Migration

Chapter 3

Migration

• Migration A change in residence that is intended to be permanent.

• Emigration-leaving a country.

• Immigration-entering a country.

Little Haiti, Miami, Florida

• On average, Americans move once every 6 years.• US population is the most mobile in the world with

over 5 million moving from 1 state to another every year.

• 35 million move within a state, county or community each year.

• Migration a key factor in the speed of diffusion of ideas and innovation.

• Our perception of distance and direction are often distorted-thus a sizable % of migrants return to their original home due to these distorted perceptions.

Types of Migration

• Forced Migration-migrants have no choice-must leave.

• periodic movement-short term (weeks or months) seasonal migration to college, winter in the south, etc.

• Cyclic movement-daily movement to work, shopping.

• Transhumance-seasonal pastoral farming-Switzerland, Horn of Africa.

• Nomadism-cyclical, yet irregular migration that follows the growth of vegetation.

Commuter train in Soweto,South Africa

Key Factors in Migration• External Migration-from one country to

another (emigration & immigration)• Internal Migration-from one part of a country

to another part• Direction:– Absolute-compass directions– Relative-Sun Belt, Middle East, Far East, Near East

• Distance:– Absolute distance “as the crow flies” – Relative distance-actual distance due to routes

taken such as highways or railroads

Catalysts of Migration• Economic conditions-poverty

and a desire for opportunity.• Political conditions-

persecution, expulsion, or war.• Environmental conditions-crop

failures, floods, drought, environmentally induced famine.

• Culture and tradition-threatened by change.

• Technology-easier and cheaper transport or change in livability.

• Chain migration-migration of people to a specific location because of relatives or members of the same nationality already there.

• Step migration-short moves in stages-e.g. Brazilian family moves from village to town and then finally Sao Paulo or Rio de Janeiro

• Refugees-those who have been forced to migrate.• Push-Pull Factors-push factors induce people to leave.

Pull factors encourage people to move to an area.• Distance decay-contact diminishes with increasing

distance. (both diffusion and migration)• Intervening opportunity-alternative destinations that can

be reached more quickly and easily.

Internal Migration - Movement within a single country’s borders

(implying a degree of permanence).

Distance Decay weighs into the decision to migrate, leading many migrants to move less far than they originally contemplate.

Voluntary Migration – Migrants weigh push and pull factors to decide first, to emigrate from the home country

and second, where to go.

Economic Conditions – Migrants will often risk their lives in hopes of economic opportunities that will enable them to send money home (remittances) to their family members who remain behind.

In Altar, Sonora, migrants called pollos (chickens), stock upOn supplies for the desert crossing.

Most illegal immigrants are Mexicans, but a growing numberAre from Central and South America, like the men waitingOutside of “Bar Honduras” in Nuevo Laredo.

• A massive dump site in Arizona’s Upper Altar Valley. After walking 40 miles through the desert, illegal immigrants are met here by coyotes. They are told to dump their old clothes & packs and put on more “American” looking clothes the coyotes have brought. They then begin the trip to an urban stash house.

Environmental Conditions –In Montserrat, a 1995 volcano made the southern half of the island, including the capital city of Plymouth, uninhabitable. People who remained migrated to the north or to the U.S.

Economic OpportunitiesIslands of Development –Places within a region or country where foreign investment, jobs, and infrastructure are concentrated.

Economic OpportunitiesIn late 1800s and early 1900s, Chinese migrated throughout Southeast Asia to work in trade, commerce, and finance.

Reconnecting Cultural Groups•About 700,000 Jews migrated to then-Palestine between 1900 and 1948.•After 1948, when the land was divided into two states (Israel and Palestine), 600,000 Palestinian Arabs fled or were pushed out of newly-designated Israeli territories.

Jerusalem, Israel: Jewish settlements on the West Bank.

Ernst Ravenstein’s “Laws of migration1885 he studied the migration of England

• Most migrants go only a short distance.• Big cities attract long distance migrants.• Most migration is step-by-step.• Most migration is rural to urban• Each migration flow produces a counterflow.• Most migrants are adults-families are less

likely to make international moves.• Most international migrants are young males.

• Gravity model is an inverse relationship between volume of migration and distance to the destination.

• Gravity model was anticipated by Ravenstein. • The physical laws of gravity first studied by Newton can

be applied to the actions of humans in terms of migration and economics

• Spatial interaction such as migration is directly related to the populations and inversely related to the distance between them.

• International refugees cross one or more borders and are encamped in a country not their own.

• Intranational refugees abandon their homes, but not their countries-this is the largest number world wide.

The Refugee Problem • UN definition-person who

migrates out of fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, social status or political opinion.

• Difficult to get an accurate count-governments manipulate the numbers.

• Internal (intranational) refugees a bigger issue than external (international).

RefugeesA person who flees 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.