions have two types of labor markets. The “primary” sector offers stable, well-paying jobs with security, benefits, and education. The “secondary” sector features low wages, unstable conditions, and limited advancement opportunities.
Network Theory: Migrants establish interpersonal connections that link them with other migrants, former migrants, and non-migrants in both origin and destination areas.

Fordism: Economies heavily relied on manufacturing, providing well-paid and stable jobs. Unions protected industrial workers’ rights through collective bargaining. Capital was controlled or regulated by the state and unions.
Decomposition: The old industrial structure in both developed and developing countries was dismantled, leading to lower wage levels and internal demands.
Recomposition: The rise of high-income consumption occurred not only in rich countries but also among minority elites in poor countries, as the industrial structure reoriented towards the global market.

Support for Private Ownership: Privatization addresses the problem of free-riding. Systems should transition from unregulated access to commonly owned resources to enclosed and regulated systems. Use is prohibited, controlled, or privatized, encouraging more careful resource management.
Opposition to Private Ownership: Rural populations depend on natural resources like groundwater and forests. Sustainability and equitable access can be ensured through collective resource management if the local community owns the commons, sets rules, and limits usage. When private interests override the public good, the poorest are often the most affected.

Food Aid: Efficient agricultural production methods, subsidies, and surpluses were used to win Cold War allies after World War II. Unlike farmers in other countries who grew diverse subsistence crops, American farmers specialized in one or two commodities using agro-industrial methods. Taxpayer money funded research and tech support. Overproduction led to food surpluses used for food aid to spur Third World industrialization and urbanization.
First Green Revolution: The Rockefeller and Ford Foundations invested in research on rice and wheat, leading to high-yielding varieties (HYVs) that grew sturdier, quickly maturing plants. These plants were more resistant to disease and pests but dependent on pesticides. This resulted in increased returns to land, reduced poverty and food prices, and improved nutrition. Disadvantages included water pollution from fertilizers and pesticides, and harm to beneficial insects and wildlife.
Second Green Revolution: Agriculture became dominated by corporate giants. Liberalization of manufacturing and comparative advantage led to countries exchanging their most competitive products. The Agreement on Agriculture required member nations to open their food markets. Food became commodified, fueling the global capitalist system, with increased use of GMOs.

Clash of Civilizations:
- First Perspective: Categorizes world culture into eight clusters: Western, Latin, Islamic, Chinese, Hindu, Orthodox, Japanese, and African, treating them as having distinct and unchangeable values.
- Second Perspective (McDonaldization): A management model symbolizing efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control, shaping work, leisure, and consumption.
- Third Perspective (Hybridity): People interpret global cultural products in light of their local values and interests. Hybridity mixes cultures, leading to glocalization (local becomes global, global becomes local).
Democratization: Processes transforming totalitarian or authoritarian political systems into democracies. Marx argued that conflicts are inherent in all classes and societies, driving social change. The root cause of conflict lies in the social structure that creates a hierarchy of classes. Conflict involves forming and mobilizing groups, communities, or classes. Dahrendorf characterizes conflicts in terms of violence and intensity.

Pluralist Society: Multiple groups with different grievances and demands lead to low-intensity conflicts with little violence.
Superimposition: A society where the rich are politically powerful and of a certain ethnic group with a sense of social and religious superiority, while the poor are powerless and of a different ethnic group, results in more violence and intensity.

Extremely uneven distribution of wealth.
Free market economy during the pre-democratization era, enabling wealth accumulation.
Crony capitalism.
Overnight democratization, creating a divide between political forms of governance and leading to a cataclysmic transition.