Contemporary international migration is a systemic element in the process of globalisation and globalising processes are likely to increase migration pressures. The international migration system is now more integrated and has become more transnational in nature than ever before. According to a study by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), globalisation is expected to intensify international migration in the 21st century as ‘the free flow of goods and capital worsens income inequalities and shakes up traditional [labour] markets’ (Stalker 2000). The study says this is not because of ‘a liberalisation of immigration controls but because of growing [labour] supply pressures, rising income inequalities within and across nations brought about by globalisation itself and the revolution in information and communication technologies’ (Stalker 2000).

Globalisation as a social and economic process prompts a ‘proliferation of cross-border flows and transnational social networks’ (Castles 2001) that connects migrants across transnational space. In a rapidly globalised world, the patterns of migration and the migrants’ social relationships are changing fast. The migrants move in what are called ‘transnational social spaces’, which are the preconditions for and also the products of globalising processes (Faist 2000).

Globalisation has provided migrants with powerful tools such as Internet communication, mobile phones and email for close interaction with their homelands. As a result, transnational global networks have been established which in turn prompt more cross-border migration. The process of globalisation makes cultural and social capital available to migrants. While cultural capital refers to knowledge of other societies as well as information about migration and job opportunities, social capital encompasses migration networks that help further movements. Within transnational social spaces, most migrants prefer to move to places where their own communities have already settled. As a result, a ‘chain migratory system’ is being established.