Migration
Chapter 3
Vocabulary:
1. Chain Migration
2. Pull Factors
3. Asylum
4. Remittances
5. Migrant Labor
6. Intervening opportunity
7. Islands of Development
8. Laws of Migration
9. Periodic Movement
10. Voluntary Migration
11. Forced Migration
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
Colonization
Distance Decay
Nomadism
Gravity Model
International refugees
Selective Migration
Cyclic Movement
Migration
Step Migration
Transhumance
I. Migration
A. Definition…The long-term or permanent relocation of an
individual or group from one place to another.
1. This is different than Circulation…the temporary, often
cyclical, relocation of an individual or group from one
place to another.
a. Ex: student going to college, then returning in summer
B. Net Migration = Number of immigrants – Number of emigrants
1. Net migration accounts for changes to the population of a
location (state, province, country or region) as a result of
immigration and emigration.
Demographic Equation: Computes population change in a region
Rate of Natural Increase
2014 Population = 2013 Population + (Births – Deaths) + Net Migration
C. Three Types of Human Movement
1. Cyclic Movement…movement away from your home for a short
period of time…often leaving and returning in the same day
Activity Space:
The area within which people move freely on
their rounds of regular activity
a. Commuting – the journey from home to work and home
again
b. Seasonal Movement – “Snowbirds”… People who leave the
north every fall for the sunbelt states.
c. Nomadism – Movement from place to place as a matter of
survival, culture and tradition…common in some parts of
Africa and Asia.
Spring
Summer
2. Periodic Movement…Movement away from
home for a longer period of time
a. Migrant Labor
b. Transhumance – a system of pastoral
farming where ranchers move livestock
according to the seasonal availability of
Fall / Winter
pastures
• Circular migration
c. Military Service
– A type of temporary migration.
– Associated with agricultural
work.
– The migrant follows the harvest
of various crops, moving from
one place to another each time.
– Very common in the US
Southwest (Mexican farm
workers) and in Western Europe
(Eastern European farm
workers).
3. Migration
a. International (Transnational) Migration – Movement across
borders…usually a permanent move.
--Emigration is an indicator of economic and/or social failures
a society.
--Crossing of a national boundary.
--Easier to control and monitor.
--Laws to control and/or inhibit these movements.
--2 million and 3 million people emigrate each year.
--In 1995, 125 million people lived outside their home country.
Before World War I
--Open policy.
--Many countries welcomed immigrants as a source of labor.
--Most migration was from developed to developing countries.
The 1920s and 1930s
--Closing the doors...Years of economic depression.
--Deportation of immigrants.
International Migration
Little Haiti, Miami, Florida
b. Internal Migration – Migration that occurs within a single
country’s borders with a degree of permanence.
Internal Migration
– Within one country.
– Crossing domestic jurisdictional
boundaries.
– Movements between states or
provinces.
– Little government control.
– Factors:
•
•
•
•
Employment-based.
Retirement-based.
Education-based.
Civil conflicts (internally
displaced population).
Internal Migration
Internal Migration
II. Reasons People Migrate
A. Forced Migration – When a person, group, government, or
other entity insists that another individual or group must
relocate. Also when a factor or condition (disease or famine)
outside the control of the migrating group pushes them out.
1. Countermigration – governments detain migrants who enter
or attempt to enter their countries illegally and return the
migrants to their home countries.
Forced
Migration
The Trail of
Tears, 1838
B. Voluntary Migration – Human migration in which the movers
respond to perceived opportunity, not force.
1. The migrant makes the decision to move…most migration is
voluntary.
2. Types of Voluntary Migration
a. Step migration…When a migrant follows a series of stages,
or steps, toward a final destination. Ex: Rural area to a
small town…later from the small town to a bigger city.
--Intervening opportunity…At one of the steps along
the path, pull factors encourage the migrant to settle
there before they reach their original destination.
b. Chain migration…Further migration to a place where friends
or relatives have already settled…then communicating
back to others about the new place.
Ernst Ravenstein’s
Proposed Laws of Migration:
1. Every migration flow generates countermigration…when one
group moves into an area, another group often moves out.
For example, immigrants to the U.S. often settled in the
cheapest housing; as they did better, they moved out and a
newer group of migrants would move in.
2. The majority of migrants move a short distance…see “Distance
Decay” on the next slide. However, since Ravenstein’s day,
transportation & communication have improved.
3. Migrants who move longer distances tend to choose big-city
destinations…usually from rural areas to urban areas.
4. Urban residents are less migratory than inhabitants of rural
areas. Older people are also less likely to migrate.
5. Families are less likely to make international moves than young
adults, and most international migrants are young males.
Gravity Model:
1. Predicts interaction between places on the basis of their population size
and distance between them. Population is more important. Distance is
not really a factor if the population is high in both cities being compared.
2. Assumes that spatial interaction (such as migration) is directly related to
the populations and inversely related to the distance between them
Distance decay: The
principle that the farther one
moves from a cultural hearth,
the less present that culture
is on the landscape. The
farther that one moves from
one’s homeland, the less
likely one is to hold onto
one’s cultural
ways…eventually one will be
assimilated into the new
country’s culture
C. Push and Pull Factors of Migration
1. Push Factors – Unfavorable conditions or attributes
that encourage migration from the place they live in.
2. Pull Factors – Favorable conditions or attributes of a place that
attract migrants.
D. Types of Push and Pull Factors
1. Legal status…Migrants can arrive in a country with (legally) or
without (illegally) consent of the host country.
a. Main question is how do they arrive in the new country?
2. Economic conditions…Poverty has driven countless millions
from their homelands…job opportunities (or perceived
opportunities) in other places pull them to migrate.
a. Examples: Farmers pushed off their land by drought,
invasion, or landlords; Industrial growth in a city.
b. They exist on all scales from local to global. People move
between continents, countries, regions or within cities.
3. Political Circumstances…migrations driven by oppressive
governments.
a. Politically driven migration flows are marked by both escape
and expulsion.
b. Ex: Desperate migrants fled Vietnam
by the hundreds of thousands
after the communists took control
of the country in 1975.
c. Ex: Those leaving Afghanistan after
the Soviet Union invaded in 1979.
© Barbara Weightman
4. Cultural Factors…People who fear that their culture and traditions
will not survive a major political transition, and who are able to
migrate to places they perceive as safer, will often do so.
a. Cultural “Push” Factors
Refugees:
--Change in politics or governmental control People who have
been forced to
Ex: Those leaving Afghanistan after the
migrate from
Soviet Union invaded in 1979.
their homes and
--Religious persecution
cannot return for
Ex: Palestinians leaving Israel after the
fear of
country was created in 1948.
persecution
Ex: Muslims migrating from India to the
because of their
new country of Pakistan and Hindus
religion, race,
migrating from Pakistan back to India
nationality, or
when India & Pakistan split in 1947.
political
b. Cultural “Pull” Factors…Many came to America
opinions.
because of our democratic government.
5. Environmental Push and Pull Factors
a. Climate…either moving to a pleasant climate (the beach) or
away from a harsh climate (extreme cold or heat, drought)
b. Seacoasts…This is the tendency for people to settle on or near
the sea…it’s most striking in Eurasia, Australia, and South
America
--Ex: In Australia, half the total population lives in just five port
cities, and most everyone else lives in nearby coastal areas.
c. Disease…on animals, humans, or crops.
--Areas of heavy malaria cause humans to move.
--The 1840s potato famine in Ireland caused people to move.
d. Crises…Earthquakes, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions
--Ex: Migrants leaving after Hurricane Katrina
Intervening Obstacles:
Physical features that halt or slow migration from one place to another.
Ex: People moving westward in the U.S. ran into the Rocky Mountains.
Push Factors
Famine
War
Lack of jobs
Disease
Violence
High crime
Overcrowding
Pull Factors
Better Jobs
Lower Taxes
Nicer Climate
Better schools
More room
Low crime
Better Medical
Care
III. Where Do People Migrate?
A. Out-Migration – When more people emigrate from a place than
immigrate to it.
1. Asia, Latin America, and Africa fall into this category.
B. In-Migration – When more people immigrate to a place than
emigrate from it.
1. North America, Europe, and Oceania (Australia, New
Zealand and the South Sea Islands) fall into this category.
1. People are migrating
from less developed to
more developed
countries.
2. People leave countries
with few jobs to those
with more jobs.
Ellis Island National Monument
International Migration Routes
The Largest Current Migration Flows Include:
1. Asia to Europe
2. Asia to North America
3. South America to North America