International Migration Drivers: Economic, Environmental, Social, and Political Effects

This paper evaluates the recent trends in international migration and different viewpoints (arguments and counterarguments) on global population movement and examines the impacts of the social, economic, ecological, and political determinants of regional and international migration. The paper aims to analyse and compare the causal relationships between international migration, on the one hand, and economic, ecological, and socio-politic dimensions of EU countries’ development, on the other. The authors consider the impact power of the above-mentioned dimensions on the long-term net migration for the potential candidates to access the EU. First, it identifies and justifies the object of research as the EU countries and the potential EU candidates. Second, the article provides a short literature review as the authors highlight that the EU countries had the highest share of all world migrants, according to the report of the U.N. Population Division. Third, it provides the background of materials collection and methods of the study of the analyses of the panel data for 2000–2018 using the FMOLS and DOLS. Fourth, it presents the results of the study having analysed the different concepts and theories, the authors single out the core economic, ecological, and socio-politic determinants of international migration: wages, unemployment rate, income inequality (measured by the Gini coefficient), corruption, and political stability (measured by World Government Indicators), CO 2 emissions and material footprint per capita (measured by Sustainable Development Index). The discussion and conclusion section summarizes the findings of the research and evaluates the structural similarities and differences among the EU countries and potential candidates and if these similarities (or differences) cause them to respond similarly to the economic conditions and changes.