ABSTRACT
Increased appreciation of the role of south-north migration as an engine for development in origin countries (United Nations, 2006; World Bank, 2006a; Global Commission on International Migration, 2005) focuses attention on the largest south countries of China (2006 population 1,311.4 million), India (1,121.8 million) and Indonesia (225.5 million). These countries are distinctive not only because of their large populations but also their vast geographical size and diversity. Inevitably international migration is less likely to have impacts at the national scale that occur in smaller nations. Indeed much of the increase in personal mobility is channelled into internal migration with intranational economic and spatial inequalities being analogous to international inequalities driving south-north migration out of smaller less developed economies to more developed countries.
