Issues and Challenges of Emigration Dynamics in Developing Countries

Abstract

This article is a theory-based attempt to present the issues and challenges of emigration dynamics in developing countries. The topic is discussed within several basic assumptions: first, that emigration dynamics in developing countries have certain features that are different from those in developed countries; second, that countries in the regions covered by the study (subSaharan Africa, Central America and the Caribbean, and South Asia) are representative of developing countries.The article has been considerably facilitated by two recently concluded and reported projects: the IOM/UNFPA project, Emigration dynamics in developing countries: sub-Saharan Africa, Central America and the Caribbean, and South Asia (Appleyard, 1998(Appleyard, , 1999, and the UAP/CEIFO project on International migration in and from Africa: dimensions, challenges and prospects (Adepoju and Hammar, 1996). Any serious academic study of emigration dynamics in developing countries must acknowledge these landmark scholarly studies if they hope to advance understanding of the essential features of emigration dynamics in developing countries.A prime objective of the present article is to focus attention on aspects of the emigration process that will enable policy makers to utilize emigration for development, especially through national and international cooperation at regional and global levels.The article is predicated upon the need for a theory or model of emigration dynamics in developing countries that meets both internal and external dimensions. The adequacy of such a theory can be measured at three different levels: observation, description and explanation (Chomsky, 1965).

Climate change, migration and adaptation in Funafuti, Tuvalu

“…As a result, it is rare that environmental change alone can be singularly attributed to population movement (Lonergan, 1998;Castles, 2002;Castles and Miller, 2003). For less developed countries in particular, additional stressors -such as high population growth and density, low GDP, unemployment, unequal access to resources and services, poverty, and armed conflict -may be significant ''push'' factors for migration operating in concert with environmental change (Afolayan, 2001;Afolayan and Adelekan, 1998;Castles and Miller, 2003;Kates, 2000;Denton, 2002;Massey et al, 1993). The adaptive capacity and resilience of communities is therefore central to any debate on the migration and climate change relationship (Meze-Hausken, 2000;Hugo, 1996;McLeman and Smit, 2006;Tompkins and Adger, 2004;Fraser et al, 2003).…”

New Polynesian Triangle: Rethinking Polynesian migration and development in the Pacific

“…In conceptualising the motivations for the movement of people within the Polynesian Triangle, our research concurs with a general trend in migration studies whereby researchers are deliberately moving away from the neoclassical economics‐based studies that focus on the movement of ‘rational individuals’ in response to labour shortages or greater economic opportunity in the destination site. Rather, social‐cultural factors can be seen as framing many decisions made about migration, and political dimensions also need to be considered (Afolayan, 2001).…”

The Reverse and Return Transfer of Technology (RRTT): Towards a Comprehensive Model of the Migration of African Experts

“…In general, globalization interpretations separate the brain drain from the brain gain as if the two are implicated only tangentially (see, Logan, 1999;Widgren and Martin, 2002;Afolayan, 2001;Akokpari, 1998). These explanations are often initiated in terms of the cost-benefit differentials of the process for the home country economy, and consider the brain gain either as a trade substitute or supplement, depending on whether the impacts of the returnees on their home economies are viewed as capital inflow or outflow and, therefore, included or not included as an account in the balance of trade (Martin and Straubhaar, 2002).…”

“…African countries sometimes enter into bilateral agreements with developed countries to ensure that students receive visas, which require them to return home immediately upon graduation (the American J visa is one example). Other African approaches mirror legal and incentive-based policies that have worked in Asian countries like China, India and the Philippines (see Afolayan, 2001). Nigeria and South Africa, for example, have been known to engage in active recruitment of their experts studying or working overseas with enticement packages, including quality of life advantages that are not obtainable in the West (such as low cost housing, low interest car loans and stipends for domestic help).…”