Migration and cross-border business: an integrative view, synthesis and way forward

Purpose This study aims to synthesize literature on documented and undocumented migration across countries of different levels of development. It emphasises what is known about their economic activity and its impact. Design/methodology/approach The literature on migration is fragmented across various social science disciplines, and this piece integrates work that is relevant to international business scholars from across a wide range of fields. Findings Middle-income countries are the main sources of documented migrants who are increasingly concentrated in developed, high-income countries. In contrast, undocumented migrants go to countries at various levels of development, where they often earn a living in the informal economy. Some migrants cannot be neatly categorised as “documented” or “undocumented”, or as from a specific type of sending to a specific type of receiving country, i.e. onwards migrants, return migrants, diasporans and digital migrants. Research limitations/implications This paper does not cover migrants who are forced to leave their home country, instead focusing on self-selected migration. Originality/value This paper offers international business scholars a map and suggestions for future research to guide them through the distributed literature on a complex topic.