Migration:
Why do people Migrate?
Vocab
• Cyclic Movement: movement that has a
closed route and is repeated seasonally or
annually
– Nomadism: movement along a definite set of
places
• Activity Space: with in which daily activity
occurs
• Transhumance: a seasonal periodic
movement of pastoralists and their livestock
between highland and lowland pastures
Vocab
• Periodic Movement: movement that involves
temporary, recurrent relocation, ex. Military,
college students
• Place Utility: the usefulness of a place
• Space-Time Prism: A diagram of the volume
of space and the length of time within which
our activities are confined
• Chain Migration: Migration of people to a
specific location because relatives or member
of the same nationality previously migrated
there
Ravenstein’s Laws of Migration
(1889)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Most migrants move only a short distance.
There is a process of absorption, whereby people immediately
surrounding a rapidly growing town move into it and the gaps they
leave are filled by migrants from more distant areas, and so on
until the attractive force [pull factors] is spent.
There is a process of dispersion, which is the inverse of
absorption.
Each migration flow produces a compensating counter-flow.
Long-distance migrants go to one of the great centers of
commerce and industry.
Additional Laws
Natives of towns are less migratory than those from rural areas.
males are more migratory than females.
Economic factors are the main cause of migration.
Ravensteins Laws -restated
1. Most migrants go only a short distance.
2. Longer-distance migration favors big city
destinations.
3. Most migration proceeds step-by-step.
4. Most migration is rural to urban.
5. Each migration flow produces a
counterflow.
6. Most migrants are adults.
7. Most international migrants are male.
(Fellman 87)
The Classic Stages
Stage 1
Stage 2
Pre-Modern
Industrializing
/Urbanization
Stage 3
Stage 4
Stage 5
Birth rate
Natural
increase
Death rate
1929 by
Warren
Thompson
Time
Note: Natural increase is produced from the excess of births over deaths.
www.prb.org
Zelinsky’s Theory of Migration
(1960s or 70s)
• Phase one
– (“Premodern traditional society”):
– This is before the onset of the urbanization, and there is very
little migration.
– Natural increase rates are about zero.
• Phase two
– (“Early transitional society”):
– There is “massive movement from countryside to cities... as a
community experiences the process of modernization”.
– There is “rapid rate of natural increase”.
• Phase three
– (“Late transitional society”):
– This phase corresponds to the “critical rung...of the mobility
transition” where urban-to-urban migration surpasses the rural
to- urban migration, where rural-to-urban migration “continues
Zelinsky’s Migration Theory (con’t)
• Phase four
– (“Advanced society”):
– The “movement from countryside to city continues but is further
reduced in absolute and relative terms, vigorous movement of
migrants from city to city and within individual urban
agglomerations...especially within a highly elaborated lattice of
major and minor metropolises” is observed.
– There is “slight to moderate rate of natural increase or none at
all”.
• Phase five
– (“Future superadvanced society”):
– “Nearly all residential migration may be of the interurban and
intraurban variety….No plausible predictions of fertility
behavior,...
– a stable mortality pattern slightly below present levels”.
1. According to Wilbur Zelinsky’s theory
of Migration Transition,
A) a person living in a country that is in stage 1 of
the Demographic Transition Model (DTM) is very
unlikely to migrate internationally.
B) a person living in a country that is in stage 2 of
the Demographic Transition Model (DTM) is
most likely to migrate internationally.
C) a person living in a country that is in stage 3 or
4 of the Demographic Transition Model (DTM) is
likely to migrate internally.
D) all of the above.
E) A and B only.
Push/Pull Factors
Everett Lee’s Push/Pull
Theory (1960’s)
Economic
_______________
Few job opportunities
______________
Jobs are available
Cultural
_______________
Freedom; democracy
______________
Forced migration; slavery;
political instability
Environment
________________
Physically attractive
________________
Hazardous areas
Gravity Model
• Distance Decay – interaction between two
places decreases as the distance
increases.
• Gravity Model – predicts the interaction
between two bodies as a function of their
size and distance
Pa Pb
I=
Dab2
Migration to California
Figure 4.6 (p. 95)
Intervening Opportunity Model
• aka Intervening Obstacles (can also be
natural barriers)
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
A-Ruby Tues.
B-BK
C-McD
D-Cracker B
E-Olive G.
F-I-Hop
G-Red Lob.
H-Bleu
I-Bojangles
J-BK @HM
Lee’s Push/Pull Model
2. The term “transhumance” refers to
a. nomadic pastoralism that is seasonal
b. slash and burn agriculture
c. the movement of liquid in plants
d. the movement of soil on a hillside
e. the mobility of an advanced economic society
3. Which is a current intraregional migration
trend in the United States?
a. metropolitan to non metropolitan
b. net emigration from the northeast
c. urban to suburban
d. rural to urban
4. Which of the following is not one of Ernst
Ravenstein’s migration laws?
a. The majority of immigrants move only a short
distance.
b. Migrants who move longer distances tend to
choose cities as their destination.
c. Each migration flow produces a counterflow.
d. Families are less likely to make international
moves than young, single adults.
e. Push factors are usually more important than
pull factors in explaining why people migrate.
5. Refugees migrate primarily because of
which type of push factor?
a. environmental
b. circulation
c. cultural
d. economic
6. Which of the following events would be
considered a migration pull factor?
a. revolutionary takeover of a government
b. flooding of a river
c. opening of a new factory
d. failed harvest
7. The most important pull factor for migrants
to North America is
a. economic
b. political
c. forced
d. environmental
8. Which of the following is an effect of
Chain Migration on the area of
destination?
A) Cultural homelands.
B) Culture clusters.
C) Multi-ethnic neighborhoods.
D) Urban slums.
E) Urban ethnic enclaves.