• The scale and pace of economic migration has increased as the world has become more interconnected, creating consequences for people and the physical environment.
• Migration is the movement of people from one place to another place. Globalisation and cumulative causation have accelerated migration as it has been made evermore possible to interconnect between places. Migrants are one of the five flows.
• Much of the migration is of economic migrants. Economic migrants are people migrating for improved living conditions, particularly better employment. With the increasing industrialisation and employment opportunities, this is an attraction to economic migrants. This has been because of employment opportunities in core areas.
• The most significant form is rural-urban migration (push and pull factors) fuelling urban growth and urbanisation. This is responsible for about 60% of urban growth in developing and emerging countries. High birth rates or natural increase is responsible for the remaining 40%. These two forms are responsible for the growth of megacities. Rapid megacity growth has been seen in Mumbai and Karachi. Rapid growth can be difficult to cope with. On the other hand, the rural areas or peripheries can fall behind in development.
• This is concerning because core and periphery areas are interdependent. Urban areas rely upon rural areas for food and other resources from farming and the agricultural sector just as the rural areas are dependent upon urban areas for outward investment and remittances. Remittances are important for many peripheral regions.

• Migration has economic, social, political and environmental costs and benefits for both host and source locations.
• You should consider how you can evaluate the costs and benefits.

Additional resources:

Watch the BBC video about Russian oligarchs. Click here to access the video. Which UK football club has been brought by a Russian oligarch?

Read the article by Daniel Bardsley about UAE migration. Click here to access the article.