Global migrants and incomes, 1975-2000

Year	Migrants millions	World pop billions	Migrants world pop	Countries grouped by per capita GDP($)			Ratios
				Low	middle	high	High-low	High-middle
1975	85	4.1	2.1%	150	750	6,200	41	8
1985	105	4.8	2.2%	270	1,290	11,810	44	9
1990	154	5.3	2.9%	350	2,220	19,590	56	9
1995	164	5.7	2.9%	430	2,390	24,930	58	10
2000	175	6.1	2.9%	420	1,970	27,510	66	14

Factors Contributing to Migration-Economic differences

Economic differences between countries have been widening, encouraging international migration for incomes and jobs. The world’s GDP was $30 trillion in 2000, making average per capita income $5000 a year, but there was significant variation—the range was from $100 per person per year in Ethiopia to $38000 in Switzerland. When countries are grouped by their per capita GDPs, the gap between high income countries, with $9300 or more per person per year, versus low (below $750 per person per year) and middle income countries climbing into the high-income ranks.[1]

Factors Contributing to Migration-Emergence of transnational migration

Advancement in transportation and communication technologies that link places and people globally are leading to the emergence of a transnational migration space. This spreads over more than one geographical in which migrants can shuttle between more than one homes. Apart from physical movement, the flow of information, skills and remittances are the other components of the transnational migration space.

Factors Contributing to Migration: Demographic changes

Global population growth differs between developed and developing countries. In the developed countries, the current annual rate of growth is less than 0.3 percent, while in the rest of the world the population is increasing almost six times as fast. Demographic changes affect international migration in two ways. On the one hand, rapid population growth combined with economic difficulties push people to move out of their habitat, and on the other hand, a declining and ageing population pressures countries to accept migrants.

Factors Contributing to Migration-Economic Liberalization

The trade and investment climate has sustained the flow of migrants. Higher demand for labour in the developed economies and availability of labour in underdeveloped economies has set global migration in motion. The huge global labour market has offered employers the chance to hire migrant workers as part of their cost minimization strategies.

Force, chain and mass migration

A voluntary movement of adventurous pioneers or of dissident individuals or groups is called a free migration. Although few people are involved, they set an example for others. As the migrants write and visit home, they may induce relatives and friends to follow them. Then, as new migrants repeat this process in turn, a chain migration of thousands of people may result.

Forced and impelled migration

If a migration is induced by the state or some other power-wielding institution, it is called forced or impelled migration. Deportation of criminals, political dissidents, minority groups, and forced labor are examples of forced migration.

Primitive migrations

When the inducement to migrate is an ecological push, such as the exhaustion of natural resources or a famine, or when a group abandons its homeland voluntarily under the pressure of enemies, the migration is called primitive. This the oldest type of human migration and represents the process by which all the land areas of the world except Antarctica became populated.

Forms of Migration

Historical migrations, both internal and international, have been broadly classified according to the force activating the movement. Within each type of movement, the migrants are either innovating or conservative. Innovating migrants wish to achieve something new. Conservative migrants hope to retain their way of life by moving from an environment that has changed

Post industrial migration

The period of post-industrial migration emerged during the 1960s and con­stituted a sharp break with the past. Rather than being dominated by outflows from Europe to a handful of former colonies, immigration became a truly global phenomenon, as the number and variety of both sending and receiving countries steadily increased and the global supply of immigrants shifted from Europe to the developing countries of the Third World.