2. Migration
• Migration A change in
residence that is intended
to be permanent.
• Emigration-leaving a
country.
• Immigration-entering a
country.
Little Haiti, Miami, Florida
3. • On average, Americans move once every 6 years.
• US population is the most mobile in the world with
over 5 million moving from 1 state to another every
year.
• 35 million move within a state, county or community
each year.
• Migration a key factor in the speed of diffusion of
ideas and innovation.
• Our perception of distance and direction are often
distorted-thus a sizable % of migrants return to their
original home due to these distorted perceptions.
4. Types of Migration
• Forced Migration-migrants
have no choice-must leave.
• periodic movement-short term
(weeks or months) seasonal
migration to college, winter in
the south, etc.
• Cyclic movement-daily
movement to work, shopping.
• Transhumance-seasonal
pastoral farming-Switzerland,
Horn of Africa.
• Nomadism-cyclical, yet Commuter train in Soweto,
irregular migration that follows South Africa
the growth of vegetation.
5. Key Factors in Migration
• External Migration-from one country to
another (emigration & immigration)
• Internal Migration-from one part of a country
to another part
• Direction:
– Absolute-compass directions
– Relative-Sun Belt, Middle East, Far East, Near East
• Distance:
– Absolute distance “as the crow flies”
– Relative distance-actual distance due to routes
taken such as highways or railroads
6. Catalysts of Migration
• Economic conditions-poverty
and a desire for opportunity.
• Political conditions-
persecution, expulsion, or war.
• Environmental conditions-
crop failures, floods, drought,
environmentally induced
famine.
• Culture and tradition-
threatened by change.
• Technology-easier and cheaper
transport or change in livability.
7. • Chain migration-migration of people to a specific
location because of relatives or members of the same
nationality already there.
• Step migration-short moves in stages-e.g. Brazilian
family moves from village to town and then finally Sao
Paulo or Rio de Janeiro
• Refugees-those who have been forced to migrate.
• Push-Pull Factors-push factors induce people to leave.
Pull factors encourage people to move to an area.
• Distance decay-contact diminishes with increasing
distance. (both diffusion and migration)
• Intervening opportunity-alternative destinations that can
be reached more quickly and easily.
9. Voluntary Migration – Migrants weigh push and pull
factors to decide first, to emigrate from the home country
and second, where to go.
Distance Decay
weighs into the
decision to
migrate, leading
many migrants to
move less far
than they
originally
contemplate.
10. Economic Conditions – Migrants will often risk
their lives in hopes of economic opportunities that will
enable them to send money home (remittances) to
their family members who remain behind.
11.
12.
13. In Altar, Sonora, migrants called pollos (chickens), stock up
On supplies for the desert crossing.
14. Most illegal immigrants are Mexicans, but a growing number
Are from Central and South America, like the men waiting
Outside of “Bar Honduras” in Nuevo Laredo.
15. • A massive dump site
in Arizona’s Upper
Altar Valley. After
walking 40 miles
through the desert,
illegal immigrants are
met here by coyotes.
They are told to dump
their old clothes &
packs and put on more
“American” looking
clothes the coyotes
have brought. They
then begin the trip to
an urban stash house.
16.
17. Environmental Conditions –In Montserrat, a 1995
volcano made the southern half of the island, including
the capital city of Plymouth, uninhabitable. People who
remained migrated to the north or to the U.S.
20. Reconnecting
Cultural Groups
•About 700,000 Jews
migrated to then-
Palestine between 1900
and 1948.
•After 1948, when the
land was divided into
two states (Israel and
Palestine), 600,000
Palestinian Arabs fled or
were pushed out of
newly-designated Israeli
territories.
22. Ernst Ravenstein’s “Laws of migration
1885 he studied the migration of England
• Most migrants go only a short distance.
• Big cities attract long distance migrants.
• Most migration is step-by-step.
• Most migration is rural to urban
• Each migration flow produces a counterflow.
• Most migrants are adults-families are less
likely to make international moves.
• Most international migrants are young males.
23. • Gravity model is an inverse relationship between
volume of migration and distance to the destination.
• Gravity model was anticipated by Ravenstein.
• The physical laws of gravity first studied by Newton
can be applied to the actions of humans in terms of
migration and economics
• Spatial interaction such as migration is directly related
to the populations and inversely related to the distance
between them.
• International refugees cross one or more borders and
are encamped in a country not their own.
• Intranational refugees abandon their homes, but not
their countries-this is the largest number world wide.
24. The Refugee Problem
• UN definition-person who
migrates out of fear of
being persecuted for
reasons of race, religion,
nationality, social status or
political opinion.
• Difficult to get an accurate
count-governments
manipulate the numbers.
• Internal (intranational)
refugees a bigger issue than
external (international).
25. Refugees
A person who flees across an international boundary because
of a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race,
religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group,
or political opinion.
26. Characteristics of Refugees
• Move with only what they can carry or
easily transport.
• Most move first on foot, bicycle,
wagon or open boat-very low tech.
transport.
• Most have no official documentation
such as passports, identification or
other official papers.
28. From 12 to 30 million Africans were forced from
their homelands in the 18th century. It took
generations to restore the population balance.
29. Regions of Dislocation-Africa
• Endemic African • Sub-Saharan Africa-over
Problems: 8 million official
• Weak and corrupt international refugees-the
governments. largest # in the world.
• Lack of national cohesion. • Collapse of order in
Somalia
• Lack of a democratic
tradition • Civil Wars in Liberia and
Sierra Leone
• Historic ethnic conflicts
• Sudan’s civil war
• Excessive number of
weapons left over from • Rwanda massacres and
the Cold War. economic disaster.
30. The Sudan –Fighting in the Darfur region of the Sudan has
generated thousands of refugees. In eastern Chad, the
Iridimi refugee camp is home to almost 15,000 refugees
from the Darfur province, including the women in this
photo.
31. Regions of Dislocation
• South West & • South and South
Central Asia: East Asia:
• Kurds in Iraq, Turkey and • Civil War in Sri Lanka-
Syria displaced during Tamils versus Sinahlese
Gulf Wars.
• Vietnam and Cambodia
• Palestinians displaced by after the Vietnam War
several wars with Israel.
• Myanmar (Burma)
• Afghanistan-many military rule has driven
refugees during the long many to exile.
Soviet occupation, Taliban
regime and war.
32. Major Modern Migrations
• Europe to North America & South America
• Africa to the Americas (Slave Trade)
• UK to Australia, New Zealand
• India to East Africa, SE Asia
• China to SE Asia
• Eastern US to Western US
• Western Russia to Eastern Russia
40. Historic US Migration
• Westward to the frontier.
• Black migration to
northern cities in WWI
and WWII period
• 1950s, 60s Cubans to
Florida from Castro’s
Cuba
• In recent decades the
migration from the Rust
belt to the Sunbelt took
place.
• Some blacks returned to
the South
41. Waves of Immigration-US 1820-2001
Changing immigration laws, and changing push and pull
factors create waves of immigration.
50. Guest Workers
• Guest workers – migrants whom a country
allows in to fill a labor need, assuming the
workers will go “home” once the labor need
subsides.
- have short term work visas
- send remittances to home country
- France-many from Algeria
- Germany-many from Turkey, Eastern
Europe
