Migration Key Terms

A complete set of vocabulary flashcards covering key migration terms and definitions.

Asylum seeker

Someone who has migrated to another country in the hope of being recognized as a refugee.

Brain drain

Large-scale emigration by talented people.

Circular migration

The temporary movement of a migrant worker between home and host countries to seek employment.

Circulation

Short-term, repetitive, or cyclical movements that recur on a regular basis.

Counterurbanization

Net migration from urban to rural areas in developed countries.

Emigration

Permanent movement of people from a location.

Family-based migration

Migration of people to a specific location because relatives previously migrated there.

Floodplain

The area subject to flooding during a given number of years, according to historical trends.

Forced migration

Permanent movement of people compelled by political or environmental factors.

Guest worker

A term once used for a worker in search of a higher-paying job who migrated to the developed countries of Northern and Western Europe, usually from Southern and Eastern Europe or from North Africa.

Immigration

Permanent movement of people to a new location.

Internal migration

Permanent movement of people within a particular country.

Internally displaced person (IDP)

Someone who has been forced to migrate for similar political reasons as a refugee but who has not migrated across an international border.

International migration

Permanent movement of people from one country to another.

Interregional migration

Permanent movement of people from one region of a country to another.

Intervening obstacle

An environmental or cultural feature of the landscape that hinders migration.

Intraregional migration

Permanent relocation of people within one region of a country.

Migration

A form of relocation diffusion involving permanent relocation of people to a new location.

Migration transition

A change in the pattern of movement of people in a society that results from industrialization, population growth, and other social and economic changes that also produces the demographic transition.

Mobility

All types of movements of people between locations.

Net migration

The difference in a given place between the level of immigration and the level of emigration.

Pull factor

A reason that induces people to move to a new location.

Push factor

A reason that induces people to leave old locations.

Quota

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

Refugee

Someone who is forced to migrate from their home country and who cannot return to that home country for fear of persecution because of race, religion, nationality, membership in a social group, or political opinion.

Remittance

Transfer of money by migrant workers from the country into which they immigrated to people in the country from which they emigrated.

Step migration

Movement of people that follows a path of a series of stages or steps toward a final destination.

Unauthorized immigrant

A person who enters a country without proper documents to do so.

Voluntary migration

Permanent movement of people undertaken by choice.