Why migrate? Forget the stereotypes

The motives behind migration are usually broken down to a simplistic theory that it’s all about higher wages. The real reasons are much more complex.

It could be a street, park or sporting ground in any town or city in Australia.

Migrants and the communities they build are an obvious part of daily life and Australians will meet them at work, deal with them at the market or compete on the soccer field.

Yet while Australians have differing views on what migrants bring to their new country, there are probably relatively few who know the stories of how and why they came here.

Migration is a central topic in Australia’s 2025 federal election but much of the public debate is shaped by myths and misinformation rather than facts.

Migration is often imagined in simplistic terms: individuals leave home in search of more money, cutting ties with their homeland and assimilating into a new society.

It’s a stereotype that assumes migration is a one-time, permanent move driven by a purely rational decision to maximise income. Media and political debate also drives the mistaken assumption most are refugees or asylum seekers.

Migration is far more complex. It is often a process involving multiple moves and is rarely an independent decision. Families, households and entire communities play a role in shaping migration choices.

Despite the hype, the numbers don’t point to a sudden new crisis.

Last year, 304 million people — just 3.7 percent of the global population — were classified as international migrants by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

That represents only marginal growth since 1990 when it stood at 2.9 percent. There are more migrants because of global population growth but it is still a relatively small phenomenon.

Why they move

Most migrants move for economic reasons, not because they are forced to, although their motives are also bound up with emotions, culture and aspirations.

Some theories about migration drivers help explain this:

• One explanation is that migration is motivated by income. Higher wages do help explain a lot. In 2023, moving from Mexico to the US increased a person’s expected income from about US$10,000 per year to about US$70,000 per year.
• Another explanation is that migration is a reflection of global exploitation, a consequence of rich countries extracting labour and resources from poorer ones. Countries in the Arabian Gulf still import low-wage workers from South Asia to fuel their booming economies, creating a structural dependency on foreign labour.
• A third explanation focuses on these remittances, saying that families in poorer countries send members abroad to provide financial support for the household back home. It becomes a way to compensate for the lack of a social safety net.

Some countries, like the Philippines, depend on exporting migrant workers. It lowers their unemployment figures and increases their income from money migrants send home.

Migrant remittances are the biggest industry in many countries, where it can contribute more than 20 percent of GDP in countries such as Nepal and El Salvador, 30 percent in Samoa and Lebanon and more than 50 percent in Tonga and Tajikistan.

By comparison, Australia’s mining industry is considered a massive and strategically important part of the economy, but it only contributes about 14 percent of the nation’s GDP.

Expectations

Migration is also shaped by cultural expectations, which are shared among countries with historical, linguistic and social ties. Cross-border flows can develop because of migration systems formed between regions with political, economic, social and cultural connections.

Migration systems involve structures like shared colonial legacies and trade relationships as well as the ‘migration industry’ of recruiters, lawyers and brokers who promote migration for a living.

Social networks play a crucial role in shaping migration decisions. When migrants follow the paths of friends and family members, it reduces the cost and risk of moving.

Cultural and historical factors go a long way to explaining migration through major corridors identified by UN DESA in 2024.

But there is also something more profound underlying migration: the fundamental human desire for movement and change.

The refugee myth

Public commentary that fixates on refugees and asylum seekers leads to the widespread misconception that most migrants fall into those groups.

Only one-in-67 people globally have been forcibly displaced and most migrants move for work, education or lifestyle reasons.

However, forced migration is still a growing global concern. Globally, a record 122.6 million people remained forcibly displaced in mid-2024, driven by conflicts in Sudan, Ukraine, Myanmar and Haiti.

That included more than 43 million refugees, 72 million internally displaced people and 6.9 million asylum seekers. Most are still in lower-income countries.

The migrant pathways

Climate change is an emerging driver of displacement — 32 million people were displaced by climate-related disasters in 2022 — yet many of those affected do not qualify as refugees under international law.

Research predicts that within 50 years 3.5 billion people will live in regions where the average annual temperature will be about 29 degrees Celsius — effectively in ‘unliveable’ conditions.

Many people migrate voluntarily for work or lifestyle reasons.

In 2022, there were 167.7 million migrant workers who made up 4.7 percent of the global workforce. Most were concentrated in high-income countries where they help fill labour shortages.

Another significant form of migration is life-course migration, which includes moving for education or retirement.

UNESCO data shows the number of international students has grown more than 170 percent over two decades, reaching 6.9 million in 2022 with the US, UK and Australia — which had more than a million international student enrolments in 2024 — top destinations.

Retirement migration is also growing, with retirees from wealthier nations looking for more affordable living conditions in places like Mexico, Ecuador and Spain.

Oceania has the highest proportion of migrants relative to its population at 21 percent, compared with 16 percent in North America and 13 percent in Europe.

The US hosts 52.4 million migrants, the most of any single country. Other key migrant-receiving nations include Germany, Saudi Arabia, the UK and France.

Migration is still largely regional and 45 percent of migrants live within the region of their birth. The largest migration corridors include Latin America to North America (27 million people), South Asia to the Middle East (20 million) and the Middle East to Europe (13 million).

The Australian intake

Australia’s migration system is a mix of permanent and temporary migration programmes.

Its permanent migration programme for 2024-25 is capped at 185,000 places, divided into three streams. Both major parties go into the election campaign indicating they will reduce migration.

The Skill stream has 132,200 places and is designed to address labour shortages and economic needs.

The Family stream accounts for 52,500 places and prioritises family reunions, primarily through partner visas.

The Special Eligibility stream, with 300 places, covers exceptional cases such as returning residents.

Australia also has high levels of temporary migration and temporary visa holders such as international students. Skilled workers are the largest contributors to net overseas migration.

Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the US are among the countries that run large UN-recognised resettlement programmes for refugees.

Australia’s resettlement programme is currently set at 20,000 visas.

In 2023-24, it granted 3,250 permanent protection visas and 16,750 offshore humanitarian visas.

Key groups resettled included Afghans from Pakistan, Iran and Türkiye; Iraqis from Jordan, Lebanon and Türkiye; Myanmar nationals from Southeast Asia; Congolese from Malawi, Kenya and Burundi; and Syrians from Iraq, Lebanon and Türkiye.

The programme continued to prioritise the resettlement of vulnerable women and their families.

A species on the move

Migration is not always a calculated decision. Throughout history, human beings have sought opportunities, sometimes against economic logic.

In that context, the debate becomes less about being pro-migration or anti-migration but more about how we deal with it.

Professor Alan Gamlen is the Director of the ANU Migration Hub and a professor in the School of Regulation and Global Governance at The Australian National University. He is an expert on human migration and mobility.

Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.

Editors Note: In the story “Immigration spotlight” sent at: 03/04/2025 11:01.

This is a corrected repeat.