ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the development of the international refugee regime and its causes. The concept of globalization is more appropriate when refugee flows appear across nations and regions as a result of causes that are structurally linked, rather than coincidental occurrences. Analyzing the relationship between migration and globalization of history, Wang Gungwu points out that migrants established traditions of "linked spatial relationships" over great distances by retaining ties with the homeland. Political and technological developments made it possible to do so with increasing ease in the second half of the twentieth century. The progressive globalization of an initially regionally focused regime thus reflected two structural developments during the second half of the twentieth century: the changing nature of the international system as post-colonial states were incorporated on terms of formal equality; and the overarching conflict between East and West, which globalized the strategic concerns of the opposing alliances.
