Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Migration refers to a process of people shifting across borders. Recently, sociology has discussed migration as a core element of globalization. Some theorists, like Stephen Castles and Mark J. Miller (1993), have gone so far as to label the last decade of the twentieth century and the first decade of the twenty-first as the “Age of Migration.” A currently discussed topic has been classified as “new migration,” which is founded on the following reasons: the number of countries and the amount of people that are nowadays involved in migratory processes is distinct from earlier movements. Contemporary migration flows have become globally significant because of the improvement of travel and communication facilities. This crucial effect of globalization has overcome further distances than before. Furthermore, one important aspect is diversity. Scholars distinguish between a wide range of migration types such as asylum seekers, refugees, undocumented migrants, and labor migrants (highly skilled, unskilled). Finally, since the 1990s the increasingly restrictive measures to control migratory process, particularly the flow of asylum seekers, has been qualified as a remarkable feature. However, migration is an old phenomenon with people migrating from the beginning of humankind. Well-known historical types of migration were caused by colonialism and capitalism. As the Industrial Revolution ... log in or subscribe to read full text