Globalization and Migration of Peoples

Globalization and migration of peoples is not a new phenomenon. This paper will focus on that theme and bring in scholarly literature to back up the assertion made in this paragraph.

According to Gemma Tulud Cruz, the present worldwide movement of people -- the immigration movement -- is as much a part of "globalization" as is the movement of money, goods and services (Cruz, 2008, p. 357). Cruz, assistant professor of theology at Radboud University in the Netherlands, explains that the "defining moments" in the history of the world have always been connected with the "massive movements" of people (p. 357). And the movements of people across borders today are not only "radically rearranging human demographics" but also those movements are redefining economic, religious, cultural and sociopolitical boundaries, Cruz continues.

But the point that Cruz makes as the pivotal idea in this scholarly article is that the linkage of migration and globalization is definitely not a new event. Indeed, the relationship between migration and globalization dates way back to the 16th Century (p. 358). In the 1500s Europe expanded all over the globe through its colonial exploitation period; during this period, Cruz continues, there were "large intercontinental movements of people" and the movements of people to and from three continents continued for "more than four centuries" (p. 358).

The routes that are quite visible and well-trod today in the latest chapter of globalization and migration were "laid down" by both European colonizers and the colonized peoples themselves, Cruz explains (p. 358). Another group of colonizers were launched by the European colonization period, the author asserts; those were the ones who colonized the "mind and soul" of the natives in the colonized nations. That group consisted of the colonizers who brought their dogmatic religious beliefs with them; they are more commonly alluded to as Christian missionaries, and others with a spiritual message for the colonized (Cruz, p. 359). Certainly it is easy to understand why the 16th Century Spanish Catholic authorities would be called colonizers, and are seen today by Cruz as part of the globalization of that era. To wit, the Spanish Catholics subjected Latino populations in Mexico, the Philippines, South America and elsewhere to forced religious conversion. Cruz calls it "colonial subjugation"; the priests came in "waves" along with the battleships and the merchant ships.

Another scholar who discusses history to remind readers that globalization is not a new concept, and that in fact the global economic integration apparent today around the world is "…not so different from those of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries" (roughly 1870 to 1913) (Ruccio, 2003, p. 78). Ruccio references the fact that because of the advances in long-distance transportation (when steamships cam along) and in communication technologies (notably the telegraph), the growth of global trade averaged 3.5% per annum compared with "output growth of 2.7%" (p. 78).

Ruccio (p. 78) adds that the international migration of people is not a new dynamic at all; in fact migrations were "a significant phenomenon in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries." In the U.S. during the era 1901-1920 the number of immigrants admitted "exceeded that of the twenty-year period" that began in 1981, Ruccio continues, and those numbers from 1901-1920 are far greater than any numbers of immigrants in the later half of the 20th Century (p. 78).

Another author weighing in on globalization and immigration is June Edmunds; she chides those who believed that the "free circulation of goods, services and capital" associated with globalization would limit the inclination of many people to migrate (Edmunds, 2006, p. 556). But in fact, Edmunds writes, the movement of commodities appears to promote "rather than stem" the movement of people. In fact, according to Edmunds, there is so much immigration into Europe, for example, that immigration "ranked alongside the economy, crime, and healthcare" as pivotal political issues in the general election in the UK in 2005 (p. 556).

Pura Velasco adds to the topic of globalization and migration by pointing out that the United States' neocolonial control over the Philippines -- a globalization event that began in 1901 -- has wreaked havoc on the natural resources of the Philippines. The forests, minerals, and other natural resources of the Philippines are "almost depleted" now (Velasco, 2002, p. 131). Moreover, the U.S. military forces that are now in the Philippines are not really there to root out Al-Queda and other terrorist organizations, according to Velasco (p. 132). In fact the U.S. is in the Philippines -- what he calls "these vast and fertile lands" -- "to protect transnational business" including Dole (p. 132).