Migration

Chapter 3

Migration

• Migration A change in residence that is intended to be permanent.

• Emigration-leaving a country.

• Immigration-entering a country.

Little Haiti, Miami, Florida

• 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.

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 irregular migration that follows the growth of vegetation.

Commuter train in Soweto,South Africa

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:– Relative distance“as the crow flies” – Absolute distance -actual distance due to routes

taken such as highways or railroads

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.

• 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.

Internal Migration - Movement within a single country’s borders (implying

a degree of permanence).

Distance Decay weighs into the decision to migrate, leading many migrants to move less far than they originally contemplate.

Voluntary Migration – Migrants weigh push and pull factors to decide first, to emigrate from the home country and

second, where to go.

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.

Central and South American 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, 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.