Direct foreign investment: a migration push-factor?

The concern is to explore the impact of economic internationalization on the formation of labor migrations. General conditions historically at work in most migrations may continue to operate and even be prevalent. The question is whether the internationalization that characterizes the current period contains additional conditions promoting migrations. Direct foreign investment is used as an indicator for internationalization. The focus is on investment for export manufacturing because (a) the main countries sending the new immigration to the USA are key locations for this growing type of direct foreign investment, (b) export production is a central feature in the economies of these immigrant-sending countries, and (c) being labor intensive, this type of investment has created significant numbers of jobs in the countries where it is concentrated and therefore should act as a deterrent to emigration. The key finding is that intervening processes, such as the feminization of the new proletariat and the disruption of traditional work structures, can contribute to transform a situation of high growth into one promoting emigration.