Human Migration

What is Human Migration?

• Migration (human) is the movement of people
from one place in the world to another for the
purpose of taking up permanent or
semipermanent residence, usually across a
political boundary. An example of
"semipermanent residence" would be the
seasonal movements of migrant farm laborers.
People can either choose to move ("voluntary
migration") or be forced to move ("involuntary
migration").
What is Human Migration?
• Migrations have occurred throughout human history,
beginning with the movements of the first human groups
from their origins in East Africa to their current location
in the world.
• Migration occurs at a variety of scales: intercontinental
(between continents),intracontinental (between countries
on a given continent), and interregional (within
countries). One of the most significant migration patterns
has been rural to urban migration—the movement of
people from the countryside to cities in search of
opportunities.
Types of Migration
• Internal Migration: Moving to a new home
within a state, country, or continent.
• External Migration: Moving to a new
home in a different state, country, or
continent.
• Emigration: Leaving one country to move
to another (e.g., the Pilgrims emigrated from
England).
• Immigration: Moving into a new country
(e.g., the Pilgrims immigrated to America).
Types of Migration
• Population Transfer: When a government forces a large
group of people out of a region, usually based on ethnicity or
religion. This is also known as an involuntary or forced
migration.
• Impelled Migration (also called "reluctant" or "imposed"
migration): Individuals are not forced out of their country,
but leave because of unfavorable situations such as warfare,
political problems, or religious persecution.
• Step Migration: A series of shorter, less extreme migrations
from a person's place of origin to final destination—such as
moving from a farm, to a village, to a town, and finally to a
city
Types of Migration
• Chain Migration: A series of migrations within a family or
defined group of people. A chain migration often begins with
one family member who sends money to bring other family
members to the new location. Chain migration results in
migration fields—the clustering of people from a specific
region into certain neighborhoods or small towns.
• Return Migration: The voluntary movements of immigrants
back to their place of origin.This is also known as circular
migration.
• Seasonal Migration: The process of moving for a period of
time in response to labor or climate conditions (e.g., farm
workers following crop harvests or working in cities off-season;
"snowbirds" moving to the southern and southwestern United
States during winter).
People Who Migrate
• Emigrant: A person who is leaving a country to reside in
another.
• Immigrant: A person who is entering a country from
another to take up new residence.
• Refugee: A person who is residing outside the country of
his or her origin due to fear of persecution for reasons of
race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular
social group, or political opinion.
People Who Migrate
• Internally Displaced Person (IDP): A person who is
forced to leave his or her home region because of
unfavorable conditions (political, social, environmental,
etc.) but does not cross any boundaries.
• Migration Stream: A group migration from a particular
country, region, or city to a certain destination.
Why Do People Migrate?
• People move for a variety of reasons. They consider the
advantages and disadvantages of staying versus moving,
as well as factors such as distance, travel costs, travel
time, modes of transportation, terrain, and cultural
barriers.
• Push Factors: Reasons for emigrating (leaving a place)
because of a difficulty (such as a food shortage, war, flood,
etc.).
• Pull Factors: Reasons for immigrating (moving into a
place) because of something desirable (such as a nicer
climate, better food supply, freedom, etc.).
Why Do People Migrate?
• Several types of push and pull factors may
influence people in their movements (sometimes
at the same time), including:
 1. Environmental (e.g., climate, natural
disasters)
 2. Political (e.g., war)
 3. Economic (e.g., work)
 4. Cultural (e.g., religious freedom, education)
•
Why Do People Migrate?
• Place Utility: The desirability of a place based on its social,
economic, or environmental situation, often used to compare
the value of living in different locations. An individual’s idea of
place utility may or may not reflect the actual conditions of
that location.
• Intervening Opportunities: Opportunities nearby are
usually considered more attractive than equal or slightly
better opportunities farther away, so migrants tend to settle in
a location closer to their point of origin if other factors are
equal.
• Distance Decay: As distance from a given location increases,
understanding of that location decreases. People are more
likely to settle in a (closer) place about which they have more
knowledge than in a (farther) place about which they know
and understand little.
Laws of Migration
• Geographer E.G. Ravenstein developed a series of
migration 'laws' in the 1880s that form the basis for
modern migration theory. In simple language, these
principles state:
 • Most migrants travel only a short distance.
 • Migrants traveling long distances usually settle in urban
areas.
 • Most migration occurs in steps.
 • Most migration is rural to urban.
 • Each migration flow produces a movement in the opposite
direction ("counterflow").
 • Most migrants are adults.
 • Most international migrants are young males, while more
internal migrants are female.
Impacts of Migration
• Human migration affects population patterns and
characteristics, social and cultural patterns and
processes, economies, and physical environments. As
people move, their cultural traits and ideas diffuse along
with them, creating and modifying cultural landscapes.
• Diffusion: The process through which certain
characteristics (e.g., cultural traits, ideas, disease) spread
over space and through time.
Impacts of Migration
• Relocation Diffusion: Ideas, cultural traits, etc. that
move with people from one place to another and do not
remain in the point of origin.
• Expansion Diffusion: Ideas, cultural traits, etc., that
move with people from one place to another but are not
lost at the point of origin, such as language.
• Cultural markers: Structures or artifacts (e.g.,
buildings, spiritual places, architectural styles, signs,
etc.) that reflect the cultures and histories of those who
constructed or occupy them.
• .
Measuring Migration
• In-migration: people moving into one place from another
place within a nation (internal migration).
• Out-migration: people moving out of one place to
another place within a nation (internal migration).
• Gross migration: total number of in-migrants and out-
migrants (internal migration).
Measuring Migration
• Net internal migration: the difference between in-
migration and out-migration.
• Movers from abroad: people coming into a nation from
another country or part of the world.
• Net migration: the difference between net internal
migration and movers from abroad