The Dialectic between Uneven Development and Forced Migration: Toward a Political Economy Framework

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to provide a new analytical overview of the nexus between migration and development in the context of the global capitalist restructuring that has been taking place during the past three and a half decades. We base our approach on a political economy theoretical framework and place the concepts of uneven development and forced migration at the centre of an alternative interpretation of the asymmetrical global relationships between North and South, thus addressing the concomitant role of international migrations. From this point of view, migration appears as an expression of uneven development and a structural pillar of imperialist¹ strategies intended to weaken and cheapen the labour force on a global level. Instead of unilaterally approaching migration as a vehicle of development in places of origin, we address its role as a direct contributor to the accumulation processes of developed nations. Migration also involves the transference of human resources, which is linked to other types of surplus and natural resource transferences that intensify underdevelopment in countries of origin. In this context, migration functions as an important cog in the machinery of the so-called neo-liberal globalization, a source of growing social inequalities and asymmetries among countries that result in a sort of vicious circle leading to the current systemic capitalist crisis.