Chapter 3 Migration
Describe specific examples of historic and contemporary forced migrations, explaining push and pull factors associated with each.
1. The Atlantic Slave trade: Between the years of 1701 and 1810, The "new world" or the western continents were becoming inhabited by Europeans. These Europeans were making plantations or large farms that required lots of time and man power to generate enough money to keep the plantation working. The owners decided to find slaves who would work on the plantation for little to no cost. The owners would buy slaves from Europeans shippers, who in turn would pay African raiders for slaves. Over 12 million slaves were estimated to have crossed the Atlantic to the Caribbean, Brazil, or southern United States. This is a form of forced Migration because the slaves had no choice but to go with the African raiders. Most slaves had no idea why they had to leave so they had no reason to make push or pull factors. 2. WW2: When Hitler came to power in 1933, he began what many would call the Holocaust. In which the Nazi party began creating concentration camps to hold jewish and enemy prisoners. Hitler began to force every jewish family in Europe to migrate to these concentration camps to be either tortured or even murdered. The Jewish families were told if they did not cooperate they would be killed. many families tried to hide so many might suggest that this migration was voluntary, but if the family was caught trying to escape they would either be sent to camp or killed on the spot. Many families believed it would be a safer choice to just go with the Nazis than risk losing thier entire family. Also if you did escape, you would be lost somewhere in Europe with nowhere to go and no idea if the Nazis would find you or not.
Characterize a refugee and a "refugee population".
A refugee is someone who has migrated away from their home in order to escape some power that threatens them. The british definition of a refugee is: "A person who has a wellfounded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, member-ship or a particular social goup, or political opinion." Some countries find this incorrect mainly because of the word "wellfounded" which could be judged in many different ways. For example, according the the british definition, victims of hurricane Katrina do not count as refugees. People like these are called Internally displaced persons or IDPs. These people have been forced to leave their homes but not cross any international borders. A refugee population is when a large group of refugees, fleeing from the same cause, form a community together. Normally these comunities are very small and very poor.
Distinguish between and give characteristics of the following types of human movement: circulation and migration, forced and voluntary migration, immigrants and emigrants, push and pull factors.
Circulation vs. Migration: Circulation are short term repeated movements of people whereas migration is a permanent relocation of someone's home. Circulation is like going to work each day and coming back home that night for dinner. Migration would be like moving to a new home in a different country and never going back. Forced vs voluntary migration: Forced is caused be an external authority pushing someone out of an area or their home whereas Volunatry is when the migrant has a choice to stay where they are or to try and find a new home. An example of Forced migration could be the Atlantic Slave trade which forced over twelve million African Americans to leave their homes and move to the western hemisphere to be sold as slaves. An example of voluntary would be Europeans moving to America. They didn't have to move but they did because of the rumors or a better life. Immigrants vs Emigrants: Immigrants are people who are entering a region whereas Emigrants are people leaving a region. An example if an immigrant could be a citizen of Mexico crossing the border into America in hopes of living there. An example of an emigrant could be Citizens of Sudan fleeing to Chad because of genocide in Sudan. Push/Pull factors: Push factors are the reasons people would want to migrate to a region. Pull factors are the reason why people would want to migrant to a region. An example of a Push factor could be: genocide, An unfair dictatorship, or common environmental problems. An example of a pull factor could be: promise of well paying jobs, Easy to get to, preferable weather conditions, or the migrants have family or friends there.
Explain how distance decay, intervening obstacles, migration selectivity factors affect migration and circulation patterns.
Distance decay can effect migration mainly through the push pull factors. Distance decay is the idea that the further away an idea gets from its source, the less is known about it. A migrant from south Africa would have a very hard time knowing what opportunities are in Russia because of the large distance between them. Also the many Intervening obstacles between the source and the destination would slow down push/ pull factors even more. If a migrant in India hears about great opportunities of living in China and attempts to migrate there, and intervening obstacle could be the himilayas, which would be life threatening to cross. The himilayas are an example of an intervening obstacle, but that is an enviromental obstacle. You could have an economic obstacle such as a town allong the way may be in harsh poverty and you may not be able to continue migrating. Or a political obstacle: Migrating through a country that is ruled under a law that despises something about you like race, gender, culture, or personal status.
Discuss the migration history of the United States through the following: immigration history, immigration policy, historic and contemporary streams or migration, internal migration patterns.
During the course of United States history there have been two migration "waves". One in the early 1900's around the time of world war 1 and the second from 1940ish to september 11, 2001. The first wave was created because the United States allowed anyone to migrate to the United States mainly because it was in the middle of its industrial stage and needed people to take jobs for businesses to thrive. But when World War 1 started many southern and Western Europeans began migrating to the United States causing the first "spike" in immigrants. Congress decided to stop the increased migration from Europe by passing a law that only allowed the amount 3% of 1910's migrants from Europe to be allowed to migrate into the country, but Congress didn't think it was enough so they changed the law to only 2% of 1890 thus ending the first wave migration. The second migration began close after the end of the first wave. Immigrants from countries in the caribbean and central America began to cross the borders into America illegally. After hurricane Katrina and poverty in Haiti many more immigrants illegally tried to smuggle themselves into the country. The immigration count rose steadily until September 11, 2001. When Congress began taking extreme measures to slow illegal migration into the U.S. They had fences built across the borders of Mexico and parts of Canada. As well as increased coast guard protection along states on the Gulf of Mexico where many immigrants were entering by boat.
Discuss the contributions of Revenstein the the study of human movement and migration.
Ravenstein's Laws of Migration: -Most migrants move only a short distance. -There is a process of absorption, whereby people immediately surrounding a rapidly growing town move into it and the gaps they leave are filled by migrants from more distant areas, and so on until the attractive force [pull factors] is spent. -There is a process of dispersion, which is the inverse of absorption. -Each migration flow produces a compensating counter-flow. -Long-distance migrants go to one of the great centers of commerce and industry. Natives of towns are less migratory than those from rural areas. -Females are more migratory than males. -Economic factors are the main cause of migration. Ravenstein was a british demographer who tried to aswer the question or why people voluntarily migrate. He studied forms of internal migration in England and produced the laws listed above which are still commonly found today.
Correlate migration patterns to the demographic model.
The demographic model shows the average population growth in an area that is becoming industrialized. If migration was to enter into a country during the course of the model, populations may change up the data and come to a differrent conclusion. People migrate to a place where they expect to have better life; If an area begins to push into the second or third stage of the model (when the country begins to industrialize) People will begin to think that they can have a better life in that country. So they migrate to the country and cause the total population of the growing country to skyrocket because of the increase in immagrants and lowered death rates.
Use the gravity model to predict migration and evaluate its efficiency and usefulness.
The gravity model shows how distance effects the number or migrators to a destination. For example, You wouldn't find many people from South Africa in Russia because of the great distance between them. Although the model does not account for advancement in technology. More specifically in the area of transportation. Because of the Internet and airplanes, Chinese immigrants are found quite numerous in the United States, even though they are on the opposite sides of the world.
