Human Migration

I. What is Migration?

MOVEMENT vs MIGRATION

Cyclic Movement: Movement away from home for a short period of time

• Commuting
• Seasonal Movement
• (unique) Nomadism

Periodic Movement: Movement away from home for a longer period of time

• Migrant Labor (farming in the USA)
• Transhumance (following livestock)
• Military Service

Movement vs. Migration

MIGRATION: a change in residence meant to be permanent

• International Migration: Movement across country borders
• Internal Migration: Movement within a country’s borders

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Internal Migration

International Migration

II. Why do People Migrate?

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FORCED MIGRATION: Migrants have no choice but to relocate

• Spanish Inquisition
• Atlantic Slave Trade
• US Indian Policy
• Irish Great Famine
• Stalinist Russia
• Partition of India
• Rwandan Genocide
• Nazi Germany
• German Expulsion (1944-50)

Why Do People Migrate?

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VOLUNTARY MIGRATION: Migrants weigh their choices & options, then decide to move

• Not always clear-cut from forced (ex. Irish or Jewish immigrants to USA)
• Men have been more likely to move than women (changing in 21^st century)

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PUSH & PULL FACTORS

3 basic factors: ECONOMIC, CULTURAL, ENVIRONMENTAL

Economic Push-Pull Factors

• Jobs (Availability, Opportunities for Advancement)

• Resources (Land [agriculture, pastures], Resources [minerals, forests, fish])

• Government Policies (Homestead Act of 1862, etc.)

Cultural Push-Pull Factors

• Political Instability (War, Prejudice/Persecution, Refugees)

• Political Stability (a Pull – not a Push!)

• Slavery (An estimated 20 million people today live in some form of slavery such as bonded labor, forced labor, chattel slavery, sex trade, etc.)

Environmental Push-Pull Factors

• Health and Disease

• Water (Flood, Drought, or Reliability)

• Amenities (Attractive Scenery, Beaches, Warm Winters, etc.)

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PUSH & PULL FACTORS

Countries with numerous PUSH FACTORS typically experience a flight of human capital, or a Brain Drain, while countries with numerous PULL FACTORS experience Brain Gain

• Sub-Saharan Africa (150,000 skilled professionals emigrate annually: Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia have lost nearly 75% of their skilled workforce since 1980)
• Island nations of the Caribbean (over 80% of college graduates from Jamaica, Haiti, Suriname, Grenada, and Guyana live overseas)
• Former Communist nations (nearly 500,000 scientists, doctors, and computer programmers have left the Soviet Union since collapse in 1991. Also the Balkans)
• South Asia (India loses $10bill. yearly from students who study abroad and stay)
• China (the leading victim of Brain Drain: 7 out of 10 Chinese students who go to study in the United States, Canada, or Australia never return)

Brain Drain / Brain Gain

RAVENSTEIN’S LAWS OF MIGRATION

Ernst Ravenstein proposed laws of migration in the 1880s:

1. Every migration flow generates a return, or counter-migration.
2. The majority of migrants move a short distance.
3. Migrants who move longer distances tend to choose big-city destinations.
4. Urban residents are less migratory than inhabitants of rural areas.
5. Families are less likely to make international moves than young adults.

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RAVENSTEIN’S LAWS

III. Where do People Migrate?

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REGIONAL MIGRATION FLOW (migration to neighboring countries)

• Economic opportunities
• Islands of Development: places where foreign investment, jobs, infrastructure are concentrated (ex. Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa)
• Role of Globalization and Colonialism
• Reconnection of cultural/ethnic groups
• Flee from conflict and war

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Migration for Economic Opportunity

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Examples

• European migration from the 1700s to the early 1900s into colonies
• Chinese migration in the late 1800s throughout Southeast Asia

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Guest Workers

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Migrants who are allowed into a rich developed country to fill a labor need, assuming the migrants will go “home” once the labor need subsides

• Typically have short term work visas
• Often send remittances (money) to their home country

Migration to Reconnect with Cultural Group

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Examples

• 1900 -1948: Migration of about 700,000 Jews to the British Mandate of Palestine
• 1948 - Creation of Israel: Forced migration of about 700,000 Palestinian Arabs

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Field Note

“Just a few miles into the West Bank, not far from Jerusalem, the expanding Israeli presence could not be missed. New settlements dot the landscape, often occupying strategic sites that are also easily defensible. These ‘facts on the ground’ will certainly complicate the effort to carve out a stable territorial order in this much-contested region. That, of course, is the goal of the settlers and their supporters, but it is salt on the wound for those who contest the Israeli right to be there in the first place.”

REFUGEES

• The 1951 UN Refugee Convention defines a refugee as: “a person who has a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion.”
• The United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that 83 percent of refugees flee to a country in the same region as their home country.
• The ultimate goal is not resettlement, but REPATRIATION. Resettlement is often the last result.

Zaire (Congo) -Rwanda border region. Hundreds of thousands of mainly Hutu refugees stream out of a refugee camp in eastern Zaire (now Demcratic Republic of Congo), heading home to Rwanda in November 1996.

REFUGEES

• Internally displaced persons are people who have been displaced within their own countries, but they do not cross international borders as they flee. (ex. Syrians in Syria, Hurricane Katrina USA 2005)
• Asylum: the right to protection in a country in which the refugee arrives. (ex. Venezuelans in Columbia)
• Repatriation: a process by which the UNHCR helps return refugees to their homelands once violence and persecution subside. (ex. most Rwandans back from Zaire, some Rohingya back to Myanmar)

IV. How do Governments Affect Migration?

Chinese Exclusion Acts (1882–1943): U.S. laws to prevent the immigration of the Chinese.

Immigration Restriction Acts and Dictation Tests (1901-1958): A newly united Australia enacts the White Australia Policy effectively ending all non-white immigration into the new country by requiring knowledge of a European language.

US MIGRATION POLICIES

• Immigration to the USA reached a climax in the early 1900s (until the early 21^st century!)
• Prior to 1890, 82% of immigrants came from Northern and Western Europe
• 1891-1920, only 25% from N & W Europe, 65% from Southern and Eastern Europe
• East Coast – Ellis Island West Coast – Angel Island

The “Peak” of Immigration

Old New New New

CHICAGO

Population History

“The American Dream”

Mulberry Street – “Little Italy”

Hester Street – “Jewish Quarter”

US Immigration Laws

• Naturalization Act of 1790: naturalization limited to “free white persons of good moral character”
• 14^th Amendment: “…all persons born in the USA” (broadened in 1870 to allow naturalization to those of African descent – Who is “White”???)
• Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882: only Federal immigration law ever written specifically for one group
• Immigration Act of 1921: immigration limited to 3% of those foreign born Americans in the 1910 census
• Immigration Act of 1924: immigration limited to 2% of those foreign born Americans in the 1890 census (Also, no immigrants ineligible for citizenship are permitted to immigrate)
• Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1952: prohibited racial and gender discrimination in naturalization
• Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965 (Hart-Celler Act): abolished all previous quotas and replaced it with a system that issues approximately 150,000 visas (preference to skilled immigrants) and unlimited visas to family & sponsored members

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US Immigration Laws

The Effects of the Hart-Celler Act of 1965… (the most influential law no one’s ever heard of!)