Dynamics of Change in International Relations Essay examples -- Intern

Dynamics of Change in International Relations The Oxford dictionary defines the act of migrating as meaning: â€Å"to move to settle to a new area in order to find work.†1 This seems to be presupposing that the primary motivation of migrants is employment. However, as I will go on to highlight, economic social and political factors in various combinations have always affected the various constant waves of migration throughout history2. I will look at how past and modern flows compare and their effects on global society. There are two main issues around migration: firstly how states can control and regulate migration levels. States are after all sovereign and reserve the right to be able to choose who to allow in and out of its boundaries. The second issue that has come about in the modern era is how to deal with the minority communities that migrants form within host states. This depends on the causes that it perceives the people migrated for and the political, social and economic circumstances of the receiving state itself. If the migrant community has strong links with its previous community in the home state still and actually works to affect political and social affairs over there, perhaps even using the power and protection of the host state, they are known as diasporas. They will be discussed further on. Causes of migration can be divided initially into whether the migration was involuntary, or political due to war, natural disasters, ethnic, persecution, coercion or exploitation, or voluntary. State responses to involuntary migrants are under the ruling of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 and the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees of 1951. However, all an applicant state is obliged to do is to consider all applications for asylum, not grant them. There is though the clause which states that a host state cannot turn the asylum seeker back to their country of origin if there is evidence their life is in danger. Voluntary migrants on the other hand have no such guarantee as their motives for migration are social or economic, not deemed to be necessary or they are illegal migrants. This definition of illegal depends on the circumstances of the host country and who they choose to allow in according to their laws or not. The mixing of political and economic though would seem to be more inevitable in future as socie... ...ised that monitoring and regulating migration will become almost impossible if the EU enlarges any further. To discourage the right wingers in their country, traditional host states have taken a hard line on migration to maintain social stability. In actuality, it can be argued that by doing so, the governments have undermined the very stability they sought as, people will not stop being persecuted and seeking shelter, whether legal or not14. Works Cited: Sita Bali, ‘Migration and Refugees’ in Brian White, Richard Little, and Michael Smiths (ed.), Issues In Politics (London, Macmillan Press Ltd., 1997) David Held et al., Global Transformations (Blackwell Publishing Ltd., Cambridge, 2003 S. P. Huntington, â€Å"The Hispanic Challenge†, Foreign Policy, Volume 141 (March/April 2004) p. 30 – 45 A, McKeown, â€Å"Conceptualising Chinese Diasporas, 1842 - 1949†, The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 52, No. 2 (May 1999) p. 306 – 337 Yossi Shain and Aharon Barth â€Å"Diasporas and International Relations Theory†, International Organisation, Vol. 57, (Summer 2003) p. 449 – 479 Compact Oxford English Dictionary [http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/migrate?view=uk] 25th November 2004