The Impact of Migration

Essential Question  How do you examine reasons and patterns of human migration?

Migration  Migration is the process of moving from one place to live in another.

Immigrant  A person who moves into a new country.

Emigrant  A person who moves out of a country (exit)

Example  If Joe moves from Spain to France. He is an _______ to Spain and an _______ to France.  Emigrant to Spain  Immigrant to France

Video Questions 1. Why do so many people leave their home countries to start a new life in America? 2. Do you think the large emigration from Mexico to the United States hurts or helps Mexico? WHY?

Push – Pull Theory  When one thing pushes you out of one location, another thing pulls you into a different location.  Explains the reasons why people migrate.

The Irish Potato Famine  During the summer of 1845, a "blight of unusual character" devastated Ireland's potato crop, the basic staple in the Irish diet. A few days after potatoes were dug from the ground, they began to turn into a slimy, decaying, blackish "mass of rottenness." The cause was a fungus that had traveled from Mexico to Ireland.

 "Famine fever – a variety of diseases-soon spread through the Irish countryside. Observers reported seeing children crying with pain and looking "like skeletons, their features sharpened with hunger and their limbs wasted, so that there was little left but bones." Masses of bodies were buried without coffins, a few inches below the soil.

 Over the next ten years, more than 750,000 Irish died and another 2 million left their homeland for Great Britain, Canada, and the United States. Within five years, the Irish population was reduced by a quarter.

 Irish peasants subsisted on a diet consisting largely of potatoes, since a farmer could grow triple the amount of potatoes as grain on the same plot of land. A single acre of potatoes could support a family for a year. About half of Ireland's population depended on potatoes for subsistence.

 Tenant farmers held short-term leases that were payable each six months in some areas. If the tenants failed to pay their rent, they were jailed or evicted and their homes burned. During the time of the Great Hunger ( ), approximately 500,000 people were evicted, many of whom died of starvation or disease or relocated to mismanaged and inadequate poor houses.

 The alternative to eviction, poorhouses, or starvation was emigration, which rose to over two million people from Emigrants tended to follow their families which were found mostly in Great Britain, United States, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. There were two ways out of this Irish nightmare, death and emigration. There were two ways out of this Irish nightmare, death and emigration.

 In a paragraph, describe the Irish Potato Famine. –Describe what it was –Describe its effects on the people

Homework  Look at the following pictures in the book and decide why people would want to move out of these locations.  Pages 79, 612, 628, 653, 657, 668, 679, 705

Reasons for Migration  On each of the following slides make a list of things that pushed and pulled people to move.

Family  Many people migrate to be closer to their family and friends. It gives them a familiar feeling in a new place. When immigrants came to the United States, they often moved near family or friends. This eventually led to entire neighborhoods full of one specific culture.

Climate  People often migrate to live in a climate that lets them live how they want. The climate affects what crops can grow, what animals can be bred, and even what kind of house can be built. Some people even migrate with the seasons, living up north during the summer and in the south during the winter, to have more temperate climates year-round.

Natural Resources  People migrate to an area to live near natural resources they need or want. They can use these natural resources to help them survive and trade them for other things they do not have. Middle Eastern countries are near oil, and they can trade it with other countries for things they do not have, like timber and types of food.

Employment  People also migrate to an area because of job opportunities. As cities grow, more people are migrating into them from the country to have better and more jobs. People also migrate to different countries to get better jobs at higher wages.