Modernisation, Migration, and Mobilisation: Relinking Internal and International Migrations in the ‘Migration and Development Nexus’

Abstract

There is growing enthusiasm in academic and policy circles for the positive role that international migrants can play in the development of their home countries and communities. Supranational development organisations, national governments, and other institutions have scrambled to assess the linkages between 'migration and development' and to implement new policies and programs to more effectively 'capture' transnational remittances in order promote greater development outcomes. This international 'migration and development' (MAD) paradigm nevertheless draws heavily on older development models, grounded in modernisation theory, which promoted rapid internal rural-to-urban migration. Yet, these connections are rarely acknowledged or analysed within official policy discourses; rather, this MAD nexus is regularly depicted as a new paradigm, one that exists without historical or ideological context. This paper traces out the conceptual connections between past and contemporary linkages of MAD theory. I argue that relinking internal and international migrations literature in development reveals the ways in which modernisation theories that rest on problematic contrasts between modernity/ tradition and development/backwardness are unconsciously replicated within current policy discourses. Utilising my own research with internal migrants in Thailand, I argue that a return to a close interrogation of the concept of development -as defined by migrant actors themselves -has the potential to both bridge the divide within migration studies and to productively critique migration and development policy discourses in ways that do not elide their historical emergence and political effects.

Highly skilled migration between the Global North and South: gender, life courses and institutions

“…Proponents of the 'Migration and Development' paradigm, including the World Bank, stress the importance of remittances as spurring development in low-and middle-income countries (De Haas 2007;Faist 2008;Hickey 2016;King and Skeldon 2010). Kapur (2004) terms remittances as the new 'development mantra' as the flow of remittances to many countries in the Global South has overtaken the share of development aid these countries receive.…”

Rethinking Migration in the 2030 Agenda: Towards a De-Territorialized Conceptualization of Development

“…Dustmann and Frattini, 2013), whereas the net contributions that migrants make to their host societies are hardly ever mentioned. Internal migration is often not mentioned at all (Hickey, 2016). Migrant-sending countries have a different position in this debate.…”

Crossing Borders and Traversing Boundaries: Closing the ‘Gap’ between Internal and International Migration in Asia

“…There are practical benefits to be gained by bringing internal and international migration research once again into conversation with one another, while also carefully delineating and documenting the theoretical pitfalls and empirical hurdles that accompany such a task in practice. He closes with an exploration of the stakes of such a project in the context of exponential growth in ‘Migration and Development’ policy frameworks at the scales of both national and multinational governance (see discussion of Hickey, , later).…”

“…As implied in the brief discussion earlier, detailed investigations of how and why internal and international migration have come to be channelled into separate avenues of study have been, at this juncture, undertaken by a growing number of scholars and are further interrogated in specific historical and disciplinary contexts by several of the contributors to this special issue (Hickey, ; Hugo, ; Xiang, ; see later discussion). In this light, we do not intend to review this chronology in detail here.…”