9.3 Ensuring that Nobody is Excluded
Ensuring that nobody is excluded has become more difficult as people are affected by globalisation, new technologies, and climate change.
Recent decades have led to great changes in employment opportunities and increased migration. These are problems which are going to increase:
● Globalisation – the movement of work to low-cost countries – has accelerated since the second half of the 20th century (3.4.2). It has been facilitated by faster communications, faster travel and free trade. It has cut prices and increased prosperity for most people, but it has also displaced jobs in the West (3.5.4). Those who lost their jobs feel left behind, creating resentment against governments (6.7.8).
● Technology has transformed many industries (3.2.8). It has also resulted in lower prices, greater overall prosperity, and lost jobs.
● Increased prosperity in the West has led to a rise in immigration. Economic growth has created a demand for specialist skills and has tempted people in poorer countries to become economic migrants.
● Climate change is making some parts of the world uninhabitable, leading to increased migration (3.5.7).
● Demographics also affect migration (3.4.3). Wealthy countries have more jobs available but they have declining populations, whereas poor countries have fewer jobs and more young people.
These economic pressures and the resulting migration flows are intimately connected, but they require different types of policy response for ensuring that nobody is excluded – as described in the following sub-sections:
● Policies of economic inclusivity are needed, to help people ‘left behind’ (9.3.1).
● Immigration has created some hostility in wealthy societies, aggravating existing the existing challenges of ethnic diversity, so policies of ethnic inclusivity are needed to avoid friction (9.3.2).
This page is intended to form part of Edition 4 of the Patterns of Power series of books. An archived copy of it is held at https://www.patternsofpower.org/edition04/93.htm.