Geo23.1103 winter2015 session6

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Session 6: Migration 1) Migration (Chapter 5: 5.3): Where do people migrate? 2) Migration (Chapter 5: 5.4): How do governments affect migration? Fouberg, E. H., Murphy, A. B., De Blij, H. J. and C. J. Nash (2012). Human Geography: People, Place, and Culture. John Wiley & Sons Canada, Ltd., Mississauga. February 13, 2015

Transcript of Geo23.1103 winter2015 session6

Session 6: Migration

1) Migration (Chapter 5: 5.3): Where do people migrate?

2) Migration (Chapter 5: 5.4): How do governments affect migration?

Fouberg, E. H., Murphy, A. B., De Blij, H. J. and C. J. Nash (2012). Human Geography: People, Place, and Culture. John Wiley & Sons Canada, Ltd., Mississauga.

February 13, 2015

Section 5.3 - Where do people migrate?

In 2010 United Nations estimated that there were approx. 214 million international migrants

Migration Policy Institute: International Migrant Population by Country of Origin and Destinationhttp://migrationpolicy.org/programs/data-hub/charts/international-migrant-population-country-origin-and-destination

Between 1846 and 1939 – 59 million people travelled from Europe to North America, Australia, South Africa, and New Zealand.

European “explorers” were the first Europeans to arrive to these places…

Explorer: A person examining a region that is unknown to them.

Colonization: Physical process whereby the colonizer takes over another place, putting its own government in charge and either moving its own people into the place or bringing in indentured outsiders to gain control of the people and the land.

From 1500s to 1800s: European colonized the Americas and the coasts of Africa and parts of Asia

Starting in the 1800s and into the 1900s: Europeans colonized the interior of Africa and Asia

British Home Children Program

Between 1869 and 1930 – estimated 100,000 impoverished British children between the ages of 4 and 18 were sent to Canada

Worked as indentured laborers or domestic servants on Canadian farms until they were adults

Program was developed to help children escape from urban industrial exploitation

However, abuse, exploitation and displacement was reported as a result of the program.

British Home Children Program continued…

Children were often told falsely that their parents were dead, or that great prosperity awaited them in Canada.

Most of the children were from Scotland

Is an example of forced migration

Program shrank in the 1930s due to the economic hardship brought by the Great Depression

Officially ended in the 1960s –apology issued by British Prime Minister in 2010

Regional Migration Flows

Regional scale: Interactions occurring within a region, in a regional setting.

• short-term economic opportunities• reconnect with family or culture• flee political conflict or war

People often move towards islands of development…

Island of development: Place built up by a government or corporation to attract foreign investment and that has relatively high concentrations of paying jobs and infrastructure.

• Often coastal cities

Reconnection of Cultural Groups within Regions

Example from text (Fouberg et al., 2012): From 1919 to 1948, Great Britain held control over Palestine, and British encouraged Jews (whose ancestors had fled more than a thousand years earlier from the Middle East to Europe) to return to the region.

• 750,000 Jews resided in Palestine in 1948 when the UN intervened, partitioned the area, and created the independent state of Isreal

• 600,000 Palestinian Arabs fled or were pushed out of Israeli territories

• Israel’s Law of Return – gives citizenship to Jews around the world

Conflict and War

Example: CUBA

In the 1960s, Fidel Castro was in power and Cuba was establishing the Communist Party of Cuba

The US formalized the Cuban Airlift, which enabled Cubans to emigrate to the US

Most arrived and settled in the Miami area

Many waves of migration followed and a “wet foot, dry foot” policy was established – if Cubans reached American territory they were allowed to stay in the US

Regions of Dislocation

Africa

In the early 21st Century sub-Sahara Africa had the most refugees

8 million refugees accounted for by relief agencies – many millions more are internally displaced

North Africa and Southwest Asia

Area extends from Morocco in the west to Afghanistan in the east

Gulf war and more recently the Iraq war have displaced millions of people – many of these were Kurdish people who fled to Turkey, Iran, Syria, Jordan, and other neighboring countries.

South Asia

Third-ranking in terms of refugee numbers – primarily because of Pakistan’s taking in of Afghanistan’s forced emigrants

Afghan refugees:

• 1980s: Soviet invasion – 3 million refugees

• 1990s: between 1.2 and 1.5 million refugees

• Today is back up to 3 million

Civil war (demand for an independent Tamil state) in Sri Lanka also a cause of refugees in South Asia – 200,000 internally displaced

Southeast Asia

Between 1 and 2 million people fled Vietnam after the war that ended in 1975

1990s: Cambodia’s exodus of 300,000 people to Thailand, escaping years of politically motivated violence

Largest refugee camps in the area are related to natural disasters –camps are located in Myanmar

• after the 2004 tsunami• and the 2008 cyclone

Refugee settlement of Cambodians to the USA in the late 70s

• News clim from 1979: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6H8d3gnSws

Europe

Collapse of Yugoslavia and related conflicts created the largest refugee crisis in Europe since the end of WWII

A total of 6,056,600 refugees

1.6 million are still refugees today

Other Regions

The number IDPs in the rest of the world is significantly smaller

Colombia however has a serious IDP problem with ~2 to 3 million people displaced because of narcotics conflicts

Section 5.4 - How do governments affect migration?

Types of policy & actions:

• immigration policy

• policy affecting asylum seekers

• refugee intake policy

• control of resources to IDPs

• the creation of actual physical barriers (walls)

• border patrols

• etc.

Post-September 11 (2001)

Policy around the world changed after Sept 11th

In the US, prior to Sept 11th the US was mostly concerned with cross-border drug and human trafficking

After Sept 11th, the Bush administration cracked down on asylum seekers

• 33 countries were marked as having potential al-Qaeda operations

• people from these countries were automatically detained if they entered the US seeking asylum

• illegal immigrants also can be detained

Managing and Controlling Borders

Has become increasingly difficult to cross borders

Usually the entry process is more stringent than the exit process (however there are exceptions such as with the surrendering of passports by migrant workers)

Canada’s migrant workers are managed through the Temporary Foreign Workers Program (TFWP)

• has allowed the migrant worker population in Canada to increase

• has also come under scrutiny from labor and human rights groups (calls for better working conditions and potential to apply for permanent residency)

The Brain Drain

Refers to the emigration of doctors, scientists, engineers, and other trained professionals once their training is complete

Publicly funded institutions (universities, colleges, etc.) lose out on their “investment”

Governments struggle to come up with strategies to keep people in their regions (not just national, also provincial)

e.g. Manitoba has a tax incentive scheme for students who stay in the province once their education is complete

Waves of Migration in Canada

The first wave of Europeans thought to set foot in Canada were the Norse seafarers

Portuguese and Basque fishermen and sailors arrived around the coasts around the 1400s and 1500s

The French came inland in the 1500s

1604 a permanent settlement of French were settled

The British established their control over the colonies throughout the 1700s

…continue reading history of settlement and colonization on page 150

Until the Immigration Act of 1967, Europeans remained the “preferred nationality” for immigrants

• developed a two stream system: 1) those who could be sponsored by family members; 2) those who would be assessed on a points system (based on education and other qualifications)

• consideration for people considered to be refugees

Shifted Canada’s demographic compositions considerably over the next 40 years

• Before 1961: 90% of immigrants came from Europe• By 2001: declined to less than 20%

Immigration from Asia increased from 3% to 58%

Current Canadian immigration policy assesses according to 3 classes:

• family class immigrants (family already here)

• economic class immigrants

• refugees

Quotas: Established limits by governments on the number of immigrants who can enter a country each year.

Immigrants are important for maintaining / increasing Canada’s rate of natural increase

Chinese migration to Canada

First came to Canada around the time of the Fraser River gold rush

Building of the Canadian Pacific Railway in the 1870s caused a massive influx of Chinese immigrants who were laborers

After the building of therailway a “head tax” was imposed by the governmentto try to stifle Chineseimmigration

Chinese migration to Canada continued…

Chinese Exclusion Act, 1923 – banned the immigration of Chinese until 1947

When the policy changed, Chinese immigration increased significantly

In 2006, the Prime Minister issued an official apologyfor the injustices of the “head tax” and offered compensation to the families

Mulitculturalism as Government Policy in Canada

Multiculturalism: “the belief that different ethnic or cultural groups have the right to remain distinct rather than assimilating into ‘mainstream’ norms” (Source: Dictionary of Human Geography)

3 demographic stages to Canadian multiculturalism:

1) Increase of ethno-cultural diversity

2) Policy shift from the report from the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism, 1963

3) Structural mulitculturalism through the Multiculturalism Act of 1988

Course review role play

Scenario: Blue Sun Farms would like to establish a processing and packaging factory for their latest product – a ready made health shake. They would like to build the factory close to the farm that is already in operation in Southern Manitoba. They would like to hire migrant workers for both the factory operations and the increased farm production.

Teams (3 people per team):

• Blue Sun Farms• Federal Department of Immigration – currently supportive of

bringing in migrant workers• The Regional Municipality • NGO concerned with issues such as globalization and

migrant workers

Get together with your team to plan a 5-7 minute presentation to the Manitoba Development Chair.

You will have 30 minutes of prep time with your team. During this time you can research, make exhibits (graphs etc.) to present, and develop your case.

You will then have 10 minutes to meet with the other team that is aligned with your interests. During this time you can figure out how you can corroborate your cases.

Order of presenters: 1) Blue Sun Farms; 2) The Regional Municipality; 3) The Federal Department of Immigration; 4) NGO

All presentations will occur without interruption.

Afterwards, each team will have 2 minutes to rebuttal.