Intercultural Communication: Globalization and Social Justice, 2nd edition
religious demographic changes have heightened cultural and political
conflicts and increased anti-immigrant sentiment.
ii. Example: Latin America was previously seen as a receiving
continent during the colonial and industrial migration waves. However, as
a result of macrolevel changes such as economic liberalization, Latin
America is experiencing massive rural to urban migration within nations,
international migration within Latin America (e.g., temporary migrants
from Nicaragua to Costa Rica and from El Salvador to Mexico), and
international migration to North America.
iii. Example: As global economic integration concentrates wealth in
more developed countries, Africans from less developed and poverty-
ridden countries are driven to more affluent neighboring countries such as
the Ivory Coast and South Africa.
c. Refugees: People who are forced to flee for safety from their country of origin
due to war, fear of persecution, or famine.
d. In 2014, the number of forcibly displaced people—official refugees, asylum
seekers, and the internally displaced—exceeded 50 million for the first time post–
World War II.
e. While official refugee count worldwide has risen in the past few years, the
number of internally displaced persons (IDP), refugees within one’s own country
of origin, has increased to a record 33.3 million.
f. Contract workers: Migrant laborers who work through labor agreements
established between the governments of the sending and receiving countries.
i. Example: Migration patterns within and to the Arab region are propelled
primarily by the magnet of oil-rich countries that draws laborers from
India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Thailand, and
Indonesia to the Middle East.
g. High- and low-skilled labor: A global division of labor in which educated, high-
skilled workers migrate to developed countries to work in high-tech and medical
professions and low-skilled laborers migrate to wealth-concentrated countries
driven by poverty and seek work in places such as factory, agriculture, food
processing, sex industry, and domestic labor.
i. Regional economic disparities draw low-skilled workers from poorer
countries—Philippines, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka—to wealth-
concentrated Asian countries—Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and
Malaysia—who often perform what is known as the three Ds in Japan,
work that is “difficult, dangerous, and dirty,” such as factory, agriculture,
food processing, sex industry, and domestic labor.
ii. At the other end of the spectrum, educated, high-skilled workers
migrate from Asia, primarily from India and China, to developed countries
such as the United States, Canada, England, and Australia to work in high-
tech and medical professions.
h. Feminization of the workforce: An increased demand for female migrant workers
as domestic caretakers and low-skilled factory workers.
i. Women are often preferred for low-skilled work because they can be paid
less and are more easily exploited.