Although the G-20 and other official bodies have so far refused to acknowledge the fact, we are not simply living through a financial crisis, however grave the financial aspects of the current upheaval may be, but a multiple crisis whose component elements all strengthen and reinforce each other. For that matter, it's not even a 'crisis', which in uncorrupted language is a relatively brief moment between two possible outcomes-in an illness, for example, between recovery and death. We're in for a much longer period but here we will bow to the now-standard vocabulary.Beyond finance, one should recognise that inequality within and between countries and citizens has reached unsustainable levels in both developed and developing countries. Poverty is spreading and deepening, food and water scarcities are worsening, conflicts thrive in increasingly stressed societies, and catastrophic climate change-advancing much faster than experts predicted-looms over the whole.These aspects can no longer be envisaged separately: to provide just a few pump-priming examples of connections, we may note that the rich have huge, dinosaurian ecological footprints and despite their relatively small numbers arguably cause far more damage than hundreds of millions of poor people. As Jared Diamond shows in his book Collapse, a major reason for the ruin of past societies under environmental stress was the consumption of the elites who continued massively to use up resources long after their far poorer compatriots had felt the pinch, and thus drove their societies over the brink. Global warming hits the poor harder than the rich as well, simultaneously exacerbating social inequalities and food and water shortages. The financial crisis grinds down the poor: one need only think of the tidal wave of foreclosures in the United States that has thrown millions of families onto the streets, deepening their insecurity and poverty. 1 Prices for the very food staples the poor most depend on for their daily tortillas or chapattis may double overnight when financial speculators move into commodities markets or governments and large landholders place massive land resources under cultivation for agro-fuels. And how can one even imagine fixing the economy when millions have less money in their pockets and have been hard-hit by the financial and job meltdown?

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Goorge S. Wood received his B.A. trom the University of Vermont and his M.A. and Ed.O. from western Michigan University. He presently v1orks \Vith the Institut e for Community Education Development at Ball State University. He was as&ociate director of the Community School Development Center at western Michigan from t972 to 1975. He has also taught English and language atts in secondary schools and was a newspaper sports editor and reporter for two years.

Migration may become the most important branch of demography in the early decades of the new millennium in a rapidly globalizing world. This paper discusses the causes, costs and benefits of international migration to countries of the South and North, and key issues of common concern. International migration is as old as national boundaries, though its nature, volume, direction, causes and consequences have changed. The causes of migration are rooted in the rate of population growth and the proportion of youth in the population, their education and training, employment opportunities, income differentials in society, communication and transportation facilities, political freedom and human rights and level of urbanization. Migration benefits the South through remittances of migrants, improves the economic welfare of the population (particularly women) of South countries generally, increases investment, and leads to structural changes in the economy. However, emigration from the South has costs too, be they social or caused by factors such as brain drain. The North also benefits by migration through enhancement of economic growth, development of natural resources, improved employment prospects, social development and through exposure to immigrants' new cultures and lifestyles. Migration also has costs to the North such as of immigrant integration, a certain amount of destabilization of the economy, illegal immigration, and social problems of discrimination and exploitation. Issues common to both North and South include impact on private investment, trade, international cooperation, and sustainable development. Both North and South face a dilemma in seeking an appropriate balance between importing South's labour or its products and exporting capital and technology from the North.