Agrarian Change, Migration and Development

by Henry Veltmeyer and Raúl Delgado Wise

The focus and concern of Agrarian Change, Migration and Development is the problem of labour migration. 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.

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About the book

The focus and concern of Agrarian Change, Migration and Development is the problem of labour migration. 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.

Global Studies & Development

What people are saying

Cristóbal Kay, International Institute of Social Studies, The Hague
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.

Ronaldo Munck,Head of Civic Engagement, President’s Office, Dublin City University
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

Jingzhong Ye, Professor of Development Studies and Dean, College of Humanities and Development Studies, China Agricultural 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.

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Authors

Henry Veltmeyer

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) to begin his academic career in the Sociology Department at St. Mary’s University. He participated in the university’s Atlantic Canada Studies program and founded the program in international development in 1985. He 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.

Raúl Delgado Wise

Raúl Delgado Wise is Professor and Director of Development Studies at Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas. He is also President and founder of the International Network on Migration and Development, co-Director of the Critical Development Studies Network, Editor of the journal Migración y Desarrollo, UNESCO Chair on Migration, Development and Human Rights. He is the author/editor of twenty-eight books and more than 200 book chapters and refereed articles and a guest lecturer in over forty countries.