ABSTRACT
In its annual report from 2008, the International Organization for Migration wrote that ‘the search for employment would be at the heart of most migratory movements in the 21st century’ (IOM 2008). In its final report, the Global Commission on International Migration recommended that ‘States and the private sector should consider the option of introducing carefully designed temporary migration programmes as a means of addressing the economic needs of both countries of origin and destination’ (GCIM 2005: 79). These citations highlight two features of recent international migration dynamics, namely the importance of economic migration in all migration flows and the growing importance of temporary forms of migration in the advanced industrialized countries. These two features contrast with both the permanent immigration tradition of some advanced industrialized countries and with the zero migration policies of many others, especially European countries, after the oil crisis of the 1970s. The coincidence of greater incentives and possibilities to move, the greater willingness of employers to recruit economic migrants in developed regions, and the demographic needs in countries of destination signal a different era in the regulation of international migration. Most international fora and policy makers acknowledge the force and dynamism of international migration: a force that is to be reckoned with rather than curbed.
