1. Forced and Voluntary Migration
Why do people migrate?
Forced and Voluntary Migration

2. Types of Migration
Forced Migration: involves the imposition of authority or power
Voluntary Migration: occurs after a migrant weighs options and choices (even desperate ones)
The distinction is not always clear
Example: Irish Potato Famine

3. Power Struggles Migration at an individual level is complex
Who makes the decisions in the household?
In many regions, men migrate more than women, and men migrate further than women
It is possible that not all members of the household want to migrate
In many Mexican households, men are sent out to find work away from home
In households where there is not a strong male presence, women are sent out to find work

4. Forced Migration
The largest forced migration in history was the Atlantic slave trade, which carried tens of millions of Africans to South America, North America, and the Caribbean
Exact numbers are not known, but estimates range from twelve to thirty million
Most slaves were transported to South America and the Caribbean
North American slaves were very expensive (roughly $35,000 in today’s money), and were treated more humanely

5. The Atlantic Slave Trade

6. Atlantic Slave Trade
The slave trade began in the sixteenth century in the Caribbean
It gradually expanded northwards through North America
The slaves performed plantation agriculture
Plantation Agriculture: producing one or a couple of cash crops, mainly for export
Slaves were mainly exported from the western coast of Africa, due to physical and cultural geography

7. Other examples of forced migration
British convicts exported to Australia from s
US government moving Native Americans to reservations in the 1800s
Russia moving non-Russians to Central Asia and Siberia from
Germans moving many groups of people to ghettos and concentration camps in the 1930s
Countermigration is a form of forced migration
US sending back the Haitians in the 1990s

8. Why do people choose to migrate?
Studies of voluntary migration indicates three reasons why people migrate where they do:
Similarity between new location and homeland
Ease of travel back to homeland
Physical distance

9. Push and Pull Factors
When a person, family, or group of people makes a voluntary decision to migrate, push and pull factors come into play
Push Factors: the conditions and perceptions that help a migrant decide to leave a place
Pull Factors: the circumstances that effectively attract the migrant to certain locales from other places
The decision to migrate is a combination of push and pull factors

10. Push Factors Typically more accurate than pull factors
Include individual considerations such as:
Work or retirement conditions
Cost of living
Personal safety and security
Environmental catastrophies

11. Pull Factors Pull factors can be based solely on perception
The closer one migrates, the more accurate the perception
Distance Decay: the intensity of human activity, process, or function declines as distance from the source increases

12. Other types of migration
Step Migration: occurs when migration happens in stages
Example: a farmer moving to a village, then a town, then a city, and finally a metropolis
Not everyone that sets out for the “big city” makes it there
Some get sidetracked by intervening opportunities
An opportunity that presents itself in such a way that is a barrier to migration

13. Types of Push and Pull Factors

14. Economic Conditions
Economic opportunities are the number one reason why people migrate
Perceived opportunities cause millions to flee to Western Europe and North America
When the economy is in a recession, immigration decreases, both legal and illegal

15. Political Circumstances
Migrations are driven by escape and expulsion
Vietnamese immigrants that fled Vietnam following the Vietnam War are known as “boat people”

16. Armed Conflict and Civil War
Examples include the breakup of Yugoslavia (Balkanization) and the genocide in Rwanda

17. Environmental Conditions
The Irish Potato famine was a result of disastrous environmental conditions
Emigration occurs in California following every major earthquake

18. Culture and Traditions
People who fear their culture and traditions will not survive a major political transition often migrate
Millions of Muslim Indians fled India to Pakistan
Many white citizens of South Africa fled to Great Britain, Australia, and North America after the end of Apartheid

19. Technological Advances
People can learn about new places, search for job opportunities, and even purchase real estate via the Internet
Kinship links also strengthen the pull factor to a new place
Ethnic neighborhoods
When migrants move through kinship links, this is called chain migration
Chain migration can create immigration waves, or swells in immigration from one origin to the same destination