International Studies Compendium Project

Extract

Comment on this article Any attempt to explicate the global political economy of labor migration will necessarily encompass a number of social science disciplines beyond political science and economics. However, much of the analytic tension around labor migration stems from the differing logics of political authority and market economics. While internal labor migration is an important phenomenon, scholars pay special attention to labor migration that involves the movement of workers from one state to another. This movement is ostensibly regulated by the political authority exercised by sovereign states. Of course, all states have laws that regulate migration but such laws are frequently underenforced, unenforced, or selectively enforced (the so-called “enforcement gap”) ( Hollifield 1990 ; Freeman 1995 ). This logic of authoritative control rests uneasily with the market pressures that induce labor migration. Markets are generally conceived as being premised on voluntary exchange, which includes the exchange of labor for wages. Labor migration represents the logics of both authority and voluntary exchange, and like much of international political economy, must be understood in the context of both states and markets. This essay will not engage extensively with comparative state immigration policies; however, it is important to note that the concepts and processes discussed below ... log in or subscribe to read full text