Download Migration: Key Issue 1

Migration
Why Do People Migrate?
AP Human Geography
Where and Why
• Geographers want to understand two things:
– Where people are moving FROM
– Where people are moving TO
– They also need to understand the circumstances
of those places/situations to understand what
motivates people to migrate
Migration
• Is defined as:
– A permanent move to a new location
In/Out Migration
• Emigration- E is for exiting! Moving away from
a place.
– She emigrated from China.
• Immigration- “im”=“IN” Moving to (into) a
new place
– She immigrated to the United States.
Emigration/Immigration Growth
• Net- Migration is the total number of people
moving into or out of a country.
• Net Migration Formula:
– Immigrants MINUS emigrants= Net Migration
– If the formulated number is positive:
• Net-In Migration.
– If the formulated number is negative:
• Net-out Migration.
Why do People Migrate?
• Push Factors-induces people to move away
from current location
• Pull Factors-induces people to move into a
new location
• These usually oppose one another
Mobility
• Different than migration
• Mobility is about routine or general
movement
• Two types of mobility:
– Circulation- daily, weekly routine
– Seasonal- annually (Transhumance-movement of
livestock to higher elevation during summer and
lower elevations in winter)
Three categories of Migration
• Economic Opportunity
• Cultural/Political Freedom
• Environmental Factors
Economic Factors
• Most people migrate for economic reasons
• Relocation for new employment opportunities
– North Dakota-oil fields
• Push factors- unemployment, factory closure
Cultural/Political Factors
• Refugees- forced migration from their home to seek
asylum in another country. **cannot return, must wait
for another country to allow them in.
– Lost Boys of Sudan
– Syrians
• Forced Migrants- literal force from home by political or
environmental forces. Examples:
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–
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Native American relocation to reservations.
Jews to concentration camps
Japanese internment camps
Slavery
Environmental Factors
• Typically voluntary
• Choose to move to warmer climates
• Southern regions of US has seen a large net-in
migration pattern in the last 50 years.
• This region is known as the Sun Belt.
• Can include some forced migration such as
natural disaster circumstances.
– Hurricane Katrina
– Dust Bowl
Additional Migration Draws
• Environmental– Place Utility:
additional factors that draw
people/consumers/businesses to new locations.
Place Utility
• With the invention of the air conditioner
people could move to southern more
desirable places (i.e places without winter)
• This was a large market area so as the factory
closures of the 1980’s-1990’s pushed people
from the north (economical) and pulled
people to the south (environmental) there
was competition for these new residents
Place Utility Cont.
• There needed to be some incentives for
people to move into new states and
neighborhoods.
• Tax breaks, parks, sports arenas etc drew in
new migrants.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SN0chNEB
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Ravenstein’s Laws of Migration 1885*
what is valid and what has changed?
• Most migration is over a short distance
• Migration occurs in a series of steps
• Long distance migrants usually move to centers of economic
opportunity (urban areas)
• Each migration produces a movement in the opposite direction,
counter stream.
• People in rural areas migrate more than people in cities
• Men migrate over longer distances than women
• Most migrants are young adult males
• Cities grow more by migration than by natural increase
• Migration increases with economic development
• Migration is mostly due to economic causes.
Migration Transition
• Using the DTM to determine the type of
migration that is typical for each stage of
development
• Stage 1: no country
• Stage 2: International/Interregional migration
• Stage 3: Internal/intraregional migration
• Stage 4: Internal/intraregional migration
The Human Capital Model
• Larry Sjaastad in 1962
• William A.V. Clark 1986
• Theory states that:
– People seek to improve income over their lifespan so
weigh the cost-benefits of migrating.
– People migrate less as they age, because income is
accumulated over time and potential decreases with
age
– That psychological and economic factors are both
weighed prior to migration
Psychological Considerations
• Migration is impacted by major turning points
in a persons life.
– College, employment, marriage, children and
retirement
– More flexibility when you are younger
– As people age they are less* likely to migrate
– People with children tend to migrate intraregional
*snow birds/retirees
Distance Migration
• Types of emigrational patterns:
– Intercontinental/International- cross ocean or
continent
– Internal
• Interregional
• Intraregional
Inter-continental/national Migration
• Two types of international migration
– Requires a large sum of money and usually some
form of sponsorship.
– There is acculturation that occurs because of the
distance decay that takes place within this form of
migration. (loss of culture that typically takes
place within three generations)
– Chain migration also takes place within this form
as people become established they send for their
loved ones, causing a chain reaction.
Internal Migration
• Two types of Internal Migration
– Interregional- from one region to another
– Intraregional- within one region
Interregional Migration
• Movement between regions of the same
country
• Snowbirds-retirees
Sun Belt v. Rust Belt
Intraregional Migration
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•
•
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Movement within the same region.
Usually rural to urban
Primarily economically motivated
Within the last half century there has been a
trend outward from urban to rural.