Periodic Reporting for period 5 - MADE (Migration as Development)
Période du rapport: 2021-09-01 au 2022-08-31
A number of key insights are emerging from the project. The main substantive insight is the need to rethink migration as an intrinsic part of broader processes of social transformation & development rather than a ‘function’ of push-pull forces or the international income and welfare inequalities. MADE highlights that development, not poverty, drives migration. This is a rather radical departure of common ways of conceiving migration based on push-pull and neoclassical migration models. Evidence generated by MADE corroborates that the fundamental economic, technological, demographic, cultural and political changes associated to modernization tend to increase people’s tendency to migrate. This is because this complex of changes—also known as ‘development’ in parts of the literature—tend to increase people’s capabilities as well as aspirations to migrate. For instance, our paper Formal Education and Migration Aspirations in Ethiopia (forthcoming in Population and Development Review) finds that even completing primary levels of education increases the aspiration to live elsewhere. In another key paper, Social transformation and migration: An empirical inquiry, we corroborate the idea that there is an inverted U-shaped relation between processes of development & emigration. This challenges push-pull models and confirms ‘transition theories,’ which hypothesize that development & social transformation initially tend to boost emigration. Another finding shows that demographic factors only play an indirect role in migration processes. Finally, the analyses also suggest that rural-to-urban migration can be a substitute for international migration in fast growing urban economies.
In addition to our country case studies, we have several other quantitative articles that examine the relationship between key development indicators and mobility trends more broadly. In one article entitled '‘Social transformation and migration: An empirical inquiry’, for example, the authors draw on global migration data covering the 1990‐2010 period to corroborate the idea that there is an inverted U‐shaped relation between processes of development and emigration. They also find a robustly negative effect of urbanization levels and urban growth on emigration, suggesting that rural‐to‐urban migration can be a substitute for international migration in fast growing urban economies. In another article, entitled ‘Formal Education and Migration Aspirations in Ethiopia,’ the authors explore expanding education as a core driver of rising migration. They find that even primary levels can increase migration aspirations.
Finally, the MADE team has been regularly engaged in the dissemination of its findings through keynote addresses, guest lectures and presentations at seminars, workshops and conferences.