Building on the work of Wallerstein (1974), a variety of sociological theorists has
linked the origins of international migration not to the bifurcation of the labor
market within particular national economies, but to the structure of the world
market that has developed and expanded since the sixteenth century.
In this scheme, the penetration of capitalist economic relations into peripheral, noncapitalist societies creates a mobile population that is prone to
migrate abroad.