Migration Movement of people

Migration’s Roots National Geographic’s Human Genome Project determined that all humans descend from common African ancestors that began a worldwide migration ~60,000 years ago

Push and Pull Factors Why do people migrate? Push Factor – Encourages people to move OUT of an area. Could be Cultural, Environmental, Economic Examples – lack of jobs, political instability, hazards

Push and Pull Factors Pull Factor – Encourages people to move TO an area. Attractive quality to those outside the area. Examples: Education or Economic opportunities

Assimilation versus Acculturation Assimilation – Complete blending with the host culture that may result in the loss of ethnic traits. Acculturation – an ethnic group adopts enough of the ways of the host society to be able to function economically and socially.

Assimilation

Acculturation

Ethnic Culture Regions Ethnic homelands – large, rural areas with sizeable populations. Reinforce the ethnicity’s identity. Can be both a formal and functional region French-Canadian Quebec Ethnic Islands – small, rural areas that are isolated spatially and culturally from the surrounding regions. Ethnic Substrate – residual culture without an ethnic group

Ethnic Cultural Regions Ethnic Neighborhood – voluntary, urban community where people of a common ethnicity choose to live Ex: Jewish sections of Miami Beach

Cont. Ghetto – urban, residential quarters usually based on ethnicity or religious beliefs, at one time were walled off from the rest of the community Ghettos do not have to be poor, nor are they based on race. In US, the slang term ghetto usually means an impoverished, African-American neighborhood. Barrio would be the Hispanic equivalent.

Chain Migration Relocation Diffusion An individual or small group goes to an area of greater opportunity (usually “most important” person in family) Influence friends or family members to join them Neighbors also may follow

Involuntary Migration FORCED movement due to enslavement, warfare (Refugee), expulsion by government Example – Atlantic Slave Trade forced 10 - 28 million people from their homes

Return Migration Voluntary movement of an ethnic group BACK to its homeland Ex: Many African-Americans moving back to the South, Eastern Europeans moving back after the fall of communism

Percentages of African-Americans in the population

Percentages of Latinos in the population

Immigrants in a new land Cultural Simplification – Only fragments of a culture can actually transplant as people move Only certain traits move with a person or group and not all will be practicable in the new place (things may be modified) Ex: Spanish spoken by people in the Hispano homeland of New Mexico speak an older form of Spanish than those living in Spain itself

Cultural Pre-adaptation – A series of traits a group possesses prior to migration that helps them adapt to a new location Ex: Many English settlers to the US located in areas that were like the farms they left in England.