Did Migration and Globalization Meet Sustainable Development Goals: A Theoretical Analysis

Abstract

The migration process, both voluntary and involuntary along human history has great implications in human well-being and development process. Many writers explained the reasons and push-pull drives of human movements and the consequences that reflect on changes in the social, demographic structures and in the economic and political institutions. The interconnections between human mobility and the development process during the last two Centuries are the milestone for building international relations between the nations, and on the other hand, in the evolution of theories for migration and development studies. This article has been drafted to give a new analytical look at development and migration approaches in the last century and to date. The emphasis is to show the progress of social, demographic transformation and human mobility in the last fifty years that influenced the socioeconomic structure and migration policies. The paper highlights the interrelationship between globalization and migration as two controversial processes for human advancement, and the outcomes brought miserable conditions of inequality and poverty. Finally, the paper suggested that sustainable development goals, particularly goal 8, decent work (SDG8), is directly correlated with globalization and its consequences. The paper concluded that migration is a crucial element for the success of globalization, while indecent work for migrant workers is traced as a persisting phenomenon of inequality and poverty in the 21st century.