Migration has been part of human life since hunters and gatherers wandered with
their livestock in search of pasture and water. The form and direction of migration has
been changing ever since. There have been different ways in trying to understand,
analyze and deal with migration. Migration as a multi-facetted phenomenon is hard to
grasp, and to really capture the processes involved is a difficult task. With this
research there will be argued that migration is a complex and context bound process
which needs an interdisciplinary approach when trying to understand a certain flow of
migration.
The world is facing tremendous social transformations with different cross border
flows travelling the world creating opportunities for some and leaving others behind. It
is important to realize that globalisation is a crucial context to understand
contemporary migration. As globalisation, migration can have uneven effects within
regions with on the one hand connecting areas in the global and on the other hand it
can lead up to the loss of skilled people creating a brain drain within certain regions.
However the potential role which migrant diasporas could play in development in their
home countries is gaining more attention. Migration does not only affect the migrant
itself but the sending and receiving societies as a whole are affected by the
phenomena.