HUMAN MIGRATION AND ITS CAUSES (STILL CHAPTER 2)

Themes and Agenda:

Changes in population are due to mortality, fertility, and migration, which are influenced by the interplay of environmental, economic, cultural, and political factors.

• Explain how different causal factors encourage migration with a focus on Ravenstein’s Laws of Migration & push and pull factors

• Describe the types of voluntary and forced migration

Migration

• The long term or permanent relocation of individuals, families, or entire communities (form one place to another)

• Out-migration

  • People are leaving a place

  • Emigrants leave a place

• In-migration

  • People are moving to a place

  • Immigrants move to a place

• The difference between them is called net-migration

Voluntary or Forced

• Refers to migration that is done because migrants want to 

• Not forced

• Sometimes it is hard to tell if migration is voluntary or forced

International Migration VS internal migration

• crossing a national boundary

• OR moving within one country

• Both are Usually rural to urban migration flows

“Typical Migrant”

• The mode is the number that occurs most frequently

• Where is the migrant from?

• How far is the move?

• Why do they move?

• Demographic characteristics (age, gender)

In 1885, Ernst Ravenstein developed “laws of migration” 

• Most migration is over a short distance

• Migration occurs in steps

• Long range migrants usually move to urban areas with economic opportunities

• Each migration produces a movement in the opposite direction (possible to not be the same volume)

• Within their own country females are more migratory than males, but males are more migratory over long distances (this is changing now)

• Most migrants are adults (also changing)

• Migration is mostly due to economic reasons

• As countries develop, they receive more migrants

PUSH PULL THEORY

• Push factors make people unhappy with their present location

• Pull factors are things about other places are more appealing

PUSH FACTORS PULL FACTORS

Brain drain/gain

• Large scale emigration of a large group of people with technical skills

• Bright students in developing countries may emigrate to developed countries

  • Those countries experience a brain gain

• Can also happen within countries and states

Remittances

• Migrants often send money home

• Provides safety net that the government may not offer

• Possibly dependency on the migrant’s wages

• Shows how migration affects source countries

Chain Migration

• Some people’s migration leads to their friends and families moving to the same place

• Common in rural to urban, and international

• Sense of community

Step-Migration

• Ravenstein argued that migration occurs in steps

• Ex) moving from central america to NYC, but moving to arizona first

• Also possible with forced migration

Forced Migration

Define refuge:

• A person who is forced to migrate out of fear of persecution

• Not for economic reasons

• Internally displaced persons are forced to migrate for similar reasons (but within their country)

Ethnic cleansing:

Persecuted for ethnicity and religion

Seeking Asylum

• After you migrate to another place, you are wanting to be considered a refugee

• You are first called an asylum seeker

• It doesn’t violate the law when you cross the border

Zelinsky Migration Transition Theory

• Related to demographic transition model

• “As countries develop, they become a destination for migrants from developing countries”

• Low NIR, High CBR, High CDR

  • High daily or seasonal mobility in search of food (or transhumance)

• High NIR, High CBR, declining CDR

  • International and Interregional migration from rural to urban

• Declining NIR, declining CBR, Declining CBR,

  • International and Interregional

• Low NIR, Low CBR, Low CDR

  • Destination for migrants (both international and interregional)

• Negative NIR, CDR>CBR

  • Counterurbanization… Does it turn into exurbs (the suburbs of suburbs)

USA Forced Migrations

• Between 1825 and 1849, approx. 100,000 southeastern indigenous people were moved to “indian territory” or today’s oklahoma

• 1500-1866 trans-atlantic slave trade 

  • Africans being moved to american colonies, caribbean, and brazil

The Great Migration

• 1915-1970 Black americans migrated out of the Jim Crow South (total segregation) to better opportunities in the North and West

Return Migration

• Sometimes migrants return to their homeland after success or failure