More than Remittances: Other Aspects of the Relationship between Migration and Development

That there is a relationship between population migration and development is axiomatic. Just what that relationship might be and how migration affects development, and development migration, is not, however, at all clear. Neither must it be assumed that migration and development are independent variables. This writer has maintained that migration is an integral part of development and the one cannot be truly separated from the other (Skeldon, 1997). Migration, or the more inclusive "mobility", can be conceptualized as the dynamic, spatial dimension of any society or economy. The mobility patterns of a country with a high Gross National Product (GDP) per capita, an economy dominated by service industries and the population distribution concentrated in urban areas, are clearly different from those of a country where the gross national product (GDP) per capita is low, the economy is based on agriculture and the population is dispersed throughout the rural sector. Equally, the mobility patterns of wealthier groups within any country are very different from those of poorer groups. Nevertheless, levels of development are not neatly correlated with particular volumes or types of migration. For example, within the developed world itself, the mobility rates of populations vary greatly. Mobility rates in the settler societies of Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States, where between 17 and 20 per cent of the population change their usual place of residence every year, are consistently higher than in most European countries and Japan, where generally less than 10 per cent of the population change residence every year (Long, 1991; Newton and Bell, 1996). The nature of the housing market in the respective countries is seen as one factor that can help to explain the differences; this raises the issue of appropriate policy intervention to influence the volume and direction of population movement.