MIGRATION
Polynesian Oceangoing vessel
Thor Heyerdahl
in the Kontiki
The
Hokulea
Viking Exploration
Viking Settlement
What is migration?
• The movement (often with the intent of
settlement) away from ancestral
homelands to other areas.
Causes of Migration
• “Push” factors vs. “Pull” factors
• Push factors can include:
– Forcible removal by outside power
– Economic expansion
– Population pressures
– Rigid social or economic classes
– War (civil or other)
– Purposeful colonization by government
“Push Factors”
• Examples: Forcible removal
– Jewish diasporas
• From Judea to Babylon
• From Spain and Portugal to Eastern Europe
ALSO: West Africans to Americas as slaves
Includes “ethnic cleansing”
“Push factors”
• Economic expansion:
– Fujian trade Diaspora in South China Sea
“Push Factors”
• Population pressure
– Polynesian settlement (?)
– Europeans to Americas
“Push Factors”
• Rigid social or economic systems
– Muslims to Bangladesh
– Europeans to Americas
“Push” factors
• Warfare
– SE Asians to North America
“Push” factors
• Purposeful colonization by government
– Australia – Penal Colony
“Pull” Factors
•
•
•
•
Economic opportunity
Religious freedom
Safety/Asylum
Political independence
“Pull” Factors
• Economic Opportunity
– Includes natural resources
– Westward expansion by US
– North Africans to Western Europe
“Pull” Factors
• Religious Freedom
– Puritan settlers of New England
– Russian Jews and Christians to America
“Pull” Factors
• Safety/Asylum
– Many different peoples to USA
“Pull” Factors
• Political Independence
– Polynesians to outer islands (?)
– Europeans to America
– Muslims to Pakistan
What made European Explorers
different?
• Motives:
– Economic: Spain and Portugal’s “discovery”
of Gold Trade in Saharan network, AND
– Muslim cultivation of key luxury foods in
Mediterranean, e.g. Sugar on Crete
Had to get around Muslims to access global
trade