Globalization and Forced Migration over the Last 20 Years

Over the past twenty years there have been loud declarations that a new era of world integration is bringing increased prosperity and harmony. As part of the process of globalization, it is said that obstacles to the movement of capital, information and people are being radically reduced. The liberating powers of the market are bringing benefits for all – there is a general advance of economy and society, and reduction of political tension and of conflict. The old polarities-the First World against the Third World, the North against the South – are becoming less and less relevant. On this view, the dominant, neo-liberal account of globalization, mass displacement of people is likely to become less significant and the refugee tragedies of the twentieth century will be remembered as a mark of the tortured decades that proceeded a new era. For the financial times (2004), a journal which ardently supports such views, globalization is the most effective tool we have to make the world not just more prosperous, but also a freer and more peaceful place according to Mittelman. For its chief economist Martin Wolf the challenge is to spread the opportunities presented by market integration: He refers to it as he world needs more globalization, not less.