World systems theory and Migration

By:
Muhammad Saud Kharal
PhD in Social Science,
Department of Sociology Faculty of Social and
Political Sciences, Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya
Indonesia.
MIGRATION AND
URBANIZATION
World systems theory

THEORIES OF INTERNATIONAL
MIGRATION
What are social theories?
Social theories conceptualize causal processes of social
phenomenon.
Theories of International Migration conceptualize causal
processes of how international migration is “initiated”
and “maintained” or “perpetuated”.

THEORIES OF MIGRATION
Different theories reflect different research objectives, focuses, interests.
Theoretical Approach Level of Analysis Assumptions
Neoclassical (macro) Country Migration as a result of labor
market gaps between countries
Neoclassical economics
(micro)
Individual Individual rational actors decide
to migrate because a cost-
benefit calculation.
New Economics Household Individual migrants are
influenced by household as a
collective actor in economic
survival
Dual Labor Market Structural (Internal) Structural demands of
developed countries
World systems theory Structural (International) Market and cultural penetration
from the core to peripherals

WORLD SYSTEMS THEORY (II)
The world systems theory (Wallerstein 1974), which
takes a historical structural approach, stresses the role
of disruptions and dislocations in peripheral parts of
the world, as a result of colonialism and the capitalist
expansion of neoclassical governments an
multinationals. It thus takes account of structural
factors that other 8 theories neglect. The capitalist
expansion has had profound consequences for
migration issues, as not only the capitalist mode of
production, but also the culture and stronger
transportation, communication and military links
penetrate peripheries.
Land consolidation, new capitalist farming methods
and manufacturing plants have created a socially
uprooted population with weakened attachments to
their land and more prone to migration.

Capitalist investment fosters changes that create
an uprooted, mobile population in peripheral
countries while at the same time forging strong
material and cultural links with core countries,
leading to international migration.
International migration is especially likely between
past colonial powers and the former colonies,
because cultural, linguistic, investment,
transportation, and communication links were
established early.
International migration has little to do with wage
differences between countries; it is a result of the
dynamics of the global economy.

It explains that interaction between different societies can be
an important factor in social change within societies. Trade
with one country, which causes economic decline in another,
may create incentive to migrate to a country with a more
vibrant economy. It can be argued that even after
decolonization, the economic dependence of former colonies
still remains on mother countries.
It can be argued that the developed countries import labor-
intensive goods, which causes an increase in employment of
unskilled workers in the less developed countries, decreasing
the outflow of migrant workers. The export of capital-
intensive goods from rich countries to poor countries also
equalizes income and employment conditions, thus also
slowing migration.

THE APPROACHWorld-system theory is a macro sociological perspective
that seeks to explain the dynamics of the “capitalist
world economy” as a “total social system”.
It falls at the same time, into the fields of historical
sociology and economic history. In addition, because of
its emphasis on development and unequal opportunities
across nations, it has been embraced by development
theorists and practitioners.
According to world systems theory, migration is a
natural outgrowth of disruptions and dislocations that
inevitably occur in the process of capitalist
development. As capitalism has expanded outward from
its core in Western Europe, North America, Oceania, and
Japan, ever-larger portions of the globe and growing
shares of the human population have been incorporated
into the world market economy

According to Wallerstein, the modern nation state
exists within a broad economic, political, and legal
framework which he calls a “worldsystem.” Just as
individual behavior cannot be understood without
reference the socio cultural system in which they are
members, individual societies or nation states cannot
be understood without reference to the world-system
in which they are embedded.

WHAT IS A WORLD-SYSTEM?a world-system is a "multicultural territorial division of
labor in which the production and exchange of basic
goods and raw materials is necessary for the everyday
life of its inhabitants.“
Modern nation states are all part of the world system
of capitalism, and it is this world system that
Wallerstein seeks to understand

WHAT IS A WORLD-SYSTEM?For Wallerstein, "a world-system is a social system,
one that has boundaries, structures, member groups,
rules of legitimating, and coherence. It has the
characteristics of an organism, in that is has a lifespan
over which its characteristics change in some respects
and remain stable in others…
Among the most important structures of the current
world-system is a power hierarch between core and
periphery, in which powerful and wealthy "core"
societies dominate and exploit weak and poor
peripheral societies.
Technology is a central factor in the positioning of a
region in the core or the periphery

A strong immigrant labor demand in global cities acts
as a pull force to migration. According to this theory
migration follows the dynamics of market creation and
structure of the global economy. The exact
mechanisms of migration are also not clear. Recent
examples of this theory are globalization in general
and the transition of Central and Eastern Europe after
the fall of Communism.
Driven by a desire for higher profits and greater
wealth, owners and managers of capitalist firms enter
poor countries on the periphery of the world economy
in search of land, raw materials, labor, and new
consumer markets. In the past, this market penetration
was assisted by colonial regimes that administered
poor regions for the benefit of economic interests in
colonizing societies .

Land In order to achieve the greatest profit from
existing agrarian resources and to compete within
global commodity markets, capitalist farmers in
peripheral areas seek to consolidate landholding,
mechanize production, introduce cash crops, and
apply industrially produced inputs such as fertilizer,
insecticides, and high-yield seeds
Raw materials The extraction of raw materials for sale
on global markets requires industrial methods that rely
on paid labor. The offer of wages to former peasants
undermines traditional forms of social and economic
organization based on systems of reciprocity and fixed
role relations and creates incipient labor markets
based on new conceptions of individualism, private
gain, and social change

Labor Firms from core capitalist countries enter developing
countries to establish assembly plants that take advantage of
low wage rates, often within special export-processing zones
created by sympathetic governments. The demand for factory
workers strengthens local labor markets and weakens
traditional productive relation
Material links In order to ship goods, deliver machinery,
extract and export raw materials, coordinate business
operations, and manage expatriate assembly plants,
capitalists in core nations build and expand transportation
and communication links to the peripheral countries where
they have invested. These links not only facilitate the
movement of goods, products, information, and capital, they
also promote the movement of people by reducing the costs
of movement along certain international pathway

BACKGROUNDWorld system theory depends mainly on the complex
idea of globalization—the world’s economy becoming
more and more intertwined.
This theory proposes that as business flows across
national borders, so will people.
It links the determinants of migration to structural
change in world market and views migration as a
function of globalization , the increase interdependence
of economies and the emergence of new forms of
production
 capital and Labor mobility are therefore interconnected
and in reality two sides of a coin , labor market6
changes may not only derive the immigrant inflow but
migration also has the capacity of affecting the labor
market changes.

The expansion of export manufacturing and export
agriculture linked strongly to foreign direct investment
flows from advanced economies to semi-developed or
emerging economies has led to a disruption in
traditional work structures and has mobilized new
population segments into regional as well as long
distance migration..
Capital mobility is hence a crucial factor for the world
system
While migration is a natural outgrowth of the disruptions
and dislocations that inevitably occur in capitalist
development and can be observed historically, the
theory also brings in global political and economic
inequalities.

World-system theory has been closely associated
with Immanuel Wallerstein. He aimed at achieving “a
clear conceptual break with theories of
‘modernization’ and thus provide a new theoretical
paradigm to guide our investigations of the
emergence and development of capitalism,
industrialism, and national states”.
He aimed at achieving “a clear conceptual break with
theories of‘ modernization’ and thus provide a new
theoretical paradigm to guide our investigations of the
emergence and development of capitalism,
industrialism, and national states”
Building Blocks
the Annales school, Marx, and dependence theory

TYPES OF SOCIAL SYSTEM
The second type of social system is a “worldempire.” This
system has an economy that is based on the extraction of
surplus goods and services from outlying districts. Much of this
tribute goes to pay for the administrators who extract it and for
the military to ensure continued domination, the rest goes to
the political rulers at the head of the empire.

CAPITALIST WORLD SYSTEM
From the start, Wallerstein argues, capitalism has had a division
of labor that encompassed several nation state. The capitalist
worldsystem began in Europe in about 1500 and under the spur
of the accumulation of capital, expanded over the next few
centuries to cover the entire globe. In the process of this
expansion the capitalist world system has absorbed small mini-
systems, world-empires, as well as competing world-
economies.

PERIPHERAL STATES
Wallerstein divides the capitalist world-economy into core
states, semi-peripheral, and peripheral areas. The peripheral
areas are the least developed; they are exploited by the core for
their cheap labor, raw materials, and agricultural production.
SEMI PERIPHERAL STATES
The semi-peripheral areas are somewhat intermediate, being
both exploited by the core and take some role in the
exploitation of the peripheral areas. In the recent past they have
been expanding their manufacturing activities particularly in
products that core nations no longer find very profitable.
CORE STATES
The core states are in geographically advantaged areas of the
world—Europe and North America. These core states promote
capital accumulation internally through tax polity, government
purchasing, sponsorship of research and development,
financing infrastructural development (such as sewers, roads,
airports—all privately constructed but publically financed), and
maintaining social order to minimize class struggle.

CORE STATES
It is this power that allows core states to dump unsafe goods in
peripheral nations, pay lower prices for raw materials than
would be possible in a free market, exploit the periphery for
cheap labor, dump in their environment, abuse their consumers
and workforce, erect trade barriers and quotas, and establish
and enforce patents.
It is the economic, political, and military power of the core that
allows significant capital to be accumulated into the hands of
the few, the capitalist world-system that produces and
maintains the gross economic and political inequalities within
and between nations.

World systems theory and Migration

More Related Content

What's hot (20)

Similar to World systems theory and Migration (20)

More from Muhammad Saud PhD (20)

Recently uploaded (20)

World systems theory and Migration

Editor's Notes