Migration flows exhibit both long-term shifts and short-term fluctuations in terms of volume and pattern. The root causes of these shifts and fluctuations can most generally be linked to the term ‘development’. For example, the expansion of education increases aspirations among people that cannot always be met locally. The increasing access to income-earning opportunities provides the capital that allows people to move. Most importantly, the demand for labour at certain points in the global system draws migrants towards particular destinations. Also, shifts in the demographic structure of populations, which are associated with development, reinforce patterns of unequal economic growth. Such shifts have taken place in Europe and increasingly in the economies of East Asia. These areas have changed from being areas of net emigration to areas of net immigration as their populations have aged, resulting in very low rates of labour-force growth. Thus, a complex migration-development nexus of change exists that provides the context for shorter-term fluctuations in local, regional and global economies.
URL : http://www.migrationdrc.org/publications/working_papers/WP-T32.pdf