Population Geography Migration

Vocabulary Migration - A permanent move to a new location Immigration - Migration from a location Emigration - Migration to a location

Questions Why do people migrate? How have social, economic, political, and environmental factors influenced migration?

Push and Pull Factors People decide to migrate because of push and pull factors. A push factor induces people to leave a location. A pull factor induces people to move to a new location.

Push Factor - Overpopulation People often leave areas that are heavily populated.

Push Factor - Religious Persecution When people cannot worship as they wish they migrate. The pilgrims that landed at Plymouth were fleeing religious persecution.

Push Factor - Lack of Jobs The vast majority of people migrating from Latin America, Africa, and Asia are migrating because there are no jobs.

Net migration rates: Countries in blue have a positive migration rate and countries in red have a negative.

Push Factor - Agricultural Decline Agricultural decline means a person cannot grow as much food on the same amount of land as they once could. Over time land becomes less fertile and people have to move.

Push Factor - Conflict People flee from wars. These people are known as refugees. There are many refugee camps in Africa due to a long history of civil war in many countries.

Push Factor - Political Persecution Political persecution means that people are punished when they disagree with the government. This happens most in dictatorships or communist countries. People have migrated from China and Cuba because of political persecution.

Push Factor - Natural Hazards Droughts Floods Tsunamis Earthquakes Volcanoes

Push Factor - Limits on Freedom Communist countries often limit personal freedom. People cannot listen to certain music, watch certain television shows, or even say things bad about the government.

Push Factor - Environmental Degradation Deforestation Desertification - An expansion of arid conditions into non-arid regions. This is a problem in the Sahel, a region near the Sahara Desert in North Africa.

Click here to see desertification video from youtube.

Pull Factors Religious Freedom Economic Opportunity Land Availability Political Freedom Ethnic and Family Ties Arable Land

Types of Migration International Migration - This is when someone moves from one country to another country Internal Migration - This is when someone moves within the same country

Intervening Obstacles An intervening obstacle is an environmental or cultural feature that hinders someone from migration. This means that people don’t always go to their desired destination.

Intervening Obstacles In the past, intervening obstacles were primarily environmental. Before the invention of modern transportation systems such as railroads people migrated by horse or on foot. What type of obstacles might hinder their progress?

Where do people migrate to? Developed countries receive the most immigrants in the world. Countries such as the United States, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom attract immigrants because there are jobs. Mexican Gregorio Candelaria Cruz Ortega, 40, shows a check issued by the Harris Country, Texas, Sheriff's office for US 37 cents after he was deported because he was caught working illegally in the United States. U.S. authorities confiscate the hard currency carried by illegal immigrants detained for deportation and issue them a check for the same amount when the immigrants are deported. Cruz Ortega was returned to Mexico and is now staying at a shelter run by the Catholic church in Reynosa, state of Tamaulipas, Mexico. Cruz Ortega was deported a day before U.S. President George W. Bush announced his plan to give legal status to millions of foreign workers who obtain jobs in the United States as well as the millions of illegal immigrants already working in the country. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)

Guest Workers Sometimes due to strict immigration laws people are assigned guest worker status. They are not legal citizens but they are protected by the law. The Middle East and Europe has strong guest worker programs. ** APN ADVANCE FOR SUNDAY, SEPT. 24 ** Turkish-born worker Imam Guengoer, 37, makes a doner kebab spit, at the kebab firm Kap.Lan in Berlin's district of Wedding, in this Oct. 10, 2003 photo. As immigrant communities in Germany and the United States campaign for an expanded economic and cultural role, politicians and the public in both are debating what constitutes an acceptable policy to integrate them, their children and even grandchildren. There are 2.7 million people of Turkish origin in Germany. (AP Photo/Franka Bruns)

Impact of Immigration Language Religion and Religious Freedom Customs/Traditions Cultural Landscape

Refugee: Anyone who “owing to a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion is outside the country of his nationality and is unwilling or unable to avail himself of the protection of that country.” Source: United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, 1951

“Translate" the definition into your own contemporary (informal) language

When is a fear of persecution well-founded? Why are people persecuted due to their race, religion, nationality, social group or political opinion? Give examples. Why would a person decide that they should leave the protection of their own country?

Nation – legally, a term encompassing all citizens of a state Nation state – a state whose territory corresponds to that occupied by a particular ethnicity that has been transformed into a nationality.

Who are the Kurds? Primarily non-Arabic Sunni Muslims Own Language and Culture live in the generally contiguous areas of Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Armenia and Syria known as “Kurdistan” or land of the Kurds 15-20 million Kurds Would like to form their own nation Persecuted by many, especially Saddam Hussein

Why do Iraqi soldiers and other officials consider them to be "enemies of the state"?

What actions, not in the story, have happened to the Kurds? (Helicopter gunship attacks on Kurd villages, army attacks on villages, reports of chemical weapons being used against villages.)

What standards, if any, are usual before a person can be deprived of life, liberty or property? For what you see in Chapter one, is this true in Kurdistan?