The Council's international migration program will not be supporting applied policy research; however, public and government policy debates about immigration to the United States raise fundamental re earch questions about the origins and processes of international migration that will be addressed by the Council's program.
Human Migration and Global Environmental Change The Committee for Research on Global Environmental Change (GEC) held one of its series of seminars during its meeting on April 21-22, 1994, at the Council. The seminar, on the subject of human migration and global environmental change, was arranged by committee member John F. Richards, Duke University. Invited participants included Nancy Foner, State University of New York, Purchase; Karen Jacobsen, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and Aristide Zolberg, New School for Social Research.
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Mr. Richards, as moderator, prefaced the presentations by describing the GEC committee's interest in migration a an essential element in the human dimensions of global environmental change. Mr. Zolberg began with an overview of migration on a global scale. He aid that it might be thought of as a system in the soft ense of that word, characterized by interconnectedness and regulation. He then provided a hi torical overview of the causes of migration and the transportation technology that made it po ible. In thi century, there has been an enlargement of the pool of potential migrants, further technological change in terms of air tran port, and decolonization. A very recent change has been the elimination of formerly stringent exit controls over emigration (e.g., in the former Soviet Union), so that the burden of regulation now falls almost entirely on recipient countries. Ms. Jacobsen discussed the possible impacts of migrants in the third world, primarily in Africa. Burdens of migration
include po ible deforestation, land degradation, and stre son water system . It is often assumed that such impacts are large, but this may not be the ca e; studies are needed to assess thi . Ms. Jacobsen pointed out that some preconception fail to take into account local re pon e and adju tments to migration. It is difficult to develop appropriate policies (e.g., camp vs. local ettlement of migrants) without a better understanding of the impacts. Ms. Foner de cribed her research on Jamaican immigrants in London and New York, with a focus on why Jamaicans emigrate and what the impacts of this are on Jamaican society and the recipient cities. She noted that, for many, emigration is part of a normal life course; the impacts on Jamaican society include remittances, but also include the loss of educated members of society; and the impacts on New York include an energetic Caribbean press and political activity.