Aletho News

ΑΛΗΘΩΣ

Migration as Economic Imperialism

By Gregory Elich | January 5, 2024

Numbering an estimated 169 million, international migrant laborers are generally regarded in mainstream economic circles as playing a substantial role in poverty alleviation and economic development in their home countries. This is accomplished, it is asserted, through remittances sent home by migrants, reaching an estimated $647 billion arriving in low- and moderate-income countries in 2022, a total that surpasses foreign direct investment in those nations.  As one World Bank policy researcher explains, remittances “have a profound impact on the living standards of people in the developing countries of Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East.”

In his latest book, Migration as Economic Imperialism, political analyst Immanuel Ness challenges and complicates that simplified narrative, situating the global migrant labor system in the broader context of the long history of resource and labor extraction between the Global North and Global South.

January 5, 2024 - Posted by | Book Review, Economics

No comments yet.

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.