Globalisation and Migration Flashcards
What is globalisation?
A primarily economic process by which the countries of the world are being gradually drawn into a single global economy or market
What does globalisation result in?
Countries becoming increasingly interconnected and interdependent meaning that economic decisions and economic activity in one part of the world can have important effects on what happens in other parts of the world
What are the four significant developments that have led to globalisation?
- The emergence of large TNCs
- the growth of regional economic or trading blocs
- The development of modern transport networks
- Advances in ITC
What are TNCs?
Companies operating in a number of countries and often involved in a variety of economic activities
What are trade blocs?
A group of countries drawn together by trade agreements promoting free trade between them e.g. the EU and the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
How has the development of modern transport networks led to globalisation?
They are capable of moving people and commodities quickly and relatively cheaply. Air travel has made physical distances worldwide much less significant, causing a “shrinking” world. Ocean transport and containerisation has sped up the global movement of goods
How has advances in ICT led to globalisation?
The use of computers and software allow the faster management, processing and communication of information
What is the outcome of increased globalisation?
The global economy i.e. almost all the countries of the world (LICs and HICs) becoming increasingly economically interdependent. This has been driven by the international spread of capitalism.
What are the five flows of the global economy?
- Trade
- Aid
- Foreign investment
- Labour
- Information
What is evidence for the global economy?
- Production chains (commodity or supply chains). These consist of a number of stages (often in many different countries) involved in the making of a particular product
- Call centres for HIC companies are now largely located in LICs and Emerging Economies such as India, the Philippines and Thailand
What are the roles of the WTO and the IMF?
To play an important role in global trade foreign investment
What are the roles of the World Bank and NGOs?
To focus on development aid
What are the pros of globalisation?
- Inward investment by TNCs helps countries by providing new jobs and skills for local people
- TNCs bring wealth and foreign currency to local economies when they buy local resources, products and services. The extra money created by this investment can be spent on education, health and infrastructure.
- The sharing of ideas, experiences and lifestyles of people and cultures
- Increased awareness of events in faraway parts of the world
- Helped to make people more aware of global issues such as deforestation and global warming and alert them to the need for sustainable development
What are the cons of globalisation?
- There are no guarantees that the wealth from inward investment will benefit the local community. Often profits are sent back to the HIC where the TNC is based
- TNCs, with their massive economies of scale, may drive local companies out of business
- If it becomes cheaper to operate in another country, the TNC might close down the factory and make local people redundant
- An absence of strictly enforced laws means that TNCs may operate in LICs in a way that would not be allowed in an HIC. They may pollute the environment, run risks with safety or impose poor working conditions and low wages on local workers
- A threat to the world’s cultural diversity. It is feared it might drown out local economies, traditions, languages and simply re-cast the whole world in the mould of the capitalist HICs
Birth Rate
The number of live births in a population per year per 1,000 population
Death Rate
The number of deaths per year per 1,000 population
Natural Change
The balance between birth rate and death rate in a population
Net Migration
The balance between the number of people entering and the number of people leaving a country or region
Circulation
All temporary absences from a permanent residence. These tend to be subdivided as daily, weekly or seasonal circulation. This might also include travel for medical treatment
Migration
Involves a permanent change in residence
Voluntary migration
This occurs when people choose either to move inside their own country (internal) or to emigrate to another country (international)
What are some reasons for voluntary migration?
- Employment
- Higher wages
- Quality of life
What are some trends in voluntary migration?
- In developing and emerging economies there is a large rural-to-urban migration
- In HICs it tends to be counterurbanisation
Forced migration
Occurs when people have to move from where they live i.e. they have no choice