Migration: Movement of people from one area to another, within or out of the country.

 

Push Factors for migration 

• Unemployment/low pay

• To escape poverty/low GDP

• Poor health care/less doctors/hospitals etc.

• Poor education/not enough schools

• Lack of clean water/sanitation

• Power cuts/outages/not enough electricity

• Inadequate food supplies/famine/can’t grow crops

• War/conflict

• Persecution /lack of freedom

• Corruption/political instability/poor government/dictatorship

• Genocide/murder rate

• Drought

• Earthquake/volcanic eruption/tsunami/tropical storm

• Air pollution/smog

 

Pull Factors for migration 

• Employment

• Higher pay

• Regular pay

• Workers have more rights

• Migrants are able to send home remittances

• Better healthcare

• Better education

• Reliable water supply

• Reliable electricity

• Good food supply 

• Better entertainment / bright light syndrome 

• Political stability/not at war

 

Types of Migration

• Voluntary migration: Individuals have free choice about whether to migrate or not. 

• Involuntary migration: People are made to move against their will, due to human or environmental factors. 

• International migration: involves movement between countries.

• Internal migration: occurs within a country, from area to area.

• Rural-urban migration: occurs from rural areas to cities. 

 

Reasons why forced (involuntary) migration may occur from a country:

• War / civil unrest

• Drought / famine

• Political/religious persecution

• Natural disaster (e.g. volcano, flood)

 

How economic factors can cause international migration:

• Lack of work/unemployment in home country

• Higher wages in destination country

• Expensive living costs in home country

• Lower house prices in destination country

• Free healthcare in destination country

• Government in destination country provides free education/subsidised education

• High exchange rate/strong currency

• Poor economy/poverty/low GDP/lower taxes

 

Describe impacts of rural to urban migration on the rural area.

Negative impacts

• Imbalance of sex ratios/ loss of male workers

• Loss of young, working, active population

• Underused services e.g. schools/shops close down

• Reduction in food supply/ starvation/ malnutrition/ reduction of farm production/ lack of farmers/farms neglected

• Social problems or example/no-one to look after elderly

• Families divided

Positive impacts

• Easier to find work that people have left behind;

• benefit of remittances/ send money back

• Less pressure on services (eg. hospitals)

• Less pressure on utilities (eg. water supply)

• Less pressure on food supply

 

Characteristics of a population structure that may attract many migrants:

• Imbalanced sex distribution

• Few old dependents

• Few young dependents / children of ages 0–19 

• Mostly economically active / people of ages 20–50

 

Why are there more immigrants to the US from Mexico, rather than from Spain?

• Mexico is closer/Spain is further away

• From Spain it is necessary to travel by air/sea/Mexico has a land border/direct border

• It is cheaper to travel there from Mexico

• Spain has more options/neighbouring countries

 

How do immigrants choose their destination country?

• Migrants choose the country that is closer

• There may already be more immigrant communities established in that country. 

• A country may be less likely to accept people from a certain country for political reasons.

• A country may attract certain migrants as they are proficient in speaking their language. 

 

Impacts of Migration

On migrants

Problems

• Difficulty of obtaining VISA / official documents / Green Card / citizenship / immigration laws / permission to work

• Difficulty of finding employment

• Low pay/ Exploitation

• Qualifications will not be accepted

• Expense of relocation

• Finding housing / affording a home

• Healthcare may not be affordable

• Education may not be affordable

• Language difficulties

• Difficult to practise their religion

• Culture shock

• Discrimination/racial abuse/racial conflict/racial tension/xenophobia

• Away from friends and family 

 

On the destination country 

Benefits

• Enlarges labour force/helps to exploit resources

• Provides cheap labour

• People will do jobs locals will not do/dirty jobs

• Skilled labour (or example – doctors/engineers)

• Brings new ideas / inventions

• Cultural exchange/multi-cultural society

• Employment/revenue for country created by new businesse

• Raises more tax revenue/ more tax paid to government

• Specific services set up (eg. restaurants)

• Larger market for businesses/more sales

• Reduces dependency ratio

• Helps country to develop/improves economy/ increases GDP

 

Problems

• Unemployment

• Illegal so don’t pay taxes

• Loss of income due to remittances

• Lack of housing/temporary accommodation/overcrowded housing/squatter settlements/slums

• Lack of/providing more health care

• Lack of/providing more educational facilities

• Lack of/providing more food

• Lack of/providing more water

• Sanitation/waste disposal

• Water/air pollution

• Traffic congestion

• Strain on public transport

• Signage/leaflets in different languages

• Conflicts with / resentment of local population/ Racial/political/religious tensions

• Checking all paperwork

• Security/border controls/drug problems - Need for patrols/rescue boats (if immigration by sea)

 

On the home country

Benefits 

• Opens up job opportunities

• Increase in wages

• Remittances sent back

• For investment in schools/infrastructure/churches

• New skills brought back

• Village or country economy develops

• Less pressure on employment

• Less pressure on services/housing

• Less pressure on healthcare

• Less pressure on education

• Less pressure on food supply

• Less pressure on water supply

• Less traffic congestion

• Less air pollution

• Positive impact on culture

 

Problems

• Loss of working population/loss of young population/loss of economically active

• Loss of skills/lack of innovation/brain drain/less workforce 

• Less taxes paid/taxes increases/less government money e.g. for pensions

• Closure of businesses/businesses make less profit/less spending power

• Country becomes less attractive for investors 

• Decline in economy/production is lower/GNP reduced

• Empty houses

• Closure of amenities or services - eg. schools or hospitals

• Closure of shops/less customers in shops

• Resources wasted/less demand for resources

• Hard to produce enough food (not enough farmers)

• Imbalance in age structure/mainly old and young are left/high dependent population

• No one left to care for elderly/elderly dependents increase

• Gender imbalance/loss of males

• More difficult to defend the country

• Under-population

• Declining birth rate

• Families split up

• Loss of traditional culture

 

Other impacts:

• Government adopts a pro-natalist policy

• Encourage migrant workers/encourage workforce another country

 

How does remittance money sent home by international migrants benefit people in the home country?

• Support family/escape poverty/higher standard of living/better quality of life/provide basic needs/buy luxuries

• Improve housing/buy better building materials/buy houses

• Build clinics/pay for health care (eg. vaccinations for children)

• Send children to school/build a school

• Improve water supply/dig wells/sanitation

• Pay for improvements to their farms (eg. fertilizer, machines)/buy more land

• Buy food/be better nourished/eat better diets

• Improve roads/tarmac roads/buy cars