Agrarian Change, Migration and Development

by Henry Veltmeyer

Overview

The focus and concern of Agrarian Change, Migration and Development is the problem of labour migraton. Veltmeyer and Wise explore the dynamics and development implications of the migration processes set in motion by the capitalist mode of production. The dynamics of these processes are both international — in regard to the international or cross-border flows of labour migrants — and internal to countries that have undergone, or are undergoing, a process of agrarian change and social transformation. Veltmeyer and Wise examine what they call the “migration-development nexus” from both a political economy and a sociological perspective, highlighting current trends, the global scale and the human dimension of the labour migration process, with particular reference to the increasing south-north flows of migrants who are forced to abandon their communities and ways of life by the globalizing forces of capitalist development. While it may appear that these migrants are free to choose to abandon their communities, and in many cases their families, in the search for greater economic opportunities and a better way of life, the authors show with devastating logic that the decisions made by so many migrants are rooted in the workings of the world capitalist system, which converts them into a pool of surplus labour to be pulled into and out of the system as required by capitalists in their endless search for private profit.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781780449173
Publisher:	Practical Action Publishing
Publication date:	04/15/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	920 KB

About the Author

Dr. Veltmeyer lived and worked for six years in south America before coming to
Canada to pursue a doctoral program in Political Science and subsequently (in 1976) beginning his academic career in the Sociology Department at St. Mary’s University. He has participated in the university’s Atlantic Canada Studies program and founded the program in International development in 1985. He also served for eight years as Coordinator of this program in addition to eight years as chair of the Sociology Department. Currently he has an academic appointment in the PhD program of Development Studies at the Autonomous University of Zacatecas, Mexico and annually engages in an extended program of research and public lectures across Latin America.
He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Canadian Journal of International Development
Studies and serves on the editorial board of Studies in Political Economy and a number of international journals in his major field of research-the political economy of international development.
Dr. Veltmeyer conducts research, writes and teaches about diverse issues related to the political economy and sociology of development, with a particular focus on issues of Latin American development, globalization processes, government policies, alternative models and approaches and social movements. Since 2000 he has authored/co-authored and edited 13 books and 25 scholarly refereed articles that have been published in Canada, the US, the UK, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil and Ecuador. Several of these books, written in English or Spanish, have received awards and have been translated into other languages - among them Portuguese, Italian, Tugalese and German.
In addition to these scholarly books, several of which have achieved international recog-nition and/or special awards and distinctions, 25 of Dr. Veltmeyer’s scholarly articles since 2000 have been published in some of the most prestigious academic journals in his field or by the United Nations Research
Institute for Social Development. Places of publication include Canada, the US, the UK, Australia, Argentina, Mexico, the Netherlands and Switzerland

Raúl Delgado Wise is professor and former director of the Doctoral Program in Development Studies at the Autonomous University of Zacatecas.

Table of Contents

• : Introduction
• : Rethinking Migration in the Neoliberal Era
• : Migration Dynamics Of Agrarian Change
• : Global Capital, Migrant Labour And The Nation-State
• : The Political Economy Of International Labour Migration
• : The Social Dimension Of Migration (The Underside Of Development)
• : Rethinking The Migration-Development Nexus

Editorial Reviews

“The authors skilfully and effectively destroy six common myths about the migration and development nexus that I found most revealing and enlightening. Instead they propose an alternative understanding of this nexus drawing on critical development theory. This text is an admirable addition to this multilingual book series that challenges the dominant neoliberal paradigm and its policies.”
— Cristóbal Kay, International Institute of Social Studies, The Hague

“This is an exciting book dealing with one of the most important issues of the day, namely why people migrate and what impact it has on sending and receiving societies. Delgado Wise and Veltmeyer have done a great job to clarify and explain the issues involved.”
— Ronaldo Munck, Dublin City University

“This small book provides us with a big idea of how to critically examine the migration-development nexus from the perspective of political economy. It addresses with analytical acuity the three challenging research fields in one go, i.e., migration studies, development studies and agrarian studies.”
— Jingzhong Ye, China Agricultural University

From the Publisher

This is an exciting book dealing with one of the most important issues of the day, namely why people migrate and what impact it has on sending and receiving societies. Delgado Wise and Veltmeyer have done a great job to clarify and explain the issues involved

Ronaldo Munck

The authors skilfully and effectively destroy six common myths about the migration and development nexus that I found most revealing and enlightening. Instead they propose an alternative understanding of this nexus drawing on critical development theory. This text is an admirable addition to this multilingual book series that challenges the dominant neoliberal paradigm and its policies.

Cristóbal Kay

This small book provides us with a big idea of how to critically examine the migration-development nexus from the perspective of political economy. It addresses with analytical acuity the three challenging research fields in one go, i.e., migration studies, development studies and agrarian studies.

Jingzhong Ye