Why Do People Migrate?

Key Issue #1

Ravestein’s Laws

• Ravenstein’s Laws: (three categories)1. The reasons why migrants move2. The distance they typically move3. The migrants groups characteristics

• Reasons for migrating:– Push Factor: induces people to move out their

present location• View their present location so negatively that they fell

pushed away

– Pull Factor: induces people to move into a new location• View another place so attractively that they feel pulled

toward to it

Ravenstein’s Laws of Migration

1) Most migrants go a short distance. 2) People who migrate long distances tend to

go to urban areas. 3) People already living in rural areas are more

likely to migrate than those in urban areas. 4) Most migrants are adults. Women are more

likely to migrate internally. Men are more likely to migrate internationally. – Do these laws fit with the immigration to the

United States in the early 20th century?

Push/Pull Factors

• Three major kinds of push/pull factors:1. Economic2. Cultural3. Environmental

Usually one of these factors emerges as the most important

Ranking the relative importance of the three factors can be difficult and even controversial

Economic Push/Pull Factors

• Economic Push/Pull Factors:– Emigrating from few job opportunities to

immigrating to a place where there are job opportunities

– Area that has valuable natural resources– Rapid population growth stimulates

demand for service jobs and facilities– Relative attractiveness

Cultural Push/Pull Factors

• Cultural Push/Pull Factors:– Usually very compelling PUSH factors,

forcing to people to emigrate from a country

– Forced International Migration has occurred because:• Slavery: from Africa to the Western

Hemisphere 18th and 19th centuries• Political instability: resulting from cultural

diversity; new boundaries drawn segregated ethnic groups (caught on the “wrong” side of a boundary

Refugees

• Refugees: people who have been forced to migrate from their homes and cannot return for fear of persecution because of their race, religion, nationality, membership in a social group or political opinion– Face difficulties:

• Have no home until another country agrees to allow them in

• Improving conditions allow them to return home• Camp out in tents, board in shelters, or lie down by

the side of the road

Cultural Pull Factors

• Cultural Pull Factor:– Political conditions: lure of freedom• People attracted to the idea of democracy,

freedom of choice in education, career and place of residence• Difficult to distinguish as a pull factor

because it usually is teamed with the push from a totalitarian country

Environmental Push/Pull Factors

• Environmental Push/Pull Factors:– PUSH: Hazardous– PULLED: physically attractive regions

• Intervening Obstacles: an environmental or cultural feature that hinders migration– Historical Obstacle: Gold Rush, no cars, planes or

trains, could cross the Rockies or Great Plains by wagon

– Modern Obstacle: Local Diversity in government and politics; need passport to legally emigrate from one country and a visa to legally immigrate to a new country

Distance of Migration

• Distance of Migration:–Most migrants relocate a short distance

and remain within the same country– Long-distance migrants to other

countries head for major centers of economic activity

International Migration

• International Migration: permanent movement from one country to another– “forced” migration: migrant has been

compelled to move by cultural factors; cultural factors compel forced migration

– “voluntary” migration: migrant has chosen to move fro economic improvement; economic push and pull factors

Internal Migration

• Internal Migration: permanent movement within the same country– Usually easier on people because they still find

familiar languages, foods, broadcasts, literature, music and other social customs

– Involve shorter distances– Interregional migration: movement from one

region of a country to another; rural to urban areas in search of jobs

– Intraregional migration: movement within one region; movement within urban areas--- from an old neighborhood to a new neighborhood

Distance Decay

• “Distance decay of migration”:• The greater the distance, the less likely there

is to be interaction or influence. • The lesser the distance, the more likely there

is to be interaction or influence.• In terms of migration, people migrate to

places that are closer1. Where do Cubans go that migrate to the United

States?2. Are immigrating Asians to the United States more

likely to go to the west coast or the east coast?

Cuba

Asian-American Map

Zelinsky

• Zelinsky’s migration related to the DTM:– Changes in society comparable to those in the DTM– Change in migration pattern in society that results

from economic and social change in the DTM– International migration: stage 2-social changes,

lower CBR and CDR in search of economic opportunities

– Internal migration: stage 3 and 4- from cities to surrounding suburbs

– Stage 1 unlikely to migrate permanently to a new location, although high seasonal mobility in search of food

Migrants and Gender

• Migrants and Gender– Most long-distance migrants are male– Most long-distance migrants are adult individuals rather

than families with children

• Theory Changed today: gender pattern reversed in 1990s- women now constitute 55% of U.S. immigrants– Mexican Immigrants: women account for over half of the

undocumented immigrants in the U.S.– Reflects the changing role of women in Mexican society:

past- marry at young age and remain in the village to care for children; today: migrate to join husbands and brothers in U.S., mostly to seek jobs- poor economic conditions in Mexico

Family Status/Education of Migrants

• Family Status of migrants: young adults that were seeking work; very few elderly or young children– Today: increasing amount of children under the

age of 15 (increase of women=more children)

• Education: less likely to have high school diplomas than U.S. citizens; typical undocumented has attended school for less than 4 years, less than average American, but one more year than the average Mexican

“Typical” Mexican Immigrant

• Resonate from the interior states of Mexico

• Most have jobs in their villages- migrate to earn more money

• Work in agriculture, clothing factories• Move from region to region in U.S.

depending on seasonal changes…• Make more money in U.S. and return to

Mexico–Money leaves the U.S. economy…..