MIGRATIONChapter 3

What Is Migration?• Movement

– Cyclic movement: Movement away from home for a short period• Commuting• Seasonal movement• Nomadism

– Periodic movement: Movement away from home for a longer period.• Migrant labor• Transhumance• Military service

• Migration: A change in residence intended to be permanent

International migration: Movement across country borders (implying a degree of permanence)

Internal migration: Movement within a single country’s borders (implying a degree of permanence)

Why Do People Migrate?• Forced migration: Movers have no

choice but to relocate

Kinds of Voluntary Migration

• Step migration: When a migrant follows a series of stages, or steps, toward a final destination.Intervening opportunity : At one of the steps alongthe path, pull factors encourage the migrant to settle there

• Chain migration: Further migration to a place where friends or relatives have already settled

Voluntary Migration

• Migrants weigh push and pull factors to decide– Whether to move– Where to go

• Distance decay: Many migrants settle closer to their old home than they originally contemplate

Ravenstein’s Laws (Gravity Model)

1. Every migration flow generates a return or counter-migration.

2. The majority of migrations move a short distance.

3. Migrants who move longer distances tend to choose big-city destinations.

4. Urban residents are less migratory than inhabitants of rural areas.

5. Families are less likely to make international moves than young adults.

Push and Pull Factors

• Legal status• Economic conditions• Power relationships• Political circumstances• Armed conflict and civil war• Environmental conditions• Culture and traditions• Technological advances

Where Do People Migrate?

• Influences on major global migration flows from 1550–1950– Exploration– Colonization– The Atlantic slave trade

• Impacts – Places migrants leave – Places to which migrants go

Major Global Migration Flows(before 1950)

Regional Migration Flows

Migration to neighboring countries

For short term economic opportunities

To reconnect with cultural groups across borders

To flee political conflict or war

Islands of development: Places whereforeign investment, jobs, and infrastructure are concentrated

Migration for Economic Opportunity

Chinese migration in late 1800s and 1900s throughout Southeast Asia to work in trade, commerce, and finance

• Migration of about 700,000 Jews to then-Palestine between 1900 and 1948

• Forced migration of 600,000 Palestinian Arabs after 1948, when the land was divided into two states (Israel and Palestine)

Migration to Reconnect with Cultural Groups

Internal Migration Flows

Guest Workers

Migrants allowed into a country to fill a labor need, assuming the workers will go “home” once the labor need subsides

Have short term work visas Send remittances to home country

RefugeesPeople who flee across an international boundary because of a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion

• Subsaharan Africa• North Africa and Southwest Asia• South Asia• Southeast Asia• Europe

Regions of Dislocation

How Do Governments Affect Migration?

• Immigration laws

• U.S. history– Little

restriction– Quotas by

nationality– Selective

immigration

Post–September 11