Topic: Reasons for, and types of Migration

• Aim: For what primary reasons do humans migrate from one place to another?

• Do Now: Describe reasons why you would or would not move away from home after high school

“Little Haiti”, Miami, Florida

Your Daily Movement:

•In your notebook, write down (in a few sentences) your physical movements in a given day.

•For example, I would write “I leave my house in Bellmore, get in my car and drive to Floral Park…”

What is activity space?

• The great majority of people have a daily routine that takes them through a sequence of short moves that geographers call activity space.

• America is the world’s most mobile society.

• Technology has greatly expanded activity space, particularly in wealthier, more developed countries.

• 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 percentage of migrants return to their original home due to these distorted perceptions.

Activity Space of Each Family Member

• Mobility is most generalized term that refers to all types of movements– Journeying each day to work or school– Weekly visits to local shops– Annual trips to visit relatives who live in a different state

• Short-term and repetitive acts of mobility are referred to as circulation (cyclic movement)– Ex. College students moving to college each fall and returning home each spring

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Mobility and Circulation:

Migration: A type of relocation diffusion which entails a permanent move to a new geographic location

on Earth, outside of one’s community of origin

-Emigration is migration from a location.

-Immigration is migration to a location.

Place “A” can have individuals migrating away from and to it.Emigrant: Place A → Place BImmigrant: Place B → Place A

Prehistoric Human Migrations:

Reasons for Migration

Why Do People Migrate?

• People decide to migrate because of a combination of two factors.– Push factors induce people to move out of their present location.

– Pull factors induce people to move into a new location.

• Three major types of push and pull factors1. Political2. Environmental3. Economic

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Factors of Place Desirability

Less-desirable places

More-desirable places

What are some of the "more-desirable places" to migrate to within your state, province, or country?* What are some of the "less-desirable places" to migrate to within your state, province, or country?

remittances

immigration = migration across an international border

Push vs. Pull FactorsThree major types of push and pull factors1. Political2. Environmental3. Economic

What are push factors of migration?

• Unfavorable characteristics of a locale that contribute to the dissatisfaction of its residents and impel their emigrationExamples: widespread unemployment; poverty; discrimination; political unrest; war; famine and/or drought; land shortage; overpopulation

What are pull factors of migration?

• Characteristics of a locale that act as attractive forces, drawing migrants from other places

Examples: employment opportunities; political and/or personal freedoms (speech; religion, right to vote, etc.); land; amenities (e.g. retirement) Important to note: Many people move based on excessively positive images and expectations (not always accurate).

refugees immigrate unwillingly due to persecution in their home country

(a PUSH factor)

PUSH factorsPULL factors

better job

pleasant physical setting

affordable housing

desirable climate

proximity to family

high housing costs

traffic gridlock

rising crime rates

high tax rates

poor climate

undesirable job

E.G. RAVENSTEIN (1834—1913)British sociologist

LAWS OF MIGRATION:1. Most migrants go only a short distance.2. Longer distance migration favors big city destinations. In other words, people will travel farther if they are migrating to a city

3. Most migrants are adults; families are less likely to make international moves.

4. Most international migrants are young males.(*Less valid today than when first proposed. In reality, females now comprise between 40-60% of all international migrants worldwide.

Esther Angeles, 41, with her daughter, Johanna Marisol Gomez, 7. Ms. Angeles has developed

diabetes since coming to the United States and struggles to see that her daughter eats

healthfully.

• “A growing body of mortality research on immigrants has shown that the longer they live in this country, the worse their rates of heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes. And while their American-born children may have more money, they tend to live shorter lives than the parents.”

---The Health Toll of Immigration, New York Times, May 18, 2013

Economic Conditions: The most common reason for migration. 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.

Mexican immigrants captured near Laredo, Texas

Barbed wire fence separates the U.S. & Mexico east of Douglas, Arizona

Warner Glenn on his ranch in San Simon, Arizona-Migrants often cut his barbed wire fence to enter the US

Border Patrol-near Calexico, California

In Altar, Sonora, migrants called pollos (chickens), stock upOn supplies for the desert crossing.

Most illegal immigrants are Mexicans, but a growing numberare from Central and South America, like the men waitingOutside of “Bar Honduras” in Nuevo Laredo.

• 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.

Environmental Factors:

• People pulled towards attractive physical environments (mountains, proximity to water, etc)

• People pushed due to environmental disasters, pollution, lack of resources (clean water, etc).

• For example, the ‘Dust Bowl’ of the 1930’s

Migrants from Hurricane Katrina

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.

Types of Migration:

• Migration can be divided into two categories.1.International Migration-

permanent move from one country to another• Voluntary• Forced

2.Internal Migration- permanent move within the same country• Interregional• Intraregional

© 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.

© 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.

INTERNATIONAL AND INTERNAL MIGRATION Mexico has international migration into the country from Central America and out of the country to the United States. Mexico also has internal migration, especially interregional migration to states near the U.S. border and intraregional migration into Mexico City.

Voluntary vs. Forced Migration:

1. Voluntary migration:– The migrant makes the decision to

move.– Most migration is voluntary.– Push and Pull Factors determine

whom and where.2. Forced Migration:

– Involuntary migration in which the mover has no role in the decision-making process.

– Slavery – Refugees– Military conscription– Children of migrants

Other Types of Migration:

•International: Movement between countries

•Interregional migration: move from one region of a country to another (east coast/west coast of the U.S.(

•Intraregional migration: movement within one region (New York to New Jersey, for example). Typically this is from rural to urban areas in search of jobs (Nassau County to Manhattan)

International Migration:

• Europe as a destination– 16 million immigrants– 7-10 percent of host country population

– Problems = religion, education

– Contributions = entrepreneurs

• Migration of Asians– 4-5 million work abroad

– Remittances important– Loss to home communities

Net In/Out Migration: •Difference between emigrants and immigrants is net migration

•If immigrants exceed emigrants, net migration is (+) and called net-in migration. If reversed, net migration is (-) and called net-out migration

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.

Intervening Obstacles/Opportunities:

• Intervening obstacles, which hinder migration, can be categorized into two types.1. Environmental Feature-

i.e., mountain, ocean, or distance

2. Political Feature- i.e., countries require proper documentation to leave one country and gain entry in another

European Migrants in 19th Century