• woodrow wilson center
  • ecsp

New Security Beat

Subscribe:
  • mail-to
  • Who We Are
  • Topics
    • Population
    • Environment
    • Security
    • Health
    • Development
  • Columns
    • China Environment Forum
    • Choke Point
    • Dot-Mom
    • Navigating the Poles
    • New Security Broadcast
    • Reading Radar
  • Multimedia
    • Water Stories (Podcast Series)
    • Backdraft (Podcast Series)
    • Tracking the Energy Titans (Interactive)
  • Films
    • Water, Conflict, and Peacebuilding (Animated Short)
    • Paving the Way (Ethiopia)
    • Broken Landscape (India)
    • Scaling the Mountain (Nepal)
    • Healthy People, Healthy Environment (Tanzania)
  • Publications
  • Events
  • Contact Us

NewSecurityBeat

The blog of the Wilson Center's Environmental Change and Security Program
  • From the Wilson Center

    Headlines and Trend Lines: A Wilson Center NOW Interview with James Hollifield on Global Migration

    June 4, 2019 By Truett Sparkman
    29816276390_6cd4434a2e_h

    One factor frequently underestimated in the global migration discussion is climate change, said James Hollifield, a Wilson Center Global Fellow, in a recent episode of Wilson NOW. Resulting in both internal displacement and international forced migration, climate-induced migration is set to become a complex problem. So far, there are no international agreements protecting those who may be displaced by climate-induced hardships. Hollifield anticipates regions in Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia will be significantly impacted by these dynamics and notes that Central America is already dealing with challenges of climate-induced displacement, in part due to increasing failure of cash-crops like coffee.

    But managing displacement in the future doesn’t have to be as problematic as the current “migration crisis” portrayed in politics and the media. One of the goals of Hollifield’s research is to identify ways of managing migration for strategic gains, or achieving a “win-win-win outcome,” for receiving countries, sending countries, and migrants. Underscoring the possibilities of achieving these mutually beneficial outcomes, Hollifield explained some of the ways in which the trend lines don’t match the headlines in contemporary discussions of migration.

    For example, despite backlashes against migration in much of Europe, many countries around the world will soon be, or already are, in desperate need of migrants to bolster their economy and to compensate for aging demographics. “Virtually all of the developed countries have gone through a huge demographic transition,” said Hollifield. “Our populations are stagnant. They are shrinking.” Japan, for example, desperately needs younger migrant workers in industries such as eldercare and construction. As a result, the government has implemented policies to bring in half a million “guest workers” from abroad, he said. Similar challenges exist in the United States, and Hollifield predicts labor shortages are on the horizon in China due to the effects of its one-child policy. In contrast to the current migration landscape, demographic pressures and this growing demand for new working-age members of society may spark competition between destination countries vying for migrants in the not-too-distant future.

    The shift will come with policy changes, as countries realize how important migration is for sustainable national development, said Hollifield. Rather than building walls, countries will recruit people. “I think this is going to happen sooner than you think,” he said.

    Sources: Population Reference Bureau

    Photo Credit: LÉ Samuel Beckett Rescues 220 Migrants During Two Search and Rescue Operations 04 October 2016, courtesy of Flickr user Óglaigh na hÉireann.

    Topics: development, featured, From the Wilson Center, media, migration, security, video

Join the Conversation

  • RSS
  • subscribe
  • facebook
  • G+
  • twitter
  • iTunes
  • podomatic
  • youtube
Tweets by NewSecurityBeat

Trending Stories

  • unfccclogo1
  • Pop at COP: Population and Family Planning at the UN Climate Negotiations

Featured Media

Backdraft Podcast

play Backdraft
Podcasts

More »

What You're Saying

  • 49890944808_c7d6dfef74_c Why Feminism Is Good for Your Health
    Melinda Cadwallader: "Feminism materializes through investment in human capital and caregiving sectors of the economy...
  • 49890944808_c7d6dfef74_c Why Feminism Is Good for Your Health
    Melinda Cadwallader: People who refuse to acknowledge patriarchy are often the ones who benefit from it. So please, say...
  • Water desalination pipes A Tale of Two Coastlines: Desalination in China and California
    Dr S Sundaramoorthy: It is all fine as theory. What about the energy cost? Arabian Gulf has the money from its own oil....

Related Stories

No related stories.

  • woodrow
  • ecsp
  • RSS Feed
  • YouTube
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Home
  • Who We Are
  • Publications
  • Events
  • Wilson Center
  • Contact Us
  • Print Friendly Page

© Copyright 2007-2023. Environmental Change and Security Program.

Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. All rights reserved.

Developed by Vico Rock Media

Environmental Change and Security Program

Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center

  • One Woodrow Wilson Plaza
  • 1300 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
  • Washington, DC 20004-3027

T 202-691-4000