Migration What reasons cause people to migrate to different areas? Important Vocabulary Migration Push and Pull Factors Social Factors Ethnic Persecution Religious Persecution Environmental Factors Forced Migration Physical Barriers Land Bridge Refugee Geographers generally divide the reasons for migration into push and pull factors. o o o Push Factors: events that push people out of their old location Pull Factors: attractions that lure migrants to new locations Often people migrate because of a combination of both push and pull factors. Common Push Factors Oppression Poverty Political Conflicts Environmental Factors Common Pull Factors Freedom Economic Opportunity Cultural Ties
I. Factors that lead to migration a. Social Factors i. Concerns how people organize themselves into groups 1. Religious Persecution a. Jewish Migration i. Roman Empire ii. Middle Ages iii. Holocaust b. Political Factors i. Concerns governments, government policies, wars and citizens rights ii. People often flee their homes when they become scenes of conflict and political differences iii. People may flee due to political persecution, or invasion from other countries 1. Cubans flee communism a. 1959: Fidel Castro came to power in Cuba 2. Flight of Afghan Refugees a. 1979: some Afghan citizens fled after the Soviets invaded and a long civil war began. b. 2011: Attack on World Trade Center i. U.S. declared War on Terrorism ii. U.S. attacked Taliban forces in Afghanistan iii. Thousands of Afghanis fled to Pakistan to escape the fighting iv. By the end of 2001, there were 5,000,000 refugees living in Pakistan c. Social Factors i. Concerns social issues such as ethnic persecution 1. Burundi and Rwanda a. 1994 bitter fighting began in Central Africa between the Hutu and Tutsi tribes of Burundi and Rwanda d. Economic Motives i. When people suffer from extreme poverty, this pushes some them to attempt to leave 1. Motivation is greater if conditions elsewhere offer opportunities 2. Example: Many people in the early 1900s left impoverished conditions in Eastern and Southern Europe to come to the United States, looking for economic opportunities e. Environmental Factors i. Some groups traditionally migrate with the seasons
1. Fulani of Africa move south with their herds in the dry season, and return north for the wet season ii. Environmental catastrophes 1. Crop failures 2. Floods 3. Fires 4. Earthquakes 5. Example: Irish Potato Famine a. Early 19 th century b. Irish depended on potatoes as their main food c. 1840s: potato crop was struck by the potato blight, a disease making them inedible d. More than a million Irish starved to death e. Many Irish emigrated to America 6. Example: Drought in the Sahel a. Some scientists believe that these droughts are causing world climatic changes b. Majority of people in the Sahel are involved in nomadic herding c. Drought has led to the erosion of soil and the deaths of large numbers of livestock d. Caused the deaths of more than 300,000 people e. Thousands migrating from the Sahel to neighboring regions
f. Subsistence farmers need to relocate because they do not have enough food. g. Extended drought can lead to dust storms, making herding and farming almost impossible f. Economic and Social Factors: Forced Migration i. Sometimes migration is not voluntary, but forced
ii. Forced migration has accompanied war and the persecution of people throughout most of history 1. Example: The Atlantic Slave Trade a. Between 1500 and the mid 1800s b. Millions of Africans forcibly taken from their homelands and shipped to the West Indies, Brazil or the United States c. Strong disruptive effect on African culture i. Encouraged tribes to go to war ii. Drained talent and labor iii. Led to the migration of millions of Africans to the Americas 2. Example: Native Americans a. British and American settlers uprooted millions of Native Americas b. Forcibly relocated to distant and often inhospitable reservation lands c. Native tribes also similarly removed from their lands in South Africa and Australia so that they could be replaced by white farmers and settlers
II. How Physical Geography Affects the Flow of Migration a. Factors of physical geography will often determine the particular path that migration takes. i. Mountains, Deserts, dense forests: may pose natural barriers to migration or shape its course 1. People usually migrate through valleys and along water routes 2. They may also cross land bridges
a. Thousands of years ago, Siberia was connected to Alaska by land b. Asian hunters following herds of animals crossed this land passage and migrated to Alaska c. Gradually, they migrated throughout North and South America d. Later, the oceans prevented further migrations into the Western Hemisphere until European technological improvements (exploration, slavery, Industrial Revolution) b. Physical Barriers i. Appalachian Mountains in North America 1. Barrier to migration heading West ii. Rocky Mountains and deserts of the Southwest 1. Natural barriers to migration further west 2. To reach California quickly, people sailed to Panama (8 weeks) or around South America (3 months) a. Took even longer overland until the first transcontinental railroad was built in 1869 iii. Sahara Desert 1. Natural barrier between North and Sub-Saharan Africa a. These regions have developed separately with very different cultures i. North: 1. Arab 2. White 3. Muslim ii. Sub-Saharan Africa 1. Christian and other religions 2. Black 3. Various ethnicities and languages
iv. Great Wall of China 1. Chinese emperors built these walls to prevent Central Asian tribes from crossing the Asian steppes and mountains into China Notes created by Audrey Alamo, PreAP World Geography based on excerpts from Mastering the TEKS in World Geography, Jarrett Publishing.