Cambridge A-Level Sociology: Global Inequality, Migration and Crime (9699)

Syllabus heading 8, Contemporary issues, is the second half of the Globalisation section of Cambridge International A Level Sociology (9699) Paper 4. It applies globalisation to three real-world problems: whether globalisation improves or harms life chances in developing countries (8.1), why people migrate and who gains (8.2), and how crime has gone global (8.3). The syllabus links these to the key concepts Inequality and opportunity, Power, control and resistance and Structure and human agency, so essays should always ask who has power and who benefits.

Heading 7 (definitions, perspectives, identity and politics) is covered in the globalisation debates guide.

Syllabus coverage

Cambridge International AS & A Level Sociology 9699 (2024–2026), Paper 4 Section A, heading 8:

• 8.1 Globalisation, poverty and inequalities — the impact of globalisation on life chances in developing countries (education, income, health); the role and success of transnational organisations in tackling global inequalities; explanations including capitalism, colonialism, post-colonialism and patriarchy.
• 8.2 Globalisation and migration — causes, including immigration, emigration, net migration, push and pull factors, global labour patterns and tourism; positive and negative consequences, including cultural diversity, economic benefits, concerns over scarce resources and negative perceptions; debates about who benefits.
• 8.3 Globalisation and crime — reasons for the emergence of global crimes such as human trafficking, corporate crime and crimes against the environment; Marxist and feminist explanations of who benefits; policing and prosecuting global crime, including the benefits and challenges of globalisation and new technology.

Does globalisation improve life chances in developing countries?

Optimistic view (modernisation and neo-liberal):

• Foreign investment and trade create jobs and raise incomes; W.W. Rostow’s The Stages of Economic Growth (1960) saw integration into the world economy as the route to development.
• Technology spreads: mobile banking, online learning and medical knowledge reach poorer regions.
• Global targets such as the UN Millennium Development Goals (2000–2015) and the Sustainable Development Goals (2015–2030) focused attention on schooling, child mortality and disease.

Pessimistic view (dependency and Marxist):

• Andre Gunder Frank’s “development of underdevelopment” (1966) argued that the rich “metropolis” grows by extracting surplus from the “satellite”.
• Low-wage export jobs can be insecure and unsafe; the collapse of the Rana Plaza garment factory building in Bangladesh (2013) killed more than 1,100 workers.
• Debt repayments and structural adjustment conditions have been blamed for cuts to health and education budgets.
• “Brain drain” removes trained doctors and teachers.

Evaluate by country: outcomes differ sharply between, for example, fast-growing East Asian economies and countries dependent on a single commodity.

How successful are transnational organisations?

Organisation type	Examples	Claimed success	Criticism
Intergovernmental	United Nations agencies (WHO, UNICEF), World Bank, International Monetary Fund	Vaccination drives, lending for infrastructure, disaster relief	Conditions on loans may serve donor interests; Western dominance of voting power
NGOs	International charities and aid agencies	Local projects, emergency response, advocacy	Dependence on donors; limited scale; may bypass local governments
Aid debate	Jeffrey Sachs, The End of Poverty (2005)	Large-scale aid can break poverty traps	Dambisa Moyo, Dead Aid (2009): aid can fuel corruption and dependency

What explains global inequality?

• Capitalism — Marxists and world-systems theory (Wallerstein) see inequality as built into a global system of core, semi-periphery and periphery.
• Colonialism — colonial powers extracted resources and labour and reshaped economies around exports.
• Post-colonialism — after independence, economic and cultural dependence continued through trade terms, debt and cultural influence (“neo-colonialism”).
• Patriarchy — Maria Mies (Patriarchy and Accumulation on a World Scale, 1986) argued that global capitalism depends on women’s unpaid and low-paid labour; women are over-represented among the world’s poor and face barriers to education and land ownership.

Why do people migrate?

Concept	Meaning
Immigration / emigration	Moving into / out of a country
Net migration	Immigration minus emigration
Push factors	Conditions that drive people away: poverty, conflict, persecution, climate disaster
Pull factors	Attractions: jobs, wages, safety, family, education
Global labour patterns	Demand for labour in particular sectors (care, construction, technology), e.g. labour migration to the Gulf states
Tourism	Temporary movement that spreads culture and money but can also strain resources

Everett Lee’s “A Theory of Migration” (1966) set out the push–pull model. Stephen Castles and Mark Miller’s The Age of Migration (first edition 1993) argue migration is now globalised, accelerated and feminised.

What are the consequences of migration, and who benefits?

Positive: cultural diversity; filling labour shortages; remittances to families in sending countries; entrepreneurship.

Negative: concerns about pressure on housing, schools and health services (“scarce resources”); exploitation of irregular migrants; loss of skilled workers from sending countries; negative media portrayals and racism.

Who benefits? Functionalist and neo-liberal views emphasise mutual gains. Marxists argue that migrants form a reserve army of labour that holds down wages and divides workers. Feminists note the global care chain: migrant women care for richer families while their own children are cared for by others. Migrants themselves may gain income but lose status and rights.

Why has crime become global?

• Opportunity: cheaper travel, global finance and the internet allow crime across borders.
• Human trafficking: the UN Palermo Protocol (2000) defines trafficking and commits states to prevent it; victims are often women and children exploited for sex or labour.
• Corporate crime: TNCs can move operations to places with weaker regulation. Edwin Sutherland introduced the idea of white-collar crime (1939). The Bhopal gas leak at a Union Carbide plant in India (1984) is a classic example of corporate harm.
• Crimes against the environment: illegal logging, wildlife trafficking and toxic waste dumping; the Deepwater Horizon oil spill (2010) is often cited. Rob White’s Crimes Against Nature (2008) developed green criminology.
• Manuel Castells (1998) described a global criminal economy linking drug, arms and people trafficking networks; Misha Glenny’s McMafia (2008) traced these networks.

Who benefits from global crime?

• Marxist: global capitalism encourages crime by the powerful; corporations profit and are rarely prosecuted, while poor workers and communities bear the harm. Laws are made and enforced in the interests of the ruling class.
• Feminist: trafficking for sexual exploitation, forced marriage and exploitation of domestic workers show crime shaped by patriarchy; the victims are disproportionately women and girls.

How is global crime policed and prosecuted?

Benefits of globalisation and technology: international cooperation (Interpol, Europol, the International Criminal Court established in 2002), data sharing, financial tracking and digital forensics.

Challenges: crimes cross jurisdictions with different laws; states may lack resources or be corrupt; encryption and cryptocurrencies help criminals hide; powerful corporations and states can avoid prosecution.

Frequently asked questions

How do I make 8.1 essays evaluative? Contrast modernisation with dependency and feminist views, then judge using specific countries and indicators (education, income, health).

Is migration always caused by globalisation? No. Conflict, persecution and family ties are older causes; globalisation changes the scale, speed and routes of migration.

What counts as a “global crime”? Crime that crosses borders in its organisation, victims or harm — trafficking, corporate and environmental crime and cybercrime are the main examples.

Sources

• Cambridge International, Cambridge International AS & A Level Sociology 9699 syllabus for 2024, 2025 and 2026, Paper 4 Globalisation, heading 8.
• Works and events are named with dates in the text.

Related pages: global inequality, migration and crime revision notes | global inequality, migration and crime practice questions | Paper 4 overview guide