A Comparative Overview of International Trends and Types, 1950–80

Abstract

This article provides a general overview of international migration trends and types during the postwar period. Its thesis is that international migration consists of a set of spatial networks which share many of the processes that create them, but that the networks are characterized by factors which vary geographically and distinguish one from another. Fuller analysis of these requires a systems approach to provide a framework within which to study the processes that produce flow patterns. It concludes that our ability to forecast future world patterns of international migration must be based on an assessment of the likely behavior of the component macro-regional systems we can recognize.