What is migration?
Migration is when people move from one place to another and change where they usually live, for a season, for years or for ever.
- Origin: the place people leave.
- Destination: the place people go to.
- Emigration: leaving a place (the person is an emigrant from there).
- Immigration: coming into a place (the person is an immigrant there).
- Net migration = immigrants − emigrants.
A tourist, a pilgrim or someone travelling daily to work (a commuter) is not a migrant, because they do not change their home.
Why do people move? Push and pull factors
Push factors are problems that make people leave:
- Economic: no jobs, low pay, poor harvests, debt.
- Environmental: drought, floods, rising seas, land that no longer grows crops.
- Social and political: conflict, persecution, lack of schools or hospitals.
Pull factors attract people to a place:
- Jobs and higher wages, better schools and health care.
- Safety and freedom.
- Family and friends already there (migration networks).
Most people move because of a mix of pushes and pulls, and marriage is a major reason for moving, especially for women in many countries.
Types of migration and obstacles
- By distance: internal (inside one country: rural→urban, urban→urban, rural→rural, urban→rural) or international (between countries).
- By time: seasonal/temporary (harvest workers, students) or permanent.
- By choice: voluntary (for work or study) or forced. Refugees flee across a border because of war or persecution; internally displaced people are forced out but stay in their own country.
Intervening obstacles
Travel cost, long distance, immigration laws and visas, a new language and no contacts can stop people who want to move. That is why most migrants move short distances, and young adults (about 18–35) move the most.
Effects of migration
On the origin
- + Remittances: money sent home pays for food, houses and school fees.
- + Returning migrants bring new skills and ideas.
- − Loss of young, skilled people (brain drain); farms short of workers; many older people and children left behind.
On the destination
- + Workers fill jobs; new foods, festivals and ideas; a younger workforce.
- − Crowded housing and slums, pressure on water, transport and schools if cities do not plan.
- Migrants may face low pay, unsafe work or unfair treatment; good laws and welcome help them.
Migration also changes population: the origin's population gets older and may shrink; the destination's grows and gets younger.
Key formulas and definitions
- Key terms: origin, destination, emigration, immigration
- Net migration = immigrants − emigrants
- Push factors (leave) vs pull factors (attract)
- Types: internal / international; temporary / permanent; voluntary / forced
- Refugee: forced to flee across a border
- Remittance: money a migrant sends home
- Brain drain: loss of skilled people from the origin
Worked examples
1. In one year, 12,000 people moved into a town and 7,500 moved out. Find net migration.
Net migration = 12,000 − 7,500 = +4,500. The town gained 4,500 people through migration.
2. Sort into push or pull: drought, higher wages, war, good hospitals, no land to farm.
Push: drought, war, no land to farm. Pull: higher wages, good hospitals.
3. A family flees floods and moves to a relief camp in another district of the same country. What type of migration is this?
Internal and forced: they are internally displaced people, not refugees, because they did not cross a border.
4. Give one good and one bad effect of migration on a village that many young men leave.
Good: remittances help build houses and pay school fees. Bad: farms lack workers and older people and women carry extra work.
Common mistakes
- Calling a tourist or a daily commuter a migrant. A migrant changes where they usually live.
- Mixing up emigrant and immigrant. Emigrants exit a place; immigrants come in.
- Calling every forced migrant a refugee. Refugees cross a border; others are internally displaced.
- Thinking migration only harms the origin. Remittances and returning skills can help it a lot.