Migration
Overarching questions
1.What forces motivate human
exploration?
2.Why do humans explore the
unknown?
3.Has human exploration benefitted
mankind?
4.Does Exploration create
exploitation?
Why do People Migrate?
• Push factor – induces people to move
out of their present location
– People feel negatively about current place
• Pull factor – induces people to move
into a new location
– People view another place attractively
Forced Migration – the Atlantic Slave Trade
Push and Pull Factors
Cultural Push and Pull Factors
Environmental Push and Pull Factors
Economic Push and Pull Factors
Cultural Push and Pull Factors
• Cultural factors can be push factors when
people forced to emigrate from a country
• Two main reasons: slavery and political
instability
– Slavery – shipped to other countries, especially
from Africa to Western Hemisphere
– Political Instability
• Boundaries of new states can segregate ethnic groups
• Wars may force ethnic group to migrate to the other
side
Environmental Push and Pull Factors
• Pulled toward physically attractive regions and
pushed from hazardous ones
• Attractive environments include: mountains,
seasides, and warm climates
– Rocky Mountains and Alps
– Southern Spain and southwestern U.S.
• Water (too much or too little) is most common
adverse physical condition
– Floodplain of river subject to flooding
Economic Push and Pull Factors
• Most people move for economic reasons
• People emigrate from place with few job
opportunities and immigrate to places with
more job opportunities
• United States and Canada prominent
destination for European immigrants in the
nineteenth century and Asia and Latin
America today
Describe what you see as USA’s Attitude towards immigration
Immigration from
Latin America
Immigration from
Latin America
• Annual immigration increased from 60,000 in
1950’s to over 400,000 since 2000
• Mexico has passed Germany as country to send
most immigrants to the U.S.
– People pushed by poor conditions at home and
pulled by economic opportunity and social
advancement in the United States
– Most immigrants from Stage 2 countries
Destination of Immigrants Within the
United States
• Recent immigrants not distributed evenly
– More than half in four states
• 1/4 in California and 1/4 in New York, Florida, and Texas
• Undocumented immigrants show similar pattern
– Isolated in several states
• 1/4 in California, 1/4 in New York, Arizona, Illinois, Georgia,
and New Jersey; remaining 1/4 in other 42 states
• Proximity influences decisions for many
– Mexicans prefer California or Texas
– Cubans prefer Florida
U.S. Attitudes Toward Immigrants
• Americans always had some level of suspicion,
but tolerated during 19th century
– Helped settle the frontier – made productive farms
– Opposition to immigration intensified when
immigrants from southern and eastern Europe arrived
• 1911 study called them racially inferior
• Recently several states have voted to deny
undocumented immigrants access to most public
services (schools, day-care, health clinics)
– Unwilling to help needy immigrants