External publications

Migration and "unfinished" modernization in the Philippines, Indonesia and Mexico

Hernandez, Ariel Macaspac
External Publications (2017)

in: Juan Gabino González Becerril / Bernardino Jaciel Montoya Arce / Eduardo Andrés Sandoval Forero (eds.), Migración internacional: voces del sur, Toluca, Mexico: Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México, 265-282

ISBN: 978-607-422-752-9
Volltext/Document

The majority of the studies on migration tend to limit their cope of analysis to the mere mate¬rial developmental context. Migration offers more than that. The limitation of the impact of migra¬tion to the migration – development nexus leads to policy gaps and ignored priorities that should be made. For instance, the remittances sent home by migrant workers affect the maintenance of social networks, changing economic performance through the institutionalization of trust or “reputation effects” and the reduction of contingencies. The concept of social capital cannot be plausibly explained by the material development concept. To fully understand the phenomenon of migration and its full impact, the analysis should be extended to more or less immaterial contexts such as rule of law, political participation and social networks. Unfortunately, there is no plausible term or concept that could assist in the analysis aside from the highly contested term “modernization” that implies these immaterial contexts. The operationa¬lization of the concept of modernization will be made for the purpose of analysis and policy. The system analytical approach offers opportunities of understanding interdependencies, structural implications as well as self-driving dynamics. The system analytical approach would serve as the main methodological tool in the analysis of the interdependencies and interplays of migration and modernization in which education as the “link” between these interdependencies would be identified. The polymological approach would serve as tool in identifying and un¬derstanding structural and exogenous factors which hinders the realization of the opportunities brought by migration to the modernization process. In addition, the comparison of contexts of migration from different countries in which common features, trends and missed opportunities for migration in maximizing its potentials for the modernization process are discovered, would serve as the analysis platform.