People on the Move
(Chapter 12)
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008
The BIG Questions
 What is migration?
 What are the major categories of
migration?
 What are some examples of the new
immigrants in the United States and
Canada?
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008
What is migration?
 Migration is the movement of a person
or a group of people from one place to
another
 Migration is of interest to
anthropologists and others because
migration affects all areas of human life
and is related to all other areas of
culture
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Health and human
development
Marriage and
household formation
Economic and
reproductive
systems
Migration is related
to all other areas of
culture
Politics and
social order
Communication
Religion and
expressive
culture
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Anthropologists interested in
migration study…



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The kinds of people who migrate
Causes of migration
Processes of migration
Health and psychosocial adaptations to
new locations
 How migration affects economic and
social status, identity, language, religion
 Implications for planning and policy
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Methods of anthropologists
studying migration
 Multisited research
 Fieldwork in more than one location in
order to understand life in the place of
origin as well as the migration destination
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Methods of anthropologists
studying migration
 Combines micro and macro
perspectives
 Village or neighborhood research
combined with research on national and
global economic, political, and social forces
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Methods of anthropologists
studying migration
 Research tends to be applied
 Anthropologists have been at the forefront
of efforts to address the situation of people
forced to move by war, environmental
destruction, and massive building projects
such as dams
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Categories of Migration
 Categories based on spatial boundaries
 Internal migration – movement within
state boundaries
 International migration – moving to a
different country
 Transnational migration – movement
in which a person regularly moves back
and forth between two or more
countries and forms a new cultural
identity transcending a single
geopolitical unit
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Categories of Migration
 Categories based on reason(s) for moving
 Labor migration – migrating for
labor/work
 Displacement – being forced to move,
involuntary migrants
 Institutional migration – people who
move into a social institution, either
voluntarily or involuntarily
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Internal Migration
 Rural-to-urban migration is the dominant
form of internal migration throughout the
world
 A major reason why people migrate to urban areas is the
availability of work
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Internal Migration
 Push-pull theory of labor migration
 An explanation for rural-to-urban migration
that emphasizes people’s incentives to move
based on a lack of opportunity in rural areas
(the “push”) compared to urban areas (the
“pull”)
 Individual decision making – believe will
have a better quality of life and better
lifestyle in cities
 Structural factors – inability of family farmers
to support themselves when faced with
competition from corporate farms
 Negative aspects – stress, health problems,
high rates of hypertension
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Internal Migration
 Can also get internal migration due to other
factors
 Development projects
 O’Hare expansion
 City of Chicago purchased about 550
homes in Bensenville to make way for
O’Hare expansion plans
 The people who leave their homes
become internal migrants!
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International Migration
 Grown in volume and significance since 1945
 Nearly 2 percent of the world’s population (around 100
million people) lives outside of their home countries
 Most of the voluntary migrants in this category move
for work-related reasons
 Often move from less developed to more developed countries
in search of better jobs
 May move to the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand,
Argentina
 Other destinations are popular as well
 Increasing numbers of involuntary international
migrants, especially refugees and trafficked persons
 Racist and politicized policies in many of the major
destination countries
 May limit non-White immigration
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Transnational Migration
 Defined as migration in which a person
regularly moves back and forth between two
or more countries
 Is increasing along with other aspects of
globalization
 Much contemporary transnational migration
motivated by economic factors
 “Astronauts” – corporate executives who spend
most of their time flying among different
countries for work
 Transnational migrant laborers who spend
substantial amounts of time working in different
places and whose movements depend on the
demand for their labor
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Transnational Migration
 Remittances, or transfers of money
from migrants to their families back
home, are increasingly a large part of a
country’s economy and are often sent
“home” by migrant laborers
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Example of the
importance of
remittances: 60
percent of the gross
domestic product of
the Kingdom of Tonga
comes from
remittances
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Labor Migrants
 Labor migrants migrate to obtain work/labor
 Usually work in that location for a specified
period of time (a few weeks to a few years)
 Do not have permanent residence in area where
they migrate to
 Often have few legal protections where they work
 Circular migration – a regular pattern of
population movement between two or more
places
 May occur within or between countries
 e.g. Circulation of male labor from villages in Haiti to
work on sugar estates in the neighboring Dominican
Republic
 A matter of debate how free the “choice” is to migrate
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Labor Migrants
 There are about 35 million migrant
workers worldwide
 Asian women are the fastest-growing
category of migrant workers (1.5 million
Asian women working abroad)
 Domestic service jobs, factories, teachers,
nurses
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Displaced Persons or
Involuntary Migrants
 Displaced persons are people who are
evicted from their homes, communities,
or countries and forced to move
elsewhere
 Colonialism, slavery, war, persecution,
natural disasters, and large-scale mining
and dam building are major causes of
population displacement
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Displaced Persons or
Involuntary Migrants
 Refugees are internationally displaced
persons
 Many refugees are forced to relocate because they
are victims or potential victims of persecution on the
basis of their race, religion, nationality, ethnicity,
gender, or political views
 Constitute a large and growing category of
displaced persons
 Probably more than 10 million refugees worldwide
(about 1 in 500 people)
 ¼ of the world’s refugees are Palestinians
 Women and children form the bulk of refugees and
are vulnerable to abuse in refugee camps, including
rape and children trading sex for food
 Have little or no choice as to when and where they
will move
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Displaced Persons or
Involuntary Migrants
 Internally displaced persons (IDPs) are
people who are forced to leave their home and
community but who remain within their country
 Are the fastest-growing category of displaced
people
 Are displaced for many of the same reasons as
refugees
 Many IDPs, like refugees, lived for extended
periods in camps with miserable conditions and no
access to basic supports such as health care and
schools
 About 20 million people worldwide are IDPs
 Most within Africa – in particular Sudan
 UN and other international bodies have limited
authority over problems faced by IDPs because
they do not cross state boundaries
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Example of
IDPs: Maya
people in
Guatemala
displaced due to
political violence
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Displaced Persons or
Involuntary Migrants
 Development-Induced Displacement (DID) is forced
migration due to development projects
 Development projects often cause people to become IDPs
 Large dam construction, mining, shopping centers, airports,
and other projects have displaced millions in the past several
decades
 Dam construction alone is estimated to have displaced around
80 million people since 1950
 2 million people will be displaced by the Three Gorges Dam
project in China
 Largest engineering project in the world
 Often DID occurs against the will of the local population, and
government compensation for loss of homes, land, and
livelihood is often inadequate
 Local population displaced rarely reaps the benefits from
dams or other development projects
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Three Gorges Dam project
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Institutional Migrants
 Institutional migrants are people who
move into a social institution, either
voluntarily or involuntarily
 Include monks in a monastery and nuns
in a convent, the elderly in nursing
homes, members of the military,
students at a boarding school or going
to college, etc.
 Stress and other physical/mental health
problems can accompany institutional
migration, just like with other forms of
migration
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Protecting Migrants’ Health
 Health risks to migrants are many and varied,
depending on the wide variety of migrant types
and destinations
 They may face vast challenges in their journey
 Dangerous journeys
 Drowning threats, sharks, alligators, lions, warfare,
etc.
 When they get to their destination they may
experience new diseases, mental health
issues as may get cultural shock and be
separated from family and friends
 Of special concern is maintain the health of
those whose livelihoods depend on mobility
and migrations – foragers, pastoralists, and
horticulturalists
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Map of the Sahel: most of the people are
pastoralists, and they frequently experience
food shortages and political violence; many
are refugees or IDPs
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New Immigrants
 The term new immigrant refers to a
person who moved internationally since
the 1960s.
 Trends among new immigrants include…
 Globalization – more countries involved in
international migration, leading to increased
cultural diversity in sending and receiving
countries
 Acceleration – growth in numbers of
migrants has occurred worldwide
 Feminization – woman are a growing
percentage in all types of migration
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The New Immigrants
Trends since the 1990s
Globalization
Acceleration
Feminization
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New Immigrants to the U.S.
 A wave of immigration began in the 1960s with
amendments to the Immigration and
Nationalization Act
 Made it possible for far more people from developing
countries to enter the U.S., especially if they were
professionals or trained in some desired skill
 Family reunification provision allowed permanent
residents and naturalized citizens to bring in close
family members
 Most of the new immigrants in the United States
are from Asia, Latin America, and the
Caribbean, although increasing numbers are
from Eastern Europe, especially Russia
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The New Immigrants to the United
States and Canada
 The New Immigrants from Latin America
and the Caribbean
 The New Immigrants from Asia
 The New Immigrants from the Former
Soviet Union
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New Immigrants from Latin
America and the Caribbean
 Since the 1960s, substantial movements of the
Latino population have occurred, mainly to the
United States
 Latinos are about 10 percent of the U.S.
population
 Mexico is by far the major source of foreignborn immigrants to the United States
 About 11 million foreign born Mexicans live in the
U.S. (number doubled from 1990 to 2000)
 Most live in California, Texas, and Illinois, although
other destinations such as Georgia and North
Carolina are also becoming more common
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New Immigrants from Latin
America and the Caribbean
 Other Latino immigrants in the U.S are from
Puerto Rico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and
El Salvador
 Chain migration is a form of population
movement in which a first wave of migrants
comes, which then attracts relatives and friends
to join them in the destination place
 Popular among Dominicans in the U.S. as well as
other immigrant groups
 Migrating for greater economic opportunities or
to escape wars/violence
 Often face economic, social, and linguistic challenges
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when arrive in the U.S., though
Map of El Salvador, home country
of many new immigrants to the US
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The New Immigrants from
Asia: Hong Kong Chinese in
Canada
 Urban clustering
 Have shopping centers, television and radio
stations, newspapers, country clubs geared
towards Hong Kong immigrants
 Tend to be economically well-off in Canada
 Relatively secure economic status before
migrating
 Tend to have high level of education
 Still may have a difficult time finding employment
early on – as time goes on get more disposable
income to increase consumption
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The New Immigrants from
Asia: Hong Kong Chinese in
Canada
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The New Immigrants from Asia:
Vietnamese in the US
 Three distinct subgroups and patterns of
adaptation shows how difficult it is to
generalize about an immigrant group’s
experience based just on their ethnicity or
country of origin
 1975-era elite – generous financial assistance from
the U.S., good education and English language
skills, most found good jobs in the U.S.
 Boat people – little financial assistance from the
U.S., less well educated, less resources, didn’t
speak English well
 Ethnic Chinese – difficult time in the U.S. because
lacked a Western style education and sometimes
suffered from discrimination against
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The New Immigrants from Asia:
Vietnamese in the US
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The New Immigrants from
Asia: South Asians in the US
Highly educated first wave
concentrated in professional
fields
South Asian
Indians
Less educated later waves in
family business or service
industry
Considered an immigrant
success story – place high value
on children’s education, have few
children to invest more in them
Hinduism attempting ritual
flexibility to appeal to youth
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The New Immigrants from the
Former Soviet Union: Soviet
Jews in the US
Features
 Over 300,000 Soviet Jews
have settled in the U.S.
since the 1960s
 Closer to the “racial”
mainstream in the U.S.
 Have good educations and
access to prosperous
communities of American
Jews
Challenges
 Have to find new ways
of meeting needs in the
market economy
 Finding a job
commensurate with their
education and previous
work experience
 Marriage options –
cultural norms promote
intraethnic marriages
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Migration Politics, Policies, and
Programs in a Globalizing World
 National policies that set quotas on the
quantity and types of immigrants who are
welcome and that determine how they are
treated are largely dictated by political and
economic interests
 Labor flow – cheap, including illegal, immigrant
labor is used around the world to maintain profits for
businesses and services for the better off
 Undermine labor unions and the status of established
workers
 There are an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants living
in the U.S. this year
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Migration Politics, Policies, and
Programs in a Globalizing World
 Governments undertake a cost-benefit
analysis of how much will be gained and how
much will be lost through their quotas
 Lifeboat mentality – a view that seeks to limit
enlarging a particular group because of perceived
resource constraints
 Working-class racism – emerges out of
competition with immigrants for jobs and other
benefits
 Governments show their political support or
disapproval of other governments through their
immigration policies
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Example of
increasing
numbers of
immigrants in
Palermo, Italy,
and degrees of
tolerance
among local
people
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Migration and Human Rights
 Several questions arise about migration and human
rights…
 Is migration forced or voluntary?
 Forced migration may be considered a violation of a person’s
human rights
 Is migrating for economic reasons voluntary?
 If the choice is to migrate or starve, can migrating really be
considered a voluntary choice?
 Do displaced groups have a guaranteed right of return?
 Right of return – a person’s ability to return to and live in his or
her homeland
 Is considered by the United Nations to be a human right in theory
 In reality displaced persons may not be able to return to their
homeland
 Those displaced within their home country
 Indigenous people in the U.S.
 Blacks displaced by Hurricane Katrina
 Palestinians displaced from Israel
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Migration Politics, Policies, and
Programs in a Globalizing World
Inclusion
Palermo
Lifeboat mentality
Exclusion
Human
Rights
Working-class racism
Right of return
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The BIG Questions Revisited
 What is migration?
 What are the major categories of
migration?
 What are examples of the new
immigrants in the United States and
Canada?
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008