ABSTRACT
A discussion of the political geography of international migration requires first a quick review of migration theory because of similarities between subnational and international migration flows. Poor countries face the additional and much larger problem of coping with the impacts of large migrations within their borders, in particular that from rural to urban areas. The study of migration will remain difficult because the departure of migrants from one area and their arrival in another generates fundamental changes to local labor markets, resource use, and economic production. Economic migrants are often treated as a large, almost bottomless, labor pool for national development plans. Migration and urbanization are closely intertwined spatial processes, particularly in many poor countries where large rural populations provide a steady supply of migrants to rapidly growing cities. Migrants are usually not the poorest or the richest members of their societies, and typically, they have had more education than their stay-at-home peers.
