Periodic Movement
A type of circular movement involving long periods away from home; e.g. military tour, college away, transhumance
Transnational Migration
A permanent move to a new country
Transhumance
An example of periodic movement; the action or practice of moving livestock from one grazing ground to another in a seasonal cycle; typically to lowlands in winter and highlands in summer.
Migrant Laborer/Guest Worker
A person who either migrates within their home country or outside it to pursue work, such as seasonal work. Usually do not have an intention to stay permanently in the country or region in which they work; they are typically vulnerable to labor abuses in destination country
Kafala System
a system used to monitor migrant laborers, working primarily in the construction and domestic sectors
Remittance
The funds a worker living abroad sends to his or her country of origin
Immigrant
A person who comes to live permanently in a new location
Emigrant
A person leaving a location to live permanently in another
Internal Migration
Permanent movement within a particular country
Rust Belt
the part of the U.S. surrounding the Great Lakes that has lost manufacturing jobs and factories have been shut down. As a result, people have left this area
Great Migration
The movement of African-Americans out of the rural Southern United States to the urban Northeast, Midwest, and West
Forced Migration
the movements of refugees and internally displaced people
Voluntary Migration
Permanent migration undertaken by personal choice
Diaspora
The dispersion of any people from their original homeland or cultural hearth
Ravenstein's Laws of Migration
Every migration flow generates a return or counter-migration. The majority of migrants move a short distance. Migrants who move longer distances tend to choose big-city destinations. Urban residents are less migratory than inhabitants of rural areas. Families are less likely to make international moves than young adults.
Counter-Migration
The return of migrants to the regions from which they had earlier emigrated.
Gravity Model of Migration
There is more migration if the population centers are large and the distance is small
Push Factor
Something that makes people want to leave a place; always negative
Pull Factor
Something that makes people want to migrate to a given area; always positive
Distance Decay
the interaction between two locales declines as the distance between them increases
Step Migration
Migration to a distant destination that occurs in stages, for example, from a rural farm to a nearby village and later to town or city.
Intervening Opportunity
Something that causes a person who is migrating to stop and settle at a place between the place they left and the place they intended to go.
Chain Migration
Migration of people to a specific location because relatives or members of the same nationality previously migrated there
5 Major Global Migration Flows
Europe to North America, Southern Europe to South and Middle America, Britain and Ireland to Africa and Australia, Africa to Americas during Atlantic Slave Trade, India to Eastern Africa, Southeast Asia, and Caribbean America
Island of Development
Place built up by a government or corporation to attract foreign investment and which has relatively high concentrations of paying jobs and infrastructure.
Refugee
Someone who has been forced to flee his or her country because of persecution, war or violence.
Economic Migration
Someone who emigrates from one region to another to seek an improvement in living standards because the living conditions or job opportunities in the migrant's own region are not sufficient.
Principle of Non-Refoulment
international law that forbids a country receiving asylum seekers from returning them to a country in which they would be in likely danger.
Asylum
The protection granted by a nation to someone who has left their native country as a political refugee.
Repatriation
The process of returning an asset, an item of symbolic value or a person voluntarily or forcibly to its owner or their place of origin or citizenship.
Internally Displaced Person (IDP)
Someone who is forced to flee his or her home but who remains within his or her country's borders. They are often referred to as refugees, although they do not fall within the legal definitions of a refugee.
Brain Drain
The emigration of highly trained or intelligent people from a particular country.
Net Migration
The difference between the number of immigrants and the number of emigrants throughout the year.
Immigration Quotas
A system, originally determined by legislation in 1921, of limiting by nationality the number of immigrants who may enter the U.S. each year.
Unauthorized Migration
The immigration of individuals into a country without that country's legal authorization