1. Where and Why People Move
MIGRATION
Where and Why People Move

2. Movement
Mobility ranging from local to global and daily to once a lifetime
Movement is a good example of the spatial process (spatial interaction; diffusion; distribution; patterns).

3. 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.

4. Types of movement
Cyclic movement
Periodic movement
Migration

5. Types of Movement CYCLIC MOVEMENT: movement that has a closed route
Examples
Commuting: Home to work and
back home
Seasonal: “Sunbelt” States
Nomadism: Movement over
territory for survival repeated
time and again
Daily classes

6. Types of Movement
PERIODIC MOVEMENT: movement away from home for a longer period.
Examples
Migrant labor: moving across borders for work
Transhumance: moving livestock to pastures based on season (rain, temperature)
Military service
College attendance

7. What is Migration?
Definition: the long-term relocation of an individual, household, or group to a new location outside the community of origin; a purposeful movement involving a change of permanent residence

8. Migration is a complex phenomenon that raises many questions.
Why do people move?
All migration is a combination of push and pull factors.

9. Types of Migration Voluntary migration Forced Migration
The migrant makes the decision to move.
Most migration is voluntary.
Push and Pull Factors determine whom and where.
Forced Migration
Involuntary migration in which the mover has no role in the decision-making process.
Slavery.
About 11 million African slaves were brought to the Americas between 1519 and 1867.
In 1860, there were close to 4 million slaves in the United States.
Refugees.
Military conscription.
Children of migrants.

10. Types of Migration Circular migration Spring Summer
Fall / Winter
Spring
Summer
Circular migration
A type of temporary migration.
Associated with agricultural work.
The migrant follows the harvest of various crops, moving from one place to another each time.
Very common in the US Southwest (Mexican farm workers) and in Western Europe (Eastern European farm workers).

11. Types of Migration Sojourners
These workers intend to stay only until they save enough money to return to their homeland with wealth.
Common in the U.S. with Italians between Common now with workers from Latin America.
Remittances are a substantial part of the economy of some migrant source countries.

12. World Migration Routes Since 1700
Source: adapted from Getis et al. (1991) “Introduction to Geography”. 3rd edition.
European
African (slaves)
Indian
Chinese
Japanese
Majority of population descended from immigrants
Slide graphic courtesy of Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue, Hofstra University

13. Major International Migration Patterns, Early 1990s
Why do people migrate?
Push Factors
Pull Factors
Emigration and immigration
Change in residence.
Relative to origin and destination.
Major International Migration Patterns, Early 1990s

14. Economic Opportunities
Islands of Development –
Places within a region or country where foreign investment, jobs, and infrastructure are concentrated.

15. Economic Opportunities (con’t.)
In late 1800s and early 1900s, Chinese migrated throughout Southeast Asia to work in trade, commerce, and finance.

16. Migration of Vietnamese Boat People
Many Vietnamese fled by sea as refugees after the war with the U.S. ended in 1975.
Later boat people were often considered economic migrants.

17. 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.

18. What are push factors of migration?
Defined: unfavorable characteristics of a locale that contribute to the dissatisfaction of its residents and impel their emigration
Examples: widespread unemployment; poverty; discrimination; political unrest; war; famine and/or drought; land shortage; overpopulation

19. What are pull factors of migration?
Defined: 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).

20. Most people migrate for economic reasons.
Search for better paying jobs
To find new jobs/employment
To escape poverty or low standards of
living

21. Catalysts of Migration: What causes it to happen?
Economic conditions
Poverty (push factors)
Perceived opportunities in destinations (pull factors)
Technological advances
Modern transportation makes migration easier
Allows people to migrate where jobs are available

22. Other reasons/catalysts for migration…
Armed conflict and civil war
Three million people drive from their homes in the former Yugoslavia
Civil war in Rwanda (Hutu and Tutsis)
Political circumstances
Oppressive regimes
Cuba
Vietnam’s “boat people”

23. Reasons continued… Environmental Conditions Culture and Tradition
Potato Famine in Ireland (1840s)
Major earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, or hurricanes (Gulf Coast of U.S.—2005)
Culture and Tradition
Muslims migrated from India when it was partitioned
Jews left the former Soviet Union for Israel

24. Voluntary Migration Forced Migration
Occurs when people choose to migrate
Remember: the # 1 reason people migrate: ECONOMIC!
Any voluntary migration flow represents the numbers going from the source to the destination minus those returning to the source.
Also referred to as involuntary migration
Examples:
The Transatlantic Slave Trade: largest number of slaves were brought to plantations in the Caribbean and eastern South America; black population was one million in U.S. in 1800
Convicts shipped from Britain to Australia beginning in 1788
1800s: Native Americans in U.S. forced to live on reservations

25. 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 migration proceeds step-by-step.
4. Most migration is rural to urban.
5. Each migration flow produces a counterflow.
6. Most migrants are adults; families are less likely to make international moves.
7. Most international migrants are young males.

26. About Ravenstein’s laws:
1. He concluded that most move short distances and that the frequency of moves declines with distance (distance decay).
3. Step Migration –
When a migrant follows a path of a series of stages, or steps toward a final destination.
* intervening opportunity –at one of the steps along
the path, pull factors encourage the migrant to settle
there.
4. Urban residents are less migratory than inhabitants of rural areas.
6. Chain migration also needs to be considered.
Defined: a process by which people are given preference for migrating to another country because a relative was previously admitted. Asians are know to be the most effective users of chain migration.
7. Less valid today than when first proposed. In reality, women and girls now comprise between 40-60% of all international migrants worldwide.

27. INTERNAL MIGRATIONS
Migration that occurs within a single countries borders
Example: African-Americans moved northward during World War I; most migrants came from rural areas; 1970s—more were leaving the North and returning to the South because of changing civil rights conditions
Varies depending on mobility of country
US: Urban to Suburban
Peru: Rural to Urban

28. INTERNAL MIGRATIONS
Two Types:
Intraregional
Interregional

29. Intraregional Migration
Intraregional migrations--people moving or being moved within one geographic realm (region) of a country
Current examples:
Rural to urban:
increases with development, ¾ of core countries population in urban areas
Urban to suburban:
lifestyle changes
Surburban Sprawl
Metropolitan to nonmetropolitan areas:
called counterurbanization, increased technology allows people to work outside of the city

30. The Ten Fastest-Growing Metropolitan Areas, 1990–2000 Source: U. S
The Ten Fastest-Growing Metropolitan Areas, 1990–2000 Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Census 2000; 1990 Census. Web:

31. The Ten Fastest-Growing Metropolitan Areas, 2001-2006 Source: U. S
The Ten Fastest-Growing Metropolitan Areas, Source: U.S. Census Bureau; 2006: Census. Web:

33. Internal Migrations in LDCs
Populations in the less developed world are rushing to cities in search of work and income.
Urbanization
migration from rural areas
lack of jobs in countryside
lack of services in cities
Tokyo, Los Angeles, and New York only MDC cities on top 10 list
Lagos, Nigeria
Mumbai, India
Mexico City, Mexico

34. Interregional Migrations
Definition-people moving or being moved from one geographic realm (region) to another within a country
From South
Current USA examples:
Movement North to South, and East to West
refugees/evacuees from the Gulf Coast region to other parts of the United States,
rural to urban areas to find jobs

35. Interregional Migrations
Current World examples:
To Brazil’s interior: Brasilia
to North in Italy, and North to South in the UK for Jobs
Islands of development are cities with foreign investment and jobs
West African coast
European colonies in SE Asia attracted Chinese

36. External Migration Movement across country borders
Also called International migration
Emigrant: one who migrates out of a country
Subtracts from total population
Immigrant: one who migrates into a country
Adds to total population

37. Major Global Migration Flows
From 1500 to 1950

38. Global Migration Patterns
From less-developed Stage 2 countries into more-developed Stage 4 countries
3 largest migration flows
Asia to Europe
Asia to North America
Latin America to North America
Net In Migration: North America, Europe, Oceania
Net Out Migration: Asia, Latin America, Africa

40. Four Waves of U.S. Immigration
1820 to 1880 First wave of Western and Northern Europeans.
Earliest migrants from England, Ireland, and Germany, later from Northern Europe
Industrial Revolution, reorganization of agriculture, political upheavals, and Potato Famine in Ireland.

41. 1880 to 1920: Second wave of Southern and Eastern Europeans
Economic and demographic change diffuse to E. and S. Europe
Source areas are Italy, Greece, Poland and other E. European countries, and Russians (many Russian Jews persecuted by pogroms).
1920 to 1965: Third wave is very small. U. S. policy establishes strict quotas on immigration, and only a few Europeans migrate to America
1965 to present: Fourth wave of Asians and Latin Americans. Quota system is abolished in 1965, and U.S. policy favors family reunification. New streams of migrants come from Asia and Latin America.
Source countries are Mexico, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Haiti, China, India, Vietnam, and the Philippines.

42. U.S. Immigration Policy 1780-1875 – Laissez faire – free access to US.
Congress bans immigration of convicts and prostitutes.
1882 – Immigration Act of 1882 – bars immigration of Chinese
1921 & 1924 Congress establishes quota system which establishes quotas based on ethnic composition of the U.S. in 1910 (1921 law) and 1920 (1924 law).
Strongly favors immigrants from Ireland, England, and Germany because these groups had been in the U.S. for the longest time.

43. U.S. Immigration Policy, cont.
1965 – Quota system is abolished. Immigration is based on family unification. Limit of 170,000 from E. Hemisphere, no limit from W. Hemisphere.
Hemispheric limits are abolished. Worldwide limit of 290,000.
1986 – IRCA (Immigration Reform and Control Act) – Designed to reduce illegal immigration. Employer sanctions and amnesty.
1990 IMMACT – Increased the number of skilled immigrants

44. Immigration to the United States, 1820 to 2001

45. Immigration Policies USA Quota Laws
Quota Act of 1921 and Origins Act of 1924: 2% of 1910 population
Immigration Act of 1965
1968: Hemisphere quotas
1978: Global Quotas
Currently: Global Quota of 620, 000 with no more than 7% from each country
Major Exceptions: family reunification, employment, talented, lottery, refugees

46. Immigration Policies
Brain Drain: large-scale emigration by talented people out of the periphery
Guest Workers: To Europe from Middle East and North Africa
Example: 750, 000 Turks employed in Germany
Time-Contract workers: South and East Asian workers to Southeast Asia

47. What about refugees? UN definition
A person who has well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political group.
UN reports 24 million refugees worldwide

48. What about refugees? UN definitions
International refugees:
Those who have crossed one or more international borders and are encamped in a country other than their own
Intranational refugees:
Those who have abandoned their homes but not their homeland

49. It is difficult to identify refugees.
No mention of natural/enviromental disaster
UN must distinguish between refugees and voluntary migrants before granting asylum.
Three general characteristics, individual or aggregate (collectively):
Most refugees move without any more tangible property than they can carry or transport with them.
Most refugees make their first “step” on foot, by bicycle, wagon, or open boat.
Refugees move without the official documents that accompany channeled migrations.

51. Regions of Dislocation
Sub-Saharan Africa
Several of the world’s largest refugee crises plagued Africa during the 1990s and early 21st century -8 million “official” refugees
Civil wars in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Angola, and Sudan
Hostilities between the Hutu and Tutsi tribes in Rwanda

52. Other regions of dislocation…
North Africa and Southwest Asia
Israel and the displaced Arab populations that surround it
Exhibits qualities that are likely to generate additional refugee flow in the future
The Kurdish population following the Gulf War (1991)
Taliban rule in Afghanistan
Afghanistan after the Soviet invasion during the 1980s

53. Regions of dislocation continued…
South Asia
Pakistan accommodated forced emigrants from Afghanistan
Major refugee problem stems from a civil war in Sri Lanka

54. Regions of dislocation continued…
Southeast Asia
“Boat people” who fled communist rule in Vietnam
In the early 1990s, Cambodia generated the region’s largest refugee flow
Today--largest number of refugees come from Myanmar (Burma)

55. Regions of dislocation continued…
Europe
After the collapse of Yugoslavia, over 1 million were displaced
South America
Colombian illegal drug violence, especially in rural areas