SP445      Half Unit
Migration and Inequality

This information is for the 2025/26 session.

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International migration is linked to inequality at both origin and destination in multiple ways, with potentially countervailing impacts. This course examines the relationship between migration and inequality by considering a) the effects of migration on inequality in the destination country (e.g. through impacts on the concentrations at the top and bottom of the distribution) and for non-migrants and immigrants; b) the effects of emigration on inequality in the origin country; and c) the implications of migration for global inequalities. It examines the ways in which migrants are selected and the implications for their outcomes at destination as well as for the origin country, the relevance of (selective) return migration for development and for exacerbating or mitigating national and international inequalities, and the role of remittance income in reducing or enhancing inequalities. It also looks at elite migration, social mobility of migrants as mobility as a signifier of advantage as well as a consequence of disadvantage. It addresses inequality as a driver – and sometimes a consequence of migration, but also examines the ways in which certain policies or policy regimes can mitigate or enhance the relationship between migration and inequality. It draws on migration literature from sociology, social policy, political science and economics, though with a particular focus on the sociological and stratification literature. Week by week coverage is as follows:

1. Introduction: aims of the course, overview of themes – inequalities at origin, at destination and globally. Migration as a means to addressing global inequality?
2. Migrant selection (1): the drivers of and options for migration; implications of migrant selectivity for inequality in origin countries
3. Remittances and return – sources of development and/ or of inter- and intra-country inequality? empirical evidence and debates?
4. Labour migration programmes: creating opportunities or inequalities? 
5. Student migration – a special case?
6. READING WEEK
7. Migrant selection (2) implications of migrant selectivity for outcomes of migrants and for inequalities between migrants and integration at destination
8. Labour market implications of migration – impacts on (inequalities) of wages at destination – issues, measures and debates
9. Social mobility of migrants and the immigrant aspiration ‘paradox’ – theory and empirical evidence
10. Forms of ‘elite’ migration: sustaining inequalities across the globe: transnational employees, golden passports and the globally mobile elite
11. Conclusions and student-selected topic

15 hours of lectures and 15 hours of seminars in the Winter Term.

This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Winter Term.

Essay (1500 words) in Winter Term Week 7

Abramitzky, R. and Boustan, L. 2022. Streets of Gold: America's Untold Story of Immigrant Success. Public Affairs.

Chae, S., and Glick, J. E. (2019). Educational Selectivity of Migrants and Current School Enrolment of Children Left behind: Analyses in Three African Countries. International Migration Review, 53(3): 736– 769.

Docquier, Frédéric, and Hillel Rapoport. 2012. Globalization, Brain Drain, and Development. Journal of Economic Literature, 50 (3): 681-730.

Dustmann, C. Kastis, Y. and Preston, I. (2024). Inequality and immigration. Oxford Open Economics, 3, i453–i473. https://doi.org/10.1093/ooec/odad052.

Feliciano, Cynthia. 2020. Immigrant Selectivity Effects on Health, Labor Market, and Educational Outcomes. Annual Review of Sociology 46(1):315–34.

Fitzsimmons, Stacey R., Jen Baggs, and Mary Yoko Brannen. 2020. ‘Intersectional Arithmetic: How Gender, Race and Mother Tongue Combine to Impact Immigrants’ Work Outcomes’. Journal of World Business 55(1):101013.

Platt, Lucinda, Migration and Social Stratification (forthcoming 2025). In M. Gangl, L.Platt, J. Polavieja and H. Van de Werfhorst. The Oxford Handbook of Social Stratification. Oxford: OUP.

Takenaka, A. and Pren, K.A. (2010). Determinants of emigration: comparing migrants’ selectivity from Peru and Mexico. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 630(1):178-93.

World Bank. 2018. Moving for Prosperity: Global Migration and Labor Markets. Policy Research Report. Washington, DC: World Bank.

Essay (100%, 2500 words) in Spring Term Week 1