In the last forty years, migration has only risen by about .5%. While that number isn’t very significant, the study of migration has, however, increased significantly. It has increased as migration and immigrants themselves have come to play an important role in many governments’ policies. Whereas, the United States was once known as the land of immigrants, today’s world is made up of many multicultural states. Therefore, in order to come to migration policies that will benefit both the state and immigrants, it has become pertinent to study migration. Although there are many approaches used to examine migration, perhaps the most established is the economic perspective. While all the economic theories of migration focus on the economy to explain the reasons and means of migration, there are competing models of economic theories that utilize different levels of analysis, such as the individual, the household, the national, and the international; and thus come to different conclusions as to the causations and implications of migration. This paper will look at the five models within economic theories- neoclassical economics macro and micro theories, new economics, dual labor market, and the world systems theory. Furthermore, this paper will look at the strengths and flaws within each approach and in the economic theory of migration as a whole.
The neoclassical economics theory is a well-known theory that has been around for a long time. And it is divided into two models: Macro and Micro. The country is the level of analysis used in the Macro theory. The theory posits, "…international migration, like its internal counterpart, is caused by geographic differences in the supply of and demand for labor." (36) Migration occurs due to differences in wage between countries. Those countries, which have a labor surplus relative to capital, have a lower wage rate than those countries with a capital surplus relative to labor. This results in workers from low-wage countries