The impacts of migration on source and host areas; the governance of migration by nation states, regional blocs and global institutions; and debates over sovereignty and rights.

What this dot point is asking

Eduqas wants you to explain the social and economic impacts of migration on source and host areas, describe how migration is governed by nation states, regional blocs and global institutions, and evaluate the debates over sovereignty and migrants' rights.

The answer

Impacts on source and host areas

Migration has costs and benefits for both ends of the flow. Source areas gain remittances that raise incomes and fund education, housing and small businesses, and they gain skills and capital when migrants return; emigration can also relieve unemployment. But they can lose working-age and skilled people (a brain drain), suffer family separation, and become demographically unbalanced (more dependents, skewed sex ratios where mainly men leave). Host areas gain labour (filling shortages and supporting ageing populations), skills, taxes and cultural diversity, but may face pressure on housing, services and infrastructure, downward pressure on some wages, and political and social tension if integration is poor.

The governance of migration

No single body governs global migration. Nation states remain the primary actors, deciding who may enter, work and settle, and controlling borders. Regional arrangements go further: the EU's Schengen Area abolished internal border checks and the bloc set shared (if strained) asylum rules. At the global scale, the UNHCR protects refugees, the IOM supports orderly migration, and the 2018 Global Compact for Migration sought shared principles, but these institutions can only coordinate and advocate, not compel sovereign states. This layered, partly voluntary architecture is why responses to migration crises are uneven.

Sovereignty, rights and the central debate

The governance of migration turns on a tension between national sovereignty, the right of a state to control its borders and decide who enters, and the rights of migrants, especially the legal protections owed to refugees under international law. States balance economic and humanitarian arguments against political and security concerns, and the balance shifts with public opinion and crises. The 2015 European migration crisis exposed the limits of shared governance when large forced flows met weak common rules and divergent national responses. Eduqas expects a judgement that governance is partially effective, working best where states cooperate and share responsibility, but constrained by sovereignty and the lack of enforceable global rules.

Examples in context

Example 1. The Philippines and remittance-led development. The Philippines is a leading source country, with around a tenth of its population working abroad and remittances worth roughly a tenth of GDP, actively supported by government policy that trains and places overseas workers. The remittances fund education, housing and consumption and cushion the economy, but the country also loses skilled workers (a health-sector brain drain) and bears the social cost of long family separations. It is the standard Eduqas case for the mixed impacts of migration on a source area and for a state governing migration as a development strategy.

Example 2. The EU, Schengen and the 2015 migration crisis. The EU shows regional migration governance under stress. The Schengen Area abolished internal borders and the bloc set shared asylum rules, but the 2015 arrival of over a million asylum seekers, many fleeing Syria, exposed weak and unevenly applied common rules: some states welcomed arrivals, others closed borders, and the Dublin system buckled. The crisis tested the balance between free movement, national sovereignty and refugee rights, and is the key Eduqas example for evaluating the effectiveness and limits of supranational migration governance.

Try this

Q1. Define the term remittances. [2 marks]

• Cue. The money that migrants send back to their families in the source area; one of the largest financial flows to lower-income countries, often exceeding aid.

Q2. Explain why governing global migration is difficult. [3 marks]

• Cue. It involves a tension between national sovereignty (states controlling their borders) and migrants' rights; nation states, regional blocs and global institutions operate at different scales; and global institutions can coordinate and protect rights but cannot compel sovereign states, so there are no enforceable global rules.