Migration

I Principal Migration Patterns

A. Intercontinental Migrations are movements between continents. These can change the population structures of countries.

B. Intracontinental or interregional migrations involve movements between neighboring countries or states. These happen usually

for perceived improvements in working or economic conditions.

C. Rural to Urban movements. More and more people are moving off farms and into cities.

II Types of MigrationsA. Forced Migrations are when the migrant has no say in

their own movement. Examples include African Slaves, European convicts to Australia, and movements east in Russia. Also included in this is American Indian tribes forced to move to Oklahoma.

B. Reluctant relocation when you are pressured to move. Indonesia pressured millions of people to move from the island of Java to other less populated islands. This also includes refugees, people that move out of fear from wars or persecution, or political problems, which number in the Millions.

C. Voluntary migrations where people move because they are looking for better situation than what they have presently. Poverty is largest reason for voluntary migrations along with flood, drought, terrorism, etc.

III Controls on Migration

A. Economic migrations occur for many reasons. Usually there are several overlapping mechanisms that trigger migrations

B. Push Factors. These are things such as the loss of a job, lack of opportunity,

overcrowding, slums, poverty, etc.

C. Pull factors which are the perceived positives of the destination. More jobs, higher pay, climate, lower taxes, better living conditions, and available housing. Sometimes these are not real. China has 100 million floating workers have moved to cities looking for work that is not always there.

D. Place Utility is the process in which a person evaluates their current location in relation to known or perceived qualities of a new location.

E. Individual aspiration comes into play and if a person is satisfied with the current conditions then spatial search behavior ends. Spatial search is when you go through the process of evaluating other locations.

F. Migrants usually want to avoid danger and uncertainty so two types of migration patterns exist.

1. Step migration is when you move in small steps to new places. Like from farms, to small cities, to suburbs, to the big city.

2. Chain Migration, where people from similar locations follow established paths to prepared locations. Chain migrations can also apply to occupational groups.

G. Not all immigrants stay at their destination. Counter migration occurs when people return to their homeland or move on to other countries. Return migration makes up as much as 25% of in-migrations in some states.

H. Channelized migrations is when you have people from similar locations migrate to similar locations even though there are no relations. Blacks migrating to

northern cities, Scandinavians to Minnesota, Swiss to Midway Utah are examples.

IV E.G RavensteinA Ravenstein observed all of these patterns of

migrations and in the 1870s and 1880s came up with a series of “laws of migration”

1. Most migrants only go a short distance2. Longer-distance migrations favor big city destinations3. Most migration proceeds step by step4. Most migration is from rural to urban5. Each migration flow produces a counterflow6. Most migrants are adults; families are less

likely to make international moves7. Most international migrants are young males

B. Last two deal with personal attributes. Migrants do not represent a cross section of the source population

C. Young adults are the most mobile.D. More Females migrate today than when the

“laws” were introduced. Today females make up almost half of migrants. They are also usually young adults and move for financial reasons.

E. One last observation or law can be added. Most migrants are well educated. In Africa as

many as ¾ of all immigrants have a higher education. This creates a “Brain Drain” on a population where there are less educated people to lead or help develop countries.