Unit 2: Population Migration Vocabulary

A comprehensive vocabulary review of core migration, demographic, and geographical terminology from Unit 2.

Activity Space

The area where a person regularly travels and carries out daily activities.

Chain Migration

Migration in which people follow family members or friends who have already moved to a new place.

Cyclical Movement

Regular movement that returns a person to the starting location, often repeatedly.

Gravity Model

A model predicting that interaction or migration between places increases with population size and decreases with distance.

Intervening Opportunity

A closer or more attractive opportunity that causes a migrant to stop before reaching the original destination.

Intervening Obstacle

A barrier that makes migration more difficult or prevents it.

Laws of Migration

Principles developed by Ernst Ravenstein describing migration patterns, such as many migrants moving short distances.

Deportation

The forced removal of a person from a country by government authorities.

Refugees

People who flee their country because of persecution, war, or violence and seek protection elsewhere.

Displaced Persons

People forced to leave their homes because of conflict, disasters, or other dangerous conditions.

Asylum

Protection a country may grant to someone who fled another country because they fear persecution.

Step Migration

Migration that occurs in stages, moving from one place to another before reaching a final destination.

Transhumance

The seasonal movement of livestock and herders between different grazing areas.

Islands of Development

Small areas of economic growth surrounded by regions that remain less developed.

Guest Worker

A person allowed to work temporarily in a country other than their own.

Distance Decay

The idea that interaction between places generally decreases as the distance between them increases.

Quotas

Limits set by a government on the number of immigrants allowed into a country or from a particular place.

Remittances

Money migrants send to family members or communities in their place of origin.

Diaspora

A population spread from its original homeland to other places while maintaining connections to that homeland.

Push/Pull Factors

Push factors encourage people to leave a place; pull factors attract people to another place.

Agglomeration

The clustering of businesses, industries, or people in one area because being close can provide benefits.

Amalgamation

The combining or blending of separate groups or elements into one.

Diversification

The process of increasing variety, such as adding different industries or economic activities.

Expulsion/Expelled

The act of forcing a person or group to leave a place or country.

Hinders

Makes something more difficult or slows its progress.

Imposition

The act of placing or enforcing a rule, law, or requirement on others.

Influx

A large arrival or flow of people into a place.

Mosque

A place of worship for Muslims.

Oppressive

Unfairly harsh, controlling, or restrictive.

Optimal

Best or most favorable for a particular purpose.

Permit

Official permission or a document that allows someone to do something.

Persecution

Mistreatment of people because of their identity, beliefs, or membership in a group.

Recruit

To seek out and encourage people to join a group or take a job.

Repel

To drive away or discourage someone from approaching or entering.