What is globalisation?

Globalisation is the process by which the world's countries, economies and cultures have become increasingly connected and interdependent — through the growing movement of trade, money, ideas, technology and people across national borders.

• Goods made in one country are sold across the world.
• Businesses, governments and people in different places depend on one another — this is interdependence.
• It affects the economy, society, culture and the environment.

Key idea: globalisation is not a single event — it is an ongoing process that has sped up over the last few decades as the barriers of distance, cost and communication have fallen.

What has driven globalisation?

Several linked developments have made the world "smaller" and pushed globalisation forward:

• Transport: shipping containers, larger jets and cheaper air freight move goods far and cheaply.
• ICT & communications: the internet, mobile phones and satellites let businesses and people connect instantly worldwide.
• Trade: fewer tariffs and trade barriers (encouraged by bodies like the WTO) let goods flow freely.
• TNCs: transnational corporations spread production and sales across many countries.

Which driver?

Networks & interdependence

As globalisation grows, the world becomes one giant network. Goods, money, information and people flow along it, and places become interdependent — they rely on each other.

Interdependence example: a phone may be designed in the USA, use minerals from Africa, be assembled in China and sold in Europe. Each country depends on the others.

Transnational corporations

A TNC (transnational corporation) is a company that operates in more than one country — its headquarters in one nation and factories, offices or shops in many others.

• TNCs locate production where costs are low (cheaper land, wages, raw materials) — often in NEEs and LICs.
• They keep research, design and profits in their home (HIC) country.
• Examples include Apple, Nike, Shell and McDonald's.

Two sides: TNCs bring jobs, investment and skills to host countries — but can also pay low wages, cause pollution, and take most profits back to the home country.

Why locate abroad?

Impacts on people & places

Globalisation reshapes life in four main ways:

• Economic: new jobs, investment and growth — but also job losses in HICs as work moves abroad (deindustrialisation).
• Social: rising living standards and access to global products and services — but sometimes wider inequality.
• Cultural: ideas, food, music and brands spread worldwide — but local cultures can be diluted ("cultural globalisation" / Westernisation).
• Environmental: more transport and production means more pollution, greenhouse gases and resource use.

Misconception check: globalisation does not benefit everyone equally. It creates winners AND losers — some people and places gain while others lose out.

Winners and losers

Globalisation key terms

Tap a term on the left, then tap its matching definition on the right.

Explain a downside

What is migration?

Migration is the movement of people from one place to another to live. A migrant is a person who moves; the place they leave is the source country and the place they move to is the host (destination) country.

Misconception check: a migrant is anyone who moves to live elsewhere (often for work — an economic migrant). A refugee is different: a person forced to flee to escape war, persecution or disaster. Not all migrants are refugees.

Types of migration

• Internal — moving within a country (e.g. rural to urban).
• International — moving between countries, across a border.
• Voluntary — moving by choice, usually to improve life (an economic migrant moves for work).
• Forced — moving because you have no choice (war, persecution, disaster) — this creates refugees and asylum seekers.

Name the type

Push & pull factors

Why do people migrate? Geographers split the causes into two sets of factors:

Push or pull?

Tap the factor that fits each description.

Migration flows & patterns

A migration flow is a stream of people moving along a route from one place to another. Common patterns include:

• Rural → urban within countries (people move to cities for work).
• LIC/NEE → HIC internationally (people move for better-paid jobs and safety).
• Flows out of conflict zones creating large refugee movements.

Skill: exam questions may show a map or flow-line diagram — describe the direction, the size of the flow and where migrants come from and go to.

Source vs host impacts

Migration affects both ends — the source country people leave and the host country they move to — with positives and negatives for each.

Misconception check: migrants sending remittances home help their source country — this money raises living standards for families left behind, so source countries are not only losers.

Whose impact?

Tap an impact, then tap whether it mainly affects the source or the host country.

Reading a benefit

Case study: Mexico → USA

A classic international economic migration flow: from Mexico (source) to the United States (host).

• Scale: Mexicans are the largest single migrant group in the USA — around 10–11 million Mexican-born people live there.
• Push factors: lower wages, fewer jobs, poorer services and areas of poverty in parts of Mexico.
• Pull factors: higher wages, more jobs (farming, construction, services) and a better standard of living in the USA.
• Benefit to source (Mexico): migrants send back remittances — tens of billions of US dollars a year — supporting families and communities.
• Impact on host (USA): migrants fill labour shortages and pay taxes; some Americans worry about pressure on jobs and services.

Exam tip: a good case study answer uses named places and specific facts/figures like these — not just general points.

Use the case study

Managing migration

Governments try to manage migration so its benefits are shared and its pressures are controlled:

• Border controls & visas — limiting who can enter and stay.
• Points-based / skills systems — attracting workers the country needs.
• Quotas — capping numbers of migrants or refugees each year.
• Support & integration — housing, language and jobs for asylum seekers and refugees.
• Tackling causes — aid and development to reduce push factors at the source.

Balance: policies aim to keep the economic benefits (filling labour gaps) while managing pressure on services and public opinion.

Choosing a policy

Migrant or refugee?

The big ideas to know

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