The document summarizes several key theories and observations about patterns of human migration:
1. Ravenstein proposed seven "laws of migration" in 1885, including that most migrants move short distances and migration usually occurs in a step-by-step process.
2. More recent geographers have observed that growth of large cities is often driven more by migration than natural population increase, and that economic factors are a primary driver of most migrations.
3. Lee identified "push factors" that drive people away from places like unemployment or hazards, and "pull factors" that attract migrants to new locations like jobs or quality of life. Restraining factors can prevent people from migrating.
4. Models of
1. PATTERNS OF MIGRATIONS
Seven Laws of Migration according to Ravenstein (1885):
1. Migrants usually move a short distance (“distance decay factor”)
2. Migration is a step-by-step process (one group moves on and is replaced by a new group)
3. Immigration somewhere means emigration somewhere else
4. Immigration waves encourages a counter-current of emigration (balance = net migration)
5. Long-distance migrants are more likely to move to major urban centers
6. Rural residents are more likely to migrate than urban residents
7. Females or more likely to migrate than males within the country, but males more likely to another country.
Recent geographers have added more observations, such as:
• Growth of large cities is triggered by migration more than by natural increase
• Migration is primarily due to economic reasons
• Most migrants are aged 20-35
• Migrations increase as cities, industry and transport develop
• Many migrants cannot find work and eventually return to where they came from
Push/Pull Factors according to Lee (1966):
• Push factors are negative features that cause a person to move away from place (ex: unemployment, low wages, war,
natural hazards, persecution, famine, lack of opportunities)
• Pull factors are the attractions (real or imagined!) that exist in the destination (ex: higher wages, better jobs, good
schools, higher quality of life, protection from natural hazards, perception of abundance, etc)
• Restraining factors can be an obstacle to pull factors: distance, cost, linguistic /cultural differences, loneliness, lack of
human rights (Gulf countries)
Limitations of models:
• Not all people are actually free to migrate (ex: kids, mortgage, etc)
• Some people do not have the skills, education or qualifications required to move
• Distance, age, race, class, income, language or gender can be barriers to migrations
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3. Highway near the
US-Mexico border
Foreign oil companies
In Nigeria need highly
skilled and well paid
Western engineers
Rural migrants arriving
At the Beijing train station
(China)
Most workers who
support the real
estate boom in
Dubai come from
Pakistan and
Bengladesh
Infrared satellite photo
Of rural colonization in
Rondônia (Brazil interior)
Refugee camp in
Chad, near the
border with
Sudan
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