Prepared by Mr. Ronald Skeldon, the paper entitled “Interlinkages between internal and international migration and development in the Asian region” captures one of the crucial issues examined by the assembled experts. The author explores possible linkages between internal and international migration, conceding that the two types of migration have rarely been examined together, mainly due to separate traditions of study.

The author emphasizes the ever-changing and increasing flows of migrations. “The global system of migration has been transformed over the last 100 years. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Europe was the principal source of international migration…. A century later, international migrations across the Pacific from Asia to North America and Australasia and from Latin America to North America have come to dominate the global system”. Urbanization is one of the root causes of these broad shifts in the migration system.

Within a century (from 1900 to 2000), the number of people living in the urban areas of the developing world has increased twenty-fold, he says describing it as “one of the most momentous changes of our time”.

While readily available data clearly testify to the increasing importance of population movements, what remains unclear, according to the author is “the nature of any relationship between the increasing internal movements and the increasing international migrations”. The author attempts to investigate the obscure linkages, pointing up difficulties and formulating hypotheses for moving the discussion forward; the established difference between internal and international migration systems “although blurring and overlap exist to the extent that any clear distinction becomes problematic” and the fact that internal migration can lead to international migration, and vice versa.

The author examines the extent to which each hypothesis fits the available evidence and discusses policy implications in the areas of gender and health. He deduces that despite important differences, internal and international population movements have created “an integrated migration system”. “A key development challenge is to make the more visible migrations work for the poor by linking local circuits more closely with regional and international circuits to increase the choices available to poor people”. “Migration, rather than being seen as a failure of development, can be seen to be an integral part of any pro-poor development strategy”, the author concludes.