International

Advanced Level
Geography
Unit 1 Going Global
WGE01

Topic 2: Going Global

Topic Guide Booklet
Contents
Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 3
Big Picture Overview ................................................................................................................... 4
1.4.1 Globalisation, networks and trade .................................................................................... 5
1.4.2 Global organisations ........................................................................................................ 11
1.4.3 Globalisation’s impact on development .......................................................................... 15
1.4.4 Global population trends ................................................................................................. 19
1.4.5 Global migration .............................................................................................................. 22
1.4.6 World urbanisation .......................................................................................................... 27
Introduction
This booklet has been written to support teachers and learners teaching and studying the
Pearson Edexcel International Advanced Level Geography qualification.

This guide should be used alongside other published teaching and learning materials available
on the IAL Geography web page here.
Big Picture Overview
Topic 2 Going Global has six Enquiry Questions which must be covered, which focus on different
aspect of globalisation. Enquiry Questions 1-3 focus on what globalisation is an its direct
impacts on people, whereas Enquiry Questions 4-6 take a broader view of the links between
globalization, population and resources, urbanization and migration.

EQ1 Global economic EQ2 Organisations and EQ3 Globalisation’s winners

connections globalization and losers
• Flows • TNCs • Consumers
• Transport • Governments • Developed and
• Communications • IGOs developing countries
• Trade • Global hubs
• Asia
• Environmental impacts
EQ4 Globalisation and EQ5 Globalisation and EQ6 Urbanisation and
population & resources migration Globalisation
• Population trends • Migration trends • Urbanisation trends
• Ageing and youthful • Costs and benefits • Housing challenges
• Population and • Managing migration • Megacities
resources debate

Assessment:
Topic 2 is assessed as part of Paper 1. This is a 1 ½ hour exam. Going global is assessed:
• In Section A Questions 3 and 4: a series of data stimulus and short-answer questions with
a maximum mark of 6. These questions are compulsory.
• In Section B Questions 6: a 10 mark data stimulus question plus a 20 mark essay question.
This question is optional as candidates can choose to complete question 5 instead (World
at Risk)

In addition, themes from Going Global can be assessed as part of the content of Question 3
the 15 mark synoptic question in the Paper 3 Contested Planet examination.
1.4.1 Globalisation, networks and trade

Enquiry question: Why are global economic connections increasing?

The Globalisation process

Defining globalisation is quite challenging. It is a very commonly used geographical term, but its
meaning is not always clear. Three definitions are shown below:
Financial Times newspaper OECD IMF
“Globalisation describes a “Increasing internationalisation ““The increasing integration of
process by which national and of markets for goods and economies around the world,
regional economies, societies, services, the means of particularly through the
and cultures have become production, financial systems, movement of goods, services,
integrated through the global competition, corporations, and capital across borders.”
network of trade, technology and industries.”
communication, immigration
and transportation.”

These definitions focus on trade in goods and services across international borders. The OECD
and IMF definitions have a very economic focus. The FT definition is broader. It includes ideas
about people (societies) and cultures as well as immigration. It is usual for Geographers to
accept this broader definition of globalisation that recognises globalization involves increased
connections between places:
• WIDENING: new connections being made between places.
• DEEPENING: the density of connections between places increases
Globalisation can be thought of as a network of connections and flows between these
connections:
Economic • Trade in goods and commodities; the movement on data and money (capital)
around the world.
• Growth of global TNCs, presence and global brand image.
• The spreading of investment around the globe and rapid growth in world
trade.
Cultural • Convergence of food tastes, fashion, music and - values many of which are
‘western’ in origin i.e. from North America and Europe.
• Mixing / churning of cultures.
Political • Dominance of western democracies in political and economic decision-making
• Spreads the view that democratic, consumerist societies are the most
‘successful’.
Demographic • Occurs as migration and tourism increase
• Populations are becoming ever more fluid and mixed.
Environmental • As problems such as global warming, ocean plastics etc become ever more
pressing
• The realisation that global environmental threats require global solutions.
It has become clear that some countries are more globalised than others. Globalisation can be
measured in a variety of ways:

AT Kearney Global Measures how globalised specific cities are, using measures such as education
Cities index levels, global TNCs, internet use, number of embassies and international
travellers.
[Link]
KOF Index Measures economic, social and political globalization using a wide range of
measures.
[Link]
[Link]

2018 KOF Globalisation Index top 15 countries

AT Kearney Global Cities
(Economic globalization score)
index
1 Singapore 92.47
Top 10 most globalised cities
2 Hong Kong, China 90.07 2017 (index score)
3 Netherlands 89.31 New York 63.2
4 Belgium 89.23 London 62.9
5 Malta 86.73 Paris 53.2
6 Ireland 86.19 Tokyo 47.4
7 Luxembourg 85.49 Hong Kong 44.7
8 Estonia 84.31 Singapore 39.1
9 Switzerland 83.82 Chicago 38.3
10 Hungary 83.02 Los Angeles 38.1
11 United Arab Emirates 82.47 Beijing 37
12 Denmark 82.21 Washington 34
13 Czech Republic 81.69 DC
14 Austria 81.36
15 Sweden 81.32

Both the KOF and Kearney scores reveal similar patterns:

• Developed countries / cities are the most globalised, especially European ones.
• Relatively small countries which rely on trade and have culturally mixed populations with
large numbers of both emigrants and immigrants score highly (Hong Kong, Singapore,
Ireland, Netherlands, UAE)
• The USA as a country does not make the top 15 in the KOF index, but 4 of its cities are in
the Kearney top 10.

Transport and communication

Transport and communication have been very important in terms of creating a ‘shrinking
world’: this is the idea that the world is perceived as smaller today than in the past because the
speed of travel and communication has reduced. This process is called ‘time-space
compression’.

The process of ‘shrinking’ began in the 19th Century as the speed of transporting people, goods
and messages increased due to new technology:
• The development of steam railways in the 1830s and 1840s
• Electric telegraph systems in the 1860s and telephones around 1900
• Steam-ships in the 1850s and 1860s

In the 20th Century further developments occurred:

• Propeller aircraft and by the 1950s, jet craft
• Containerisation of shipping in the 1970s.

The development of inter-modal shipping containers that can be transferred between HGVs,
trains and ships has dramatically lowered the cost of transporting goods worldwide. It is a key
technology behind global trade.
In the 20th and 21st Centuries communication has increased in speed dramatically, allowing
instant global communication and the ability to send data around the globe at the touch of a
key:

First sub- First mobile First online Facebook 1 billion Apple iPhone
marine fibre phone text consumer launched people are on launched
optic cable message sent banking the internet
1988 1992 1995 2004 2005 2007

Although the internet and mobile ‘phones have become very common, it is important to
recognise that they are not universal. The graph below shows the percentage of global region
populations connected to the internet in 2017. Some regions are below 50% whereas others
are above 80%:
Trade
Trade, meaning the exchange of goods or services between people, has grown dramatically in
the last 50 years. This is especially true of international trade between countries. The graph
below shows an index of world-wide exports illustrating dramatic growth since the early 1990s.

There are a number of reasons why world trade has grown:

• Firstly, there were only 2.5 billion people in 1950 compared to 7.6 billion by 2018.
• Secondly, in developed countries people are much weathier and can consume more:
inlfation adjusted real incomes increased from $6000 per person in 1950 to $40,000 by
2016, and from $15,000 to $50,000 in North America.
• Thirdly, trade barriers have been removed increasing free trade between countries: when
trade is easier and cheaper there is more of it.
• Lastly, since 1980 the global shift of manufactuing industry to Asia (Taiwan, China, South
Korea) has increased trade bewteen Asia and Europe / North America.

As emerging countries in Asia and Latin America have grown economically, the share of world
trade in goods between these countries has increased (see graph below). Trade has changed
in a number of other ways:

• The volume of commodity exports (oil, coffee beans, metal ores) exported from
developing countries has increased: for instance in 1990 only about 200,000 tonnes of
coffee beans were exported worldwide but this increased to around 1 million tonnes by
2017.
• Services have become more globalised. 40 years ago most banks, law firms and
accountants served their home market but many are now global, serving customers and
businesses worldwide.
• Examples of global service TNCs include American Express, AXA Group, Veolia, Berkshire
Hathaway, Prudential, Amazon, Verizon,)
The map below shows the pattern of global shipping movements. The ships carry manufactured
goods, bulk commodities, metal ores and fossil fuels. Most shipping is between North America,
Europe and East Asia. Trade to other parts of the developed and developing world is much
more limited. This map shows the density of a particular type of network connection: other
networks such as Facebook, global air travel, the internet subsea fibre optic cable network all
have a very similar pattern.

The maps below show the huge changes that have taken place in world trade in goods between
1980 and 2011:
• In 1980 the largest flows were between Europe and North America and between Europe
and Africa.
• The Europe and Africa flow was dominated by Europe importing raw materials /
commodities from Africa
• By 2011 the trade network is denser: there are more connections
• The proportion of world trade that includes Asia, in 2011, has dramatically increased
(the global shift) and Africa’s share has decreased.
• The overall pattern illustrates the economic importance of Asia in 2011 compared to
1980.
1.4.2 Global organisations

Enquiry question: Which organisations are involved in globalization and what are their roles?

TNCs as key players

Trans-national corporations (TNCs) are a very important part of the global economy and
globalisation. The 20 largest TNCs in the world, according to the 2018 Forbes Global 2000 list
[Link] are shown in the table below:

Rank Company Country Sector Sales Profits

#1 ICBC China Banking $165 $43
#2 China Construction Bank China Banking $143 $37
#3 JPMorgan Chase USA Banking $118 $26
#4 Berkshire Hathaway USA Business services $235 $39
#5 Agricultural Bank of China China Banking $129 $29
#6 Bank of America USA Banking $103 $20
#7 Wells Fargo USA Banking $102 $21
#8 Apple USA ICT / Electronics $247 $53
#9 Bank of China China Banking $118 $26
#10 Ping An Insurance Group China Insurance $141 $13
#11 Royal Dutch Shell Netherlands Energy $321 $15
#12 Toyota Motor Japan Automotive $265 $22
#13 ExxonMobil USA Energy $230 $20
#14 Samsung Electronics South Korea Electronics $224 $41
#15 AT&T USA Communication $159 $30
#16 Volkswagen Group Germany Automotive $272 $13
#17 HSBC Holdings UK Banking $63 $10
#18 Verizon Communications USA Communication $128 $31
#19 BNP Paribas France Banking $117 $8.
#20 Microsoft United States ICT / Electronics $103 $14

The list is dominated by TNCs from developed countries, especially the USA. Most of the
Chinese companies are state-owned enterprises i.e. they are owned by the Chinese
government. Many large TNCs have annual sales larger than the total annual GDP of most
countries. TNCs influence globalisation in a wide variety of ways:

1. They have global production networks (see diagram of an aircraft, below) which create
numerous connections between countries.
2. Most TNCs have global brands (Nike, McDonalds) but they adapt their products to suit
local markets and cultures: this is called glocalisation.
 3. TNCs promote free trade and economic liberalisation (opening up of markets to foreign
companies and reduced regulation) to gain access to new markets.
4. By moving production overseas (outsourcing and offshoring) to countries such as China
and India they contribute to economic growth and job creation in those countries.
5. Many TNCs actually invent the new communications and transport technology that has
allowed globalization to accelerate.

The diagram above shows the global production network for the Boeing 787. This aircraft is
made in Seatlle, USA. However, parts for the aircraft are made worldwide in the USA, Europe
and Asia.

A key feature of TNCs from Europe, North America and Japan since 1980 has been the way they
have outsourced production and services to lower cost locations in emerging countries.
Examples include call centres and business processing in Bangalore, and manufacturing in
Shenzhen and Vietnam. This outsourcing has both costs and benefits:

Costs Benefits
Economic • TNC products can undercut locally • Job creation, and higher incomes
made products on price • Improved workplace skills
• Governments have to spend money to • Local companies supply larger
attract TNCs TNCs with components and
services
Social • Young people migrate to cities, • Most work is in cities, which have
separating them from their families improved access to education and
• Living conditions in cities / factory healthcare
dormitories can be poor. • There are opportunities to move
• Risks of worker exploitation, low jobs, and increase income as skills
wages, long hours and lack of union improve
 representation.
Environmental • Rapidly growing cities, and housing (there are very few, if any
shortages environmental benefits)
• Urban air pollution
• Loss of forests and farmland for
factories and urban areas
• Industrial land and water pollution
• Pressure of local water supplies

Government polices
Many, but not all, governments are in favour of globalisation and have put in place polices to
encourage it, including signing free trade agreements and joining trade blocs such as the EU,
ASEAN and TTIP. A key policy for many governments has been to create free trade blocs with
other countries, usually ones that they are geographically close to. Free trade blocs have a
hierarchy of levels of ‘free-ness’:
• Customs unions reduce the need for border checks e.g. on lorries
• Import / export taxes, tariffs and quotas on goods Increasing level
• Opening up services to free-trade of free trade
• Freedom of movement of people
• A joint currency like the EURO

Only the EU has done all of the above. Most free-trade blocs are for trade in goods being tax /
tariff free. Governments often promote free-market liberalisation as an economic framework.
This means they:
• Trade freely between countries, as a key way of making money.
• Are open to migration, so workers can move to where their skills can be used.
• Have open access to Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) from TNCs
• Encourage business start-ups using loans and grants
• Privatise government owned companies

In addition, many governments have set up special economic zones (SEZs, sometimes called
‘export processing zones’ or ‘free trade zones) particularly in Asia. SEZs often include many of
the following:
• Cheap, or even free, land for TNCs to build factories and offices on.
• Subsidised water and energy supplies
• Low taxes, and tariff free import and export of goods and profits.
 • Limited environmental regulation and labour laws, plus unions are banned.
SEZs encourage FDI from TNCs and have been a key policy in promoting job creation in
emerging countries and
contributing to the global shift to
Asia. The importance of SEZs to the
Indian economy is shown in the
diagram below:

IGOs and globalisation

A number of IGOs have contributed
to globalisation:

World Bank (WB) World Trade Organisation (WTO) International Monetary Fund
1944 1947 (IMF) 1945
• Lends money to developing • Works to remove barriers to • Promotes global economic
and emerging economies to international trade. stability.
promote economic • Has negotiated a sequence of • Aids economies in opening
development. global free trade agreements up to world trade and
• This is done within a that have gradually removed investment.
western capitalist model. trade taxes and quotas • Comes to the aid of countries
• The money originates from in economic difficulty.
developed economies.

These IGOs have contributed to a relatively stable economic and political world since 1945
which has encouraged global economic growth. All three organisations promote economic
liberalisation:
• Free trade between countries
• Private industries, not government owned ones
• Free movement of capital, including foreign direct investment
The WTO (called GATT between 1947
and 1995) has helped free trade
through a number of negotiation
‘rounds’ since 1947 (arrows on the
diagram) which have gradually
increased the volume of goods traded
freely – and contributed to a dramatic
increase in world trade as shown by
the diagram.
However, the Doha Round of
negotiations was never completed,
having started in 2001.

Since then, protectionism has

increased somewhat. A number of
countries have argued that free trade
is ‘unfair’ and that their own
industries and companies should be
protected from foreign competition.

Most, but not all, economists argue that protectionism reduces the overall volume of trade and
therefore overall economic growth.

1.4.3 Globalisation’s impact on development

Enquiry question: How far does globalization produce winners and losers, and switched-on and
switched-off places?

Consumers and workers

Consumers in developed countries have benefited from globalisation in a number of ways:
• The cost of products is lower because many are made in emerging countries, with low
wages and other costs.
• Choice has increased, because containerisation and global trade means goods can be
sourced from almost anywhere.
• Familiar brands are available worldwide: this is true of goods (Nike trainers) but also
services (CNN, Emirates, Visa).
• Travel, and therefore tourism, has reduced in price and increased in availability.
• The internet allows easy communication and connectedness through email and social
media.
However, there are anti-globalisation groups that argue the benefits are outweighed by costs.
These anti-globalisation groups fall into 3 main categories.

Environmental / green Left-wing / socialist groups Right-wing / nationalist

groups groups
That focus on the cost to the That focus on the human cost That focus on loss of jobs in
planet from resource of globalisation. i.e. worker developed countries, and to
exploitation and pollution. exploitation and the wealth of some degree the impacts of
TNCs. migration in a globalised
world.

Some developed countries have experienced widespread deindustrialisation as a result of the

global shift of manufacturing and services to Asia. This includes regions such as:
• Northern England, Glasgow and South Wales in the UK
• The ‘Rustbelt’ of the USA (Detroit, Cleveland, Buffalo, Pittsburgh)
• The Ruhr Valley in Germany
• Northern France and Alsace-Lorraine

Job losses due to economic restructuring – as industries have left for cheaper locations or
simply closed due to cheaper foreign competition – have led to:
• Derelict land because of factory closures
• Depopulation, as people with some skills have left to look for work elsewhere.
• Rising crime, linked to rising unemployment and increasing poverty.

Detroit is an extreme case. Its population fell from high of 1.85 million in 1950 to 678,000 in
2015 as car factories closed. By 2016 there were 90,000 vacant or derelict plots of land in the
city, and the average house price was less than $10,000. About one third of the city population
live in poverty, and the crime rate is the highest for a major city in the USA. Because of the
decline in economic activity, jobs and taxes the city council was declared bankrupt in 2013.

Unequal benefits
Not all places have been affected positively or negatively by globalisation. Some places have
barely been affected at all. This is most true in rural parts of Sub-Saharan Africa and some parts
of South Asia. The graph below shows the reduction in poverty 1990-2015 for global regions.
While poverty has declined sharply in East Asia, it has only declined in South Asia since around
2000, and in Sub-Saharan Africa it actually increased.
This suggests some parts of the world have not experienced the impacts of globalisation. This is
because:
• War and conflict prevent foreign investment and restrict trade e.g. South Sudan, DRC,
Somalia.
• In some places levels of education and health are low and this combines with poor
transport, electricity, water and communications infrastructure to prevent investment.
• Some countries (Uganda, CAR) are land-locked or have harsh terrain (Nepal) or climates
(Chad, Mali) which are barriers to trade and communication.
• In some cases, like North Korea, the government deliberately prevents connections
being made to the outside world e.g. banning foreign travel and use of the internet.

The places have weak links to the wider global economy, and therefore high levels of poverty.

On the other hand, some places are ‘hyper-connected’ with multiple economic, transport and
population connections to other places. These are often called global hubs or world cities.
According to the 2016 Globalisation and World Cities Research Network the most connected
cities are:

Alpha ++ cities London, New York

Alpha + cities Singapore, Hong Kong, Paris, Beijing, Tokyo, Dubai, Shanghai

These cities:
• Are often the HQs of major TNCs
• Have the largest, most well connected airports
• Have a huge range of high value services, hotels, shops, resorts
• Have mixed populations from different countries and cultures
• Are home to the global elite (or ‘1%’) of very high net-worth individuals
Of the 2208 Billionaires listed by Forbes in 2018, 1281 of them came from a country containing
an Alpha ++ or Alpha + city.

Asia
The Global Shift has caused the global economic centre of gravity to move towards Asia since
1980 (see map):
• Between AD 1 and 1820 Asia was
the economic centre of the world
• Only at the onset of the European
industrial revolution did the world
economy move towards Europe
• After 1940, a shift into the Atlantic
towards the USA took place.
• Between 1950 and 1980, as
Europe recovered from WWII, the
centre was pulled back east.
• Since 2000 it has accelerated
eastward, towards China.

This shift, and the economic growth it has brought has benefitted Asian countries in terms of
jobs, rising incomes, better education levels, increased life expectancy and improvements in
water, transport, electricity and other infrastructure. In 2000, per capita GDP in China was
under $1000 whereas by 2016 it was over $8000.

However, there have been costs:

• Low wages, long hours, exploitation, poor health and safety in factories set up with FDI.
• Rapidly growing megacities and slums, urban poverty and pollution
• Growing health problems associated with the nutrition transition e.g. obesity
• Families split up by rural-urban migration
• Traditional cultures eroded by
adopting a more western lifestyle,
working week, diet and dress
• Serious urban air pollution, and
water pollution

China’s carbon dioxide emissions have

grown to be the largest in the world by
2015 (see pie chart: percentage of global
CO2 emissions in 2015).
1.4.4 Global population trends

Enquiry question: What are the impacts of global and regional population trends on resources
and wellbeing?

Global population
World population is rising, as shown in the graph below. However, there is much uncertainly
about what future world population will be. It depends on the global average fertility rate in the
future. Small changes in overall fertility rate can have a huge impact on long-term population
projections (see the upper and lower dashed lines on the graph, below).
The most likely population by 2100 is around 11 billion, or 3.5 billion more than the population
in 2018. There are also major differences between regions:

Population of global regions in 2000 and 2050 (projected, billions)

Global region 2000 2050 Comments
Asia 3.7 5.3 Rapid growth, but uneven
Africa 0.8 2.5 Very rapid growth even after 2050
Europe 0.7 0.7 Stable, or declining slightly
Latin America & Caribbean 0.5 0.8 Slow growth
North America 0.3 0.4 Slow growth
Oceania 0.03 0.06 Steady growth, but small
The US Census Bureau has a global database of population, which can be used to view
population pyramids for any country: [Link]
tools/demo/idb/[Link]

Ageing and youthful populations

Population is a very important variable in the development of countries. People are the human
resource base of a country, and differences in types of people can affect a country in many
ways.
Ageing populations Youthful populations
Japan in 2030: Nigeria in 2030:

By 2030 Japan’s population is set to be ageing By 2030 Nigeria’s population will be very
rapidly, with a low birth rate, low fertility and youthful. Most people will be aged under 30
few people aged under 30. There will be very and the largest single groups are under 15.
large numbers of 50, and large number of Few people will be aged over 65.
retired people aged over 65. Life expectancy is
very high.
Ageing populations are challenging: Youthful populations have a future
• The low proportion of working age ‘demographic dividend’ because young people
people risks shortages of key workers. today become a large future working age
• Working people’s taxes will have to population. However:
pay the high heath and social care • There is high demand for education
costs of retired people, and their and child health services.
pensions. • A youthful population today means
• Lack of young people could mean lack future population growth is inevitable,
of innovation. and therefore high future demands for
• The high old-age dependency ratio housing and services.
could be a social issue, as the working • Some countries may struggle to
population resent high taxes and time provide decent jobs for everyone.
spent caring for elderly relatives.
Japan and Nigeria are in some ways at the extremes of ageing and youthful populations. Most
countries are somewhere between these two, but still face the same problems just not at the
same scale. China’s population is likely to be ageing, and possibly declining, by 2030.

Resources
The question of future population is an important one, because of its inclusion in the debate
over the relationship between population and resources. This is an extremely old, but
unresolved, geographical issue. Geographers have worried about the number of people on the
planet who need to be fed for at least 200 years. There are two viewpoints:
Pessimistic Optimistic
Malthusians or Neo-Malthusians Boserupians
Thomas Malthus Ester Boserup
Professor John Beddington
The Club of Rome
The Reverend Thomas Malthus wrote his ‘An Essay on Ester Boserup, a Danish economist,
the Principle of Population’ in 1798. It is important to published her view in 1965, in a book called
note that he was writing at a very pessimistic time during ‘The Conditions of Agricultural Growth’. She
the Revolutionary Wars. He argued that population could argued that ‘necessity is the mother of
increase geometrically (1,2,4,8,16 etc.) by doubling in invention’ – which means that as population
each generation but that food production could only grows innovative humans simply invent new
increase arithmetically (1,2,3,4,5 etc.). According to ways of producing more food. Technology
Malthus, population would eventually out-strip food like farm machinery, fertilisers, GM crops
supply leading to a ‘population versus resources crisis’. and irrigation can all be seen as examples of
Population would have to fall and this would happen by: this. The 1960s were a time of optimism,
• Positive checks: war, starvation and famine especially in terms of new technology
would reduce population numbers. (computers, space exploration) and
• Preventative checks: later marriage, not having Boserup’s view reflects this.
children
The balance between population and food supply would
therefore be restored.
The competing relationships are
shown in the graph:

A group called the Club of Rome

updated Malthusian ideas in the
1970s – again arguing a resource
crisis was inevitable. They included
all resources (water, fossil fuels etc)
in their analysis – not just food
supply as in the original 1798
hypothesis.
In 2009, Professor John Beddington the UK Government’s Chief Scientific advisor said:
"Our food reserves are at a 50-year low, but by 2030 we need to be producing 50% more food.
At the same time, we will need 50% more energy, and 30% more fresh water.” He was
describing what has been called the ‘2030 Perfect Storm’ idea. This argues that by 2030 the
world will be running out of resources. His is an updated version of the 1970s Club of Rome
idea.

1.4.5 Global migration

Enquiry question: Why are numbers of internal and international migrants rising?

Globalisation and Migration

Globalisation has contributed to an increase in the number of international migrants, as shown
in the graph below. Migration is a complex subject because there are different types of migrant:
• Internal: within a country e.g. from the north of England to London: this includes rural-
urban migration.
• External: between countries e.g. a UK citizen migrating to Germany.

In terms of international migration, there is a difference between:

• Economic migrants who move for work: these make up the bulk of international
migration both legal and illegal.
• Refugees: migrants forced to move across an international border, to escape a threat
(war, political persecution, genocide, famine or the impacts of natural disasters).
• Asylum Seekers: these are refugees to have applied for asylum i.e. the right to remain in
another country and are awaiting a decision.
• Illegal immigrants: those who have
entered a foreign country without
documentation, but done so
voluntarily.
• Trafficked illegal migrants: people
forced, or tricked, into migrating to
a country who often end up as sex
workers, or in modern slavery.
There is a strong link between globalistaion, the global shift and migration patterns. This has
encouraged people to leave their traditional homes and move to new places:

Location Global Shift Impact on migration

Pearl River Outsourcing of manufacturing jobs by Mass internal rural-urban migration from the
Delta, China developed world TNCs, to lower cost countryside to China’s cities, especially of men
locations. and women aged 15-25.
UAE, Qatar and Growth of the small Gulf States as an air- International elite migration of professional
Bahrain travel, finance and tourism hub situated workers from the developed world, plus large
between Europe and Asia. scale low-skill migration from South Asia
(construction workers, domestic servants)
The USA Deindustrialisation in old industrial Internal migration from the northeast Rustbelt
Rustbelt revolution heartlands of the developed (Detriot, Pittsburg, Bufallo) to the southwest
world, caused by factory closures. Sunbelt (California, Arizona), as people move to
find work.
Bangalore, Offshoring of call –centre and back-office Internal rural-urban migration from the Indian
Chennai and functions, by develped world TNCs, to low coutryside to cities, especially of graduates.
cost locations, utilising internet and
Pune in India mobile phone networks.

Globalisation encourages migration to particular locations where there is strong economic

growth and therefore jobs. The map below shows that there are:
• More immigrants than emigrants in Europe, North America and Oceania i.e. in
developed countries
• More emigrants than immigrants in developing and emerging regions.
There is also a finer detail pattern whereby:
• Megacities, world cities and global hubs attract both rural-urban migrants and
international migrants.
• Some countries, for instance in Europe, are more open to migrants so attract more e.g.
Germany.
• Global elite migration tends to focus on world cities, because these host major TNCs and
many highly paid business people move between these cities.
• Within one country areas can be experiencing high levels of internal out-migration (the
USA Rustbelt) whereas other places are experiencing high internal and international
immigration (New York).

Costs and Benefits

The question of whether migration is positive of negative is a very hard question to answer. It
has to be evaluated from the standpoint of both:
• The host country – where immigrants are moving to,
• The source country – where people are emigrating from

The table below considers some costs and benefits for both:
SOURCE HOST
COSTS • Loss of workforce • Social / cultural tensions
• Brain Drain and skills shortages: especially in rural areas with no
• Ageing and declining population history of immigration.
• Social / age imbalance: as most • Crime: a rise in low-level ‘cultural
migrants are young and male, this unfamiliarity’ crime
creates an imbalance at home • Downward pressure on wages for
which may affect traditional family the low paid.
units and relationships. • Pressure on space and housing
• Exploitation: some workers are causing locally rising housing costs
exploited by gang-masters and are • Locally there will be pressure on
paid less than the minimum wage. education and health services.
BENEFITS • Remittances: temporary workers • Skills gaps filled: many industries
send some of their earnings home. have been ‘saved’ by low cost
• Skills can be taken back: returning labour.
migrants can help skill levels back • Business opportunities: banks,
home and other business providing
• Working migrants abroad are better goods and services to migrants
than unemployed people at home • Counter-acts ageing: if migrants
who require benefit payments. stay, and have children, then an
ageing population can be
reversed.
Many countries, as the map below shows, rely on remittance flows from their emigrant
populations abroad. For some countries this can amount to 5-10% of total annual GDP:

Countries and their populations have very different attitudes to immigration. Much of this
seems to be related to the scale and pace of immigration. If it is perceived as happening too
fast, and involves large numbers of immigrants, the public can turn against immigration.
This happened in Germany in 2015-16 when upwards of 1 million refugees were allowed into
the country. Immigration was a key issue in the UK ‘Brexit’ vote and in the election of President
Trump.
1. Attitudes to immigration may be negative if migrants appear to be depressing local
wages, or ‘stealing jobs’ (a phrase used by some politicians)
2. Some societies are very culturally homogenous, with little history of ‘outsiders’ moving
in, and this could lead to negative attitudes to immigration.
3. Immigration can become a political issue and immigrants can be easily blamed for issues
such as crime or housing shortages, and this can affect attitudes.

Alliteratively, immigration can be viewed in a very positive way, especially if migrants are seen
as economically and culturally beneficial.
Managing migration
There are examples of countries
that have more immigrants than
citizens. The UAE (see graph, from
2016) is such a country. 88% of the
UAE population consists of
immigrants, most from South Asia.
Without this immigration Dubai
could not be the global hub it has
become.
However, this level of immigration
is unusual. In most developed
countries the immigrant
population is between 2% and 20%
of the total population.

Managing migration can be challenging. In the EU, which has free movement of people within
the EU, individual countries cannot manage the number of EU citizens entering or leaving their
borders. However, they can manage immigration from outside the EU. A number of different
policies can be used:
Visas A visa is a legal document allowing entry another country; visa policy
can be very strict, or more open.
Work permits These usually allow economic migrants to work for a set time period,
such as 1 or 5 years.
Quotas The total number of migrants arriving in a year can be limited; quotas
can change from year to year
Points system As in Australia, a points system can be used to match economic need
with potential immigrants to fill skills gaps.
Many countries use a combination of the policies above.

A major recent challenge has been managing migration from conflict zones such as Syria,
Afghanistan, Iraq and parts of Sub-Saharan Africa.
Large numbers of refugees have fled these war zones and headed for:

• Neighbouring countries such as Turkey and Jordan

• The EU, by crossing the Mediterranean Sea.

International law states that refugees should be protected in the country they first move to.
However, the EU’s open borders make this difficult to apply in practice. Once in the EU,
refugees can easily move to a third country.
The volume of refugees, especially from Syria in 2015-2016, created a ‘migrant crisis’ in Europe
and public opinion in Germany, Italy, Austria, Hungary and Greece turned against the refugees.
1.4.6 World urbanisation
Enquiry question: What are the consequences of an increasingly urban world?

Urbanisation trends
Urbanisation means the increasing proportion of a countries population living in towns and
cities. 2007 was a key year, because that was when the world’s population became majority
urban for the first time. Urbanisation is driven by:
• Internal growth – people in cities having children
• Rural-urban migration.
In the developing and emerging worlds about 60% or urbanisation is caused by rural-urban
migration.
The graph below shows that some global regions are already heavily urbanised, whereas others
are not (Africa, Asia) but urbanisation is increasing most rapidly in these regions:

Economic growth and globalisation has been a key driver of urbanisation especially in India and
China in the last 30 years.

Urban growth rates are very different when we compare countries at different levels of
development:
Developed world Emerging megacities in In low income developing
megacities (London, New China, Brazil and Mexico countries growth is very
York, Tokyo) are growing are growing quickly at
rapid, at 3%+ per in
slowly at about 1% per 2-3% per year, but cities like Lagos in Nigeria.
year. growth rates are slowing.
It’s important to view urbanisation in a wider context. It has implications for rural areas close to
major cities:
• Rural areas can be depopulated by rural-urban migration, robbing them of young people
and their farming workforce.
• There are opportunities for rural areas to supply cities with food, water, buildings
materials and other physical resources and profit from this.
• Sprawling cities can swallow up surrounding farmland and forests as they grow, and
spread water and air pollution into rural areas close by.

In other words, there are opportunities for rural areas but also costs and challenges.

The housing challenge

Urbanisation has many benefits. The scattergraph below shows the relationship between per
capita income and urbanisation. The relationship is a positive one. As urbanisation increases,
incomes rise – especially when about 40-50% of a country is urban. Urbanisation and
industrialisation usually happen together, so cities mean better paid secondary and tertiary
sector jobs.

However, there are costs. As the proportional circles diagram below shows, many developing
world cities are predicted to increase in population dramatically. Lagos is expected to almost
double in size between 2010 and 2025, and Dar es Salaam more than double in size. This very
rapid urban growth is difficult to manage.
Karachi in Pakistan was a small city of about 2 million in 1960 (see graph, below), but it has
exploded in terms of population size in the last few decades to be a city of around 24 million
today.

This type of urban growth means developing and some emerging world cities:
• Struggle to provide decent, affordable housing – so many people live in slums
• Basic services like clean, affordable water supply and sanitation / sewage are not
provided so disease and poor health are common.
• Population growth outstrips the growth of formal jobs, so many people work in the
informal sector for very low incomes, in dirty, dangerous jobs
• Infrastructure like roads and electricity supply cannot keep pace with urban growth

Both Mumbai (Dharavi) and Karachi (Orangitown) have slums which house over 1 million
people.
Cities further along the development pathway such as Shanghai, Kuala Lumpur and Rio de
Janeiro have less serious slum problems. This suggests that developing world cities will improve
given enough time.

The huge housing challenge in developing world cities is met in a number of different ways:
• In Chinese cities, government built apartment blocks have broadly kept pace with
demand for housing – but China is relatively rich.
• In Lagos and Karachi, many people simply build their own home on waste land on the
city edge, or any bit of unoccupied land: these squatter settlements are often the worst
type of housing possible.
• In many Indian cities low-income people rent tiny, cramped rooms and apartments in
old, over-crowded tenement blocks.
• In some case local and international NGOs provide housing – or at least improve basic
services like sewers – but this is relatively small scale in terms of impact.
• In many cases slum dwellers carry out ‘self-help’ improvements to sewers, roads, water
supply and open areas often with NGO support.

Megacities
A feature of the 21st Century is the megacity: cities with over 10 million people. In 2018 there
are around 40 of these (see map, below, 2016 data) and the number is rising.
40 years ago most were in Europe, North and South America. Today most are in Asia. In the
future several African cities are likely to join the list. Megacities act as magnets for:
• Rural-urban migrants – why migrate to a small city when you can migrate to the biggest
city, which is likely to have the most opportunities?
• Foreign Direct Investment – megacities often have the best connections to the wider
world such as ports and airports.
Some megacities have populations much larger than many countries: this presents a huge
management challenge.
A common feature of many megacities – even ones in the developed world such as London – is
very high levels of urban air pollution. The map below shows levels of PM10 urban air pollution
in some megacities. In almost all cases levels are far above the safe level according to the World
Health Organisation.

The pollution comes from factories, cars, other vehicles, cooking stoves, power stations and
other sources. Particulate Matter (PM) has a wide range of negative health effects including:
• Low birth weight
• Lung cancer and heart disease
• Asthma and other lung / breathing problems
Megacities also face other challenges:

Poor water supply Lack of sanitation

Many low-income people buy water from Lack of toilets and sewers dramatically
street vendors at high prices, spending 10-15% increases the risks of diseases like cholera,
of income just on water. typhoid – and poor sanitation increases the
Lack of access to cheap, clean water risk that infectious diseases will quickly
encourages the spread of disease. spread.
Congestion Lack of electricity
Many megacities have catastrophic traffic Many cities have old, out-dated grids that
congestion, adding costs to businesses and cannot hope to cope with rising demand for
commuters and increasing urban air pollution. power.

Education and healthcare are in short supply, and expensive in many megacities which has
negative impacts on peoples health and their future economic opportunities.