Worlds in Motion: Understanding International Migration at the End of the Millennium

This work is produced by the members of the Committee on South-North Migration the committee set up by the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population in 1991 to develop a better theoretical understanding of the forces producing contemporary international migration. The approach is interdisciplinary. The book was intended to describe the international migration systems that had emerged in different world regions by the decade of the 1980s; present and evaluate the leading contemporary theories proposed to explain the emergence and operation of these systems; evaluate the efficacy of the various theories as they applied to trends and patterns in North America Western Europe the Persian Gulf Asia and the Pacific and South America and then to synthesize the results of these reviews to produce an integrated theoretical vision capable of providing a coherent guide for future research and policy formation. We also planned to devote special attention to the thorny issue of international migration and economic development. (EXCERPT)