8B.1 - Globalisation and changing migration flows

Production and labour demand

Globalisation changes where jobs exist, so it changes the destinations that workers can realistically choose.

Global production networks connect design, manufacturing, finance and distribution across places. A firm may move labour-intensive production to an export zone with ports and lower costs. Investment then creates factory jobs, while construction, retail and logistics expand around them. Higher expected wages attract workers from rural areas; improvements in transport and information reduce the cost of moving. Rural mechanisation and limited agricultural incomes can strengthen this movement. Globalisation therefore alters both demand at destinations and opportunities at origins.

China illustrates this internal process. The National Bureau of Statistics reported 299.73 million rural migrant workers in 2024, including 178.71 million working outside their home township. Its definition concerns rural household registration and non-agricultural work; the total is not the number who newly moved to a city that year. Export manufacturing helped concentrate demand in coastal cities, but service-sector employment and domestic investment also matter. It would be too simple to attribute every move to a foreign factory.

The hukou household-registration system also reminds us that internal movement need not mean equal access to urban services. A worker may find a job while family schooling, housing and social entitlements remain difficult to secure. The geographical result is a connection between rural households and urban production, rather than a complete disappearance of the rural economy.

Regional mobility and border policy

Regional integration can make international migration easier without creating a globally open labour market.

Within the EU, free movement gives EU citizens important rights to seek and take employment in other member states, subject to the applicable conditions. A worker can respond to a shortage in another country rather than needing the same permission as a new entrant from outside the EU. This can connect lower-wage origins with higher-wage destinations and allows employers to recruit across a larger region. Language, qualification recognition, housing costs and family commitments still limit actual movement.

Schengen principally concerns the removal of routine checks at internal borders and common rules at external borders. It is not identical to EU membership or a general right for every traveller to work. Some Schengen states are outside the EU, and a visitor who can cross internal borders does not automatically acquire employment rights. Temporary internal checks may also be reintroduced under the rules. Treat the specification's EU–Schengen example as overlapping institutions with different functions.

Migrant stocks and population shares

A migrant stock measures people resident at a specified time, whereas a migration flow measures movements over a specified period.

The UN estimated 304 million international migrants in 2024, approximately 3.7% of the world's population. This fits the specification's 3–4% framing. A stock reflects many past arrivals, departures, deaths and changes in measurement; it cannot tell us how many crossed a border during 2024. International-migrant estimates commonly use country of birth, with citizenship used where birth data are unavailable, so definitions must be checked.