Worlds in Motion: Understanding International Migration at the End of the Millennium

Citation

Massey, D. S., Arango, J., Hugo, G., Kouaouci, A., Pellegrino, A., & Taylor, J. E. (2005). Worlds in Motion: Understanding International Migration at the End of the Millennium. Oxford University Press.

Chapter Summary

The book has ten chapters (about 295 pages of text, within a volume of roughly 360–376 pages with notes and references). The text dates from the original 1998 edition; the Oxford University Press paperback is from 2005. The publisher's description states the aim: social scientists have been slow to construct a comprehensive theory of international migration, and efforts at explanation have been fragmented by disciplinary, geographic and methodological boundaries, so the authors set out to overcome those divisions. They first explain the propositions and hypotheses of current theories and identify where they complement or conflict, then review empirical research from each of the world's principal migration systems, and finally weigh the evidence for each theory.

Chapter 1: New Migrations, New Theories

The opening chapter (pages 1–16) states the problem: at the end of the twentieth century nearly all developed nations had become countries of immigration, including immigration from developing regions, yet explanation remained fragmented. It makes the case for a theory that cuts across disciplines.

Chapter 2: Contemporary Theories of International Migration

The theory chapter (pages 17–59) explains the propositions and hypotheses of the main current theories. The publisher's description names the theories later tested as neoclassical economics, the new economics of labour migration, segmented labour market theory, world systems theory, social capital theory and the theory of cumulative causation.

Chapters 3–7: The Migration Systems

Five regional chapters follow, one for each of the world's principal international migration systems named in the publisher's description: "Understanding the North American System" (pages 60–107), "Coming to Terms with European Migration" (108–133), "Labour Migration in the Gulf System" (134–159), "Theory and Reality in Asia and the Pacific" (160–195) and "International Migration in South America" (196–221). The publisher says that levels and patterns of migration within each system are described from 1980s data to define its structure and organisation, and that specific studies are then surveyed to evaluate the propositions of the theories.

Chapters 8–9: International Migration and Development

Two chapters apply the theories to the relationship between migration and economic development: "International Migration and National Development" (pages 222–253) and "International Migration and Community Development" (254–274).

Chapter 10: Conclusions for the Next Century

The closing chapter (pages 275–294) offers what the publisher calls an empirically grounded theoretical synthesis, intended as a guide for researchers and policy-makers in the twenty-first century. The publisher summarises its stance as: all the theories contain elements of truth supported by research, so the task is to identify which work best in which regional and national circumstances.

Key Concepts

Chapters 1–2: The Problem and the Theories

• Fragmented explanation: the problem of theories divided by discipline, region and method.
• Competing theories: neoclassical economics, the new economics of labour migration, segmented labour market theory, world systems theory, social capital theory and cumulative causation.

Chapters 3–7: Migration Systems

• Migration system: a regional pattern of flows between sending and receiving countries, described through its levels and patterns.
• Systems covered: North America, Western Europe, the Gulf, Asia and the Pacific, and the Southern Cone of South America.

Chapters 8–10: Development and Synthesis

• Migration and development: the link between migration and economic development at national and community level, used as a test of the theories.
• Theoretical synthesis: the aim of identifying which mechanism predominates under which regional and national conditions.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• A clear organising question. The book compares theories against evidence instead of advocating one. The publisher says that although certain theories work better in certain systems, all contain elements of truth.
• Systematic regional coverage. Five chapters give the same kind of treatment to five systems, from North America and Western Europe to the Gulf, Asia and the Pacific, and South America.
• Authors with regional bases. The publisher's author note places Massey at Princeton, Arango at Complutense University of Madrid and Hugo at the University of Adelaide, so several of the regions covered are written about by authors based in or near them.
• Compact. The ten chapters, about 295 pages of text, give a full overview in a single volume.

Limitations

• Dated empirical base. The publisher says the migration data used are from the 1980s, and the original edition is from 1998. The 2005 paperback is a reissue, not a revision. Later migration flows, policies and events are outside the book.
• Prerequisites. It is a work of social-scientific synthesis. Readers need to be comfortable with economics and sociology vocabulary and with reading empirical studies.
• A research monograph, not a textbook. The contents show ten chapters of argument and survey with no sections of teaching apparatus, so the book has to be read actively and supplemented by a textbook for first orientation.

Where It Fits in the Course

Within the population and migration list, Massey and colleagues provide the theory-and-evidence view of international migration. Khalid Koser's International Migration: A Very Short Introduction is a brief, balanced starting point on who migrants are and why they move. Castles, de Haas and Miller's The Age of Migration is a widely used survey that also combines theory with regional and historical accounts, and is the natural comparison: it is a textbook, whereas Worlds in Motion is a research synthesis from the end of the 1990s.

The demographic textbooks, Weeks and López-Carr's Population, Newbold's Population Geography and Preston, Heuveline and Guillot's Demography, treat migration as one of several population processes. Read Massey and colleagues after one of them when the question is why people move across borders.

How to Use This Book

The book is for advanced undergraduates and graduate students in geography, sociology, demography or economics who have already met the basic vocabulary of migration studies.

A practical plan:

• Core: Chapters 1 and 2 for the problem and the theories, and Chapter 10 for the synthesis.
• Regional chapters: read the chapters on the systems relevant to the course (Chapters 3–7), checking each time which theories the evidence supports.
• Application: Chapters 8 and 9 for migration and development.

Keep a table of the six theories and, for each regional chapter, note which one the evidence favours. Treat the book as a 1990s baseline and add recent data from newer sources.