The Arguable Cause of Immigration & Emigration


Immigration is defined as “The action of coming to live permanently in a foreign country,” while emigration is defined as “The act of leaving one's own country to settle permanently in another; moving abroad” (“Immigration”; “Emigration”). In the last 25 years of available precompiled data, from 1990 - 2015, the world has seen an increase in both immigration and emigration, they naturally go together, especially in developed countries (high income countries) (United Nations Population Division; “Migration”):

  
As can be seen in the two maps above, primarily developed countries, such as the United States, or the Scandinavian Peninsula for example, saw a rise in immigration. This is noted by the darkening of a country’s corresponding color between the 1990 map and the 2015 map, representing the increase in percentage of a country that is composed of immigrants. The graph above shows the percentage of a country that is composed of immigrants by country, and also by groups, such as: “Latin America & [the] Caribbean,” “High income [countries],” “Low income [countries],” “World [average percentage of a country that is composed of immigrants],” “[average of countries experiencing] Fragile and conflict affected situations,” and the “Least developed countries” in accordance to the United Nations. Notice that immigration to Mexico and El Salvador, the two highest sources of immigration for the United States from Latin America in 2017, according to the Migration Policy Institute, are below all other displayed countries, and groups of countries (“Largest U.S. Immigrant Groups over Time, 1960-Present”;United Nations Population Division; United Nations Population Division). As can be seen in this graph as well is essentially that countries of higher income have higher immigration, while countries of lower income have lower immigration. Income can be measured in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita, with GDP defined as “The total value of goods produced and services provided in a country during one year” (“Gross Domestic Products”).
If one looks at the GDP per capita of the countries, and some groups of countries, listed in the previous graph, it becomes evident that the same countries who have relatively high immigration as of 2015, also have a relatively high GDP, while the same countries who have relatively low immigration as of 2015, also have a relatively low GDP (“Economic Growth):
From a chapter featured in the International Handbook on Migration and Economic Development titled Does development reduce migration?, is a figure showing the relationship between a country's development and the percentage of emigration seen from that country. Development was measured in GDP per capita in US$, with prices adjusted for inflation to the year 2005, while also using Purchase Power Parity to further equate countries (Clemens; “Economic Growth”). PPP “compares different countries' currencies through a market "basket of goods" approach. Two currencies are in PPP when a market basket of goods (taking into account the exchange rate) is priced the same in both countries” (“Purchasing Power Parity (PPP)”):
As pointed out by Clemens, a U-shaped curve is evident here, with the vertex of the curve, representing the largest amount of emigration from a given country at approximately $7,000 per capita 2005 PPP US$; “typical countries in this group show a positive, significant association between average incomes and emigration” (9). Countries with a GDP higher than this group show a negative correlation between GDP per capita and emigration, probably as individuals in these countries have no financial incentive to emigrate, while countries with a GDP value lower than $5,000 per capita 2005 PPP US$ show a lower positive correlation, or even a negative correlation, between GDP per capita and emigration, probably due to a lack of resources to emigrate. This ultimately shows that there is a relationship between a country’s development, measured in GDP, and emigration, which implies immigration to other countries; “In all of these decades there is no sign of a negative relationship between income and net emigration flows below an income per capita of roughly PPP$5,000–6,000 (today’s Jordan or Jamaica). For countries with higher incomes there is a marked negative association between rising incomes and net emigration flows. Almost all such countries, again, are defined as “upper-middle-income” or “high income” by the World Bank” (Clemens 9). This model, hypothetically speaking, could be used to predict the emigrant population of a given nation in the future.    
However, since global income inequality has decreased over time, and the GDP of many currently developing countries is projected to increase in the future, we may reach the point in which income inequality between nations is no longer a factor for emigration, and consequently immigration - probably in the far future (“Global Economic Inequality”):
   










Work Cited
Clemens, Michael. “International Handbook on Migration and Economic Development.” Edited
by Robert E. B. Lucas, Edward Elgar Publishing, Edward Elgar Publishing, 2014,
Accessed 3 Feb. 2019
.NA. “Emigration.” English Oxford Living Dictionaries, Oxford Uni, 2019,
NA. “Gross Domestic Products.” English Oxford Living Dictionaries, Oxford Uni, 2019,
NA. “Immigration.” English Oxford Living Dictionaries, Oxford Uni, 2019,
2019
NA. “Purchasing Power Parity (PPP).” Investopedia, Dotdash Publishing Family, 26 Nov. 2018,
2019
United Nations Population Division. “International Migrant Stock (% of Population).” The World
Bank, The World Bank Group, 2019, data.worldbank.org/indicator/SM.POP.TOTL.ZS. Accessed 3 Feb. 2019
Roser, Max. “Global Economic Inequality.” Our World in Data, Oxford Martin Programme on
Global Development at the University of Oxford, 2016,
---, Max. “Economic Growth.” Our World in Data, Oxford Martin Programme on Global
Development at the University of Oxford, 24 Jan. 2019,
3 Feb. 2019
---, Max. “Migration.” Our World in Data, Oxford Martin Programme on Global
Development at the University of Oxford, 2019, ourworldindata.org/migration. Accessed
3 Feb. 2019
NA. “Largest U.S. Immigrant Groups over Time, 1960-Present.” Migration Policy Institute,
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 16 Jan. 2019,

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