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Chapter 3
Migration
What is migration
• Immigrant- coming into a country
• Emigrant- leaving (Exiting) a country
• Cyclic movement- journeys that begin and
end at home and you are only gone for a
short period
– Activity space- area you cover in one day
– Nomadism- longer period of time but along
familiar routes
• Periodic movementjourneys that begin
and end at home but
you are away for a
long time
– Migrant labor- workers
that come to US during
growing season
– College and military
service are both
periodic movement
– Transhumancepastoral farming where
you move from pasture
to pasture
• Migration- when movement results in
PERMANENT relocation
– International- relocating outside your country
– Internal- relocating within your country
– US trend for internal migration is to the west
and the south (Sunbelt) for economic
opportunity or retirement
Why do people migrate?
• Forced migration- involves people moving
because of some involuntary reason
– Largest forced migration slave trade
– Other large forced migrations British prisoners
to Australia; Nazi Germany
• Voluntary migration- people moving by
their own choice (better job)
• Push factors- conditions that make you
want to leave a place
• Pull factors- factors that make you choose
a destination
• Distance decay- the further away a place,
the less likely people will move
• Step migration- people who make little
moves to reach a final destination
• Intervening opportunity- when you do not
reach your final destination because in
your travels a new opportunity occurred
Laws of Migration
Ravenstein
• For every group of people who move,
some will move back (counter migration)
• Migration usually occurs over a short
distance
• Long distance movers choose big cities
• Most migrants are rural moving to cities
• Young adults are the typical migrants
• Gravity model (Ravenstein) number of
migrants decrease as the travel distance
increases. This is why large populations
are spaced apart (big population on west
and east coast, not the middle)
Types of push/ pull factors
• Economic- poverty drives people to move
(imaginary pull factors- believing another
location can solve all of your problems)
• Political- oppressive governments like
Vietnam and Cuba
• Environmental- agriculture
or environmental crisis
(earthquakes, famine)
• Culture- people leave
hostile environments
where their culture is being
ridiculed
• Technology- makes travel
easier and has
encouraged chain
migration where family
members follow their loved
ones to a destination
(kinship links)
Where do people migrate?
• Changed with colonization where Europe
took over parts of the world and
immigration
• Major movements: Europe to North Am.;
Southern Europe to South/Central Am. ;
British Isles to Aust.; Africa to Americas;
India to East Africa; SE Asia to Caribbean
• Islands of Development- usually coastal
cities that are the home of foreign
investment and paying jobs (usually poor
countries)
• Regional Migration flows:
– Jewish immigrants to
Israel since WWII (also
many Arabs forced to
move)
– Eastern Europeans
moved west after WWII
(communism); Cubans
fleeing north
– US migrations: post civil
was African American
moving North and then
in 1970s African
Americans moving
South
• Guest workers- laborers from other
countries who are legally working in the
country temporarily
• Brain drain- when
your educated
workforce moves to
another country
• Refugees person who flees an area due to
fear of life and safety (international- Haiti
internal- Hurricane Katrina victims)
• Characteristics of refugees: carry
everything; come by foot, bike, or boat;
have no documentation
• Refugees who do not get asylum (gov.
help) are sent back
– Who is a refugee and who is “faking”
• Regions of dislocation: Sub Sahara Africa
(Rwanda, Sudan); middle east
(Afghanistan); Israel; SE Asia (Vietnam,
Cambodia); Europe (Yugoslavia)
Government and Migration
• Immigration laws- set who can come in
and how many
– 1880 excluded Asians
– 1920 restricted southern Europeans
– Selective immigration (now use quotas)
– Post 9-11 migration laws changed for people
from terrorist flagged countries