Contemporary immigration: theoretical perspectives on its determinants and modes of incorporation

Int Migr Rev. 1989 Fall;23(3):606-30.

Abstract

This article reviews conventional theories about different aspects of labor migration: its origins, stability over time, and patterns of migrant settlement. For each of these aspects, the authors provide alternative explanatory hypotheses derived from the notions of increasing articulation of the international system and the social embeddedness of its various subprocesses, including labor flows. A typology of sources and outcomes of contemporary immigration is presented as a heuristic device to organize the diversity of such movements as described in the empirical literature.

MeSH terms

  • Acculturation*
  • Demography
  • Economics*
  • Emigration and Immigration*
  • International Cooperation*
  • Population
  • Population Dynamics
  • Social Change
  • Social Class*
  • Socioeconomic Factors
  • Transients and Migrants*