Global Migration and the World Economy : Two Centuries of Policy and Performance

by Hatton, T. J.; Williamson, Jeffrey G.

• ISBN13: 9780262083423
• ISBN10: 0262083426
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-01-15
• Publisher: Mit Pr

Summary

World mass migration began in the early nineteenth century, when advances in transportation technology and industrial revolutions at home enabled increasing numbers of people to set off for other parts of the globe in search of a better life. Two centuries later, there is no distant African, Asian, or Latin American village that is not within reach of some high-wage OECD labor market. This book is the first comprehensive economic assessment of world mass migration taking a long-run historical perspective, including north-north, south-south, and south-north migrations. Timothy Hatton and Jeffrey Williamson, both economists and economic historians, consider two centuries of global mobility, assessing its impact on the migrants themselves as well as on the sending and receiving countries. Global Migration and the World Economycovers two great migration waves: the first, from the 1820s to the beginning of World War I, when immigration was largely unrestricted; the second, beginning in 1950, when mass migration continued to grow despite policy restrictions. The book also explores the period between these two global centuries when world migration shrank sharply because of two world wars, immigration quotas, and the Great Depression. The authors assess the economic performance of these world migrations, the policy reactions to deal with them, and the political economy that connected one with the other. The last third of Global Migration and the World Economyfocuses on modern experience and shows how contemporary debates about migration performance and policy can be informed by a comprehensive historical perspective.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
1 Goals and Guidelines	1	(4)
I The Rise of World Mass Migration	5	(148)
2 Evolving World Migrations since Columbus	7	(24)
3 The Transition to Mass Migration: How It All Began	31	(20)
4 What Drove European Mass Emigration?	51	(26)
5 Emigrant Origins and Immigrant Outcomes	77	(24)
6 The Impact of Mass Migration on Convergence and Inequality	101	(26)
7 Mass Migrations in the Poor Periphery	127	(26)
II The Fall of World Mass Migration	153	(48)
8 Political Debate and Policy Backlash	155	(26)
9 The Demise of Mass Migration and Its Impact	181	(20)
III The Rise (Again) of World Mass Migration	201	(138)
10 Resurrection: World Migration since World War II	203	(22)
11 World Migration under Policy Constraints	225	(22)
12 Where Are All the Africans?	247	(18)
13 The Rise (and Fall?) of Asylum Seeking	265	(24)
14 The Labor Market and Fiscal Impact of Immigration	289	(24)
15 Migrant Selection, Immigrant Assimilation, and Emigrant Brain Drain	313	(26)
IV The Future of World Mass Migration	339	(66)
16 Policy and Prejudice	341	(26)
17 Policy and Performance	367	(26)
18 World Mass Migration: Past, Present, and Future	393	(12)
Notes	405	(12)
References	417	(32)
Index	449