Reconsidering Migration, Globalization and Social Conditions in the World System

The present article is based on a 175-nation, 26 standard predictor variables study on the determinants of seven important indicators of social conditions on a global scale. The standard predictors cover all major development accounting theories today, including a) Demographic factors, b) Dependency and world systems approaches, c) Feminist paradigms, d) Geographic factors, e) Human capital formation, f) Integration into the European Union and the European Monetary Union, g) Migration, h) Military expenditures and military personnel rates, i) Neo-liberal approaches, and j) World religious factors. Our indicators of the social conditions relating to our globe include data about 1. Basic human needs satisfaction, 2. Gender inequality, 3. Inequality, 4. Life satisfaction, and 5. Unemployment. Our seven multiple OLS regressions, based on the SPSS statistical program and international comparative country-level data for the world in 2000 and after, take into account the non-linear trade-offs between development level and subsequent development performance, first associated with the name of the economist Simon Kuznets. They show the importance of migration in comparison to other, widely debated “drivers” and “bottlenecks” of social development. Received worker remittances per GDP have positive effects on life quality (life expectancy, life satisfaction, Happy Life Years), and gender relations (closing the political gender gap; closing the overall gender gap) in the labor exporting economies. There is no significant effect of any migration variable on the unemployment rate. Elements of other, more established approaches also receive qualified support.