Chapter 3 Migration Patterns

Migration

Form of relocation diffusion involving permanent move to a new location.

Emigration

Migration from a location.

Immigration

Migration to a new location.

Net Migration

The difference between the level of immigration and the level of emigration.

Mobility

All types of movement from one location to another.

Activity Space

The space within which daily activity occurs. This may refer to one person or and entire culture. People move and find new activity space when other people infringe on their space.

Circulation/Cyclic Movement

Short-term, repetitive, or cyclical movements that recur on a regular basis. This type of migration usually involves seasonally moving livestock to areas where food is more plentiful.

Push Factor

Factor that motivates people to leave old residences.

Pull Factor

Factor that motivates people to move to a new location.

Refugees

People who are forced to migrate from their home country and cannot return for fear of persecution because of their race, religion, nationality, membership in a social group, or political opinion. Often these people migrate to another country to avoid war, political violence, and natural disasters, such as famine and flooding.

Intervening Obstacle

Mental, cultural, economic, political, or physical challenges that prevent migration. Migrants turn back or otherwise abort their migration because of negative factors.

International Migration

Permanent movement from one country to another.

Internal Migration

Permanent movement within a particular country.

Interregional Migration

Permanent movement from one region of a country to another.

Intraregional Migration

Permanent movement within one region of a country.

Voluntary Migration

Permanent movement undertaken by choice.

Forced Migration

Permanent movement compelled usually by the government or other cultural factors.

Migration Transition

Change in the migration pattern in a society that results from industrialization, population growth, and other social and economic changes that also produce the demographic transition. For example, industrialization may encourage more migration to an area, while rapid population growth may encourage more migration from an area.

Unauthorized Immigrants

People who enter a country without proper documents. Aka undocumented immigrants.

Chain Migration

Migration of people to a specific location because relatives or members of the same nationality previously migrated there.

Quotas

In reference to migration, laws that place maximum limits on the number of people who can immigrate to a country each year.

Brain Drain

Large-scale emigration by talented people.

Guest Workers

Workers who migrate to the more developed countries of Northern and Western Europe, usually from Southern of Eastern Europe or from North Africa, in search of higher-paying jobs.

Counterurbanization

Net migration from urban to rural areas in more developed countries.

Migration Selectivity

This theory predicts when a migrant is most likely to relocate. Personal characteristics such as age, socioeconomic status, education, and health influence one's decision to migrate. Migrants most likely fall within the 18-30 year old range.

Migration Diffusion

Type of diffusion that refers to the physical movement, or migration of people from one place to another.

Life Course

Theory that examines the development of a person's life from the fetal stage until advanced stage. The approach works across disciplines - psychology, biology, geography, economics - to understand influences on individual development. Geographers apply this school of thought to the study of motivating factors regarding migration, settlement, economic activity, and environmental interaction.

Intervening Opportunity

A positive circumstance that encourages migrants to change their intended destination when they encounter another place that offers favorable cultural, economic, political, or physical conditions.

Distance Decay

The tendency of a phenomenon to lessen as it moves farther away from its hearth (origin). This decay often becomes apparent among migrant populations who have left their cultural hearth and assimilate into the new culture.

Coyote

An individual who helps smuggle illegal immigrants into the U.S. The smuggler charges a fee for this service and often does not guarantee successful entry.

Place Utility

The incentives, or benefits, a place offers to encourage people to move there. For example, a community might try to attract new businesses by offering tax breaks to companies. Other places might emphasize a warm climate, a high-performing public school system, or a well- managed park system.

Gravity Model

Geographic tool used to gauge the relationship between two cities, or urban centers. This model presumes that the population of two cities is more important than the distance that separates them. The model indicates the degree to which trade, travel, and communication are likely to exist between two cities. G = PopulationA x PopulationB / Distance2

Transmigration

Type of migration that refers to the forced movement of a people from one place to another within a country.

Transhumance

Type of cyclic migration that involves moving livestock to higher elevations during warm summer months and to lower elevations during cold winter months.

Rural-to-Urban Migration

This type of migration refers to the movement of people from rural areas to urban areas. People typically leave sparsely settled countryside or wilderness areas to pursue better opportunities in towns and cities.

Residential Mobility

Type of movement that refers to a frequent change of residence. People may move repeatedly within the same community, region, or country or among different communities, regions, or countries.

Relocation Diffusion

This type of diffusion refers to the spread of culture, ideas, and disease through the movement of people. Such diffusion occurs when people migrate from one place to another, bringing with them customs, language, ideas, illnesses, and other phenomena.

Intercontinental Migration

Refers to the move,ent of people or animals across a continent or an ocean to another continent. For example, people who emigrate from East Asia to the U.S. move from one continent to another.

Assimilation

Process that occurs when migrants to a new country or region slowly give up their old customs and adopt the ways of life of their new home. For example, people who move from one culture to another may adopt a new language, ne ways of dressing, or new dietary habits.

Step Migration

A migration to a distant destination that occurs in stages, for example, from farm to nearby village and later to town and city.

Space-Time Prism

The space-time prisms enclose the locations a person can reach by taking into account various time constraints. (Speed, eating, sleep, etc)

E.G. Ravenstein

British demographer who sought an answer to "why people voluntarily migrate." He studied internal migration in England and proposed the laws of migration involving the use of Pull and Push factors.