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Human migration is movement by humans from one place to another, sometimes over
long distances or in large groups. Historically this movement was nomadic, often
causing significant conflict with the indigenous population and their
displacement or cultural assimilation. Only a few nomadic people have retained
this form of lifestyle in modern times. Migration has continued under the form
of both voluntary migration within one's region, country, or beyond and
involuntary migration (which includes the slave trade, trafficking in human
beings and ethnic cleansing). People who migrate into a territory are called
immigrants, while at the departure point they are called emigrants. Small
populations migrating to develop a territory considered void of settlement
depending on historical setting, circumstances and perspective are referred to
as settlers or colonists, while populations displaced by immigration and
colonization are called refugees. The rest of this article will cover migration
in the sense of a "change of residence", rather than the temporary migrations of
travel, tourism, pilgrimages, or the commute.
Migration statistics
According to the International Organization for Migration's World Migration
Report 2010, the number of international migrants was estimated at 220 million
in 2013. If this number continues to grow at the same pace as during the last 20
years, it could reach 405 million by 2050. While some modern migration is a
byproduct of wars (for example, emigration from Iraq and Bosnia to the US and UK),
political conflicts (for example, some emigration from Zimbabwe to the UK), and
natural disasters (for example, emigration from Montserrat to the UK following
the eruption of the island's volcano), contemporary migration is predominantly
economically motivated. In particular, there are wide disparities in the incomes
that can be earned for similar work in different countries of the world. There
are also, at any given time, some jobs in some high-wage countries for which
there is a shortage of appropriately skilled or qualified citizens. Some
countries (e.g., UK and Australia) operate points systems that give some lawful
immigration visas to some non-citizens who are qualified for such shortage jobs.
Non-citizens, therefore, have an economic incentive to obtain the necessary
skills and qualifications in their own countries and then apply for, and migrate
to take up, these job vacancies. International migration similarly motivated by
economic disparities and opportunities occurs within the EU, where legal
barriers to migration between member countries have been wholly or partially
lifted. Countries with higher prevailing wage levels, such as France, Germany,
Italy and the UK are net recipients of immigration from lower-wage member
countries such as Greece, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland and Romania.
Some contemporary economic migration occurs even where the migrant becomes
illegally resident in their destination country and therefore at major
disadvantage in the employment market. Illegal immigrants are, for example,
known to cross in significant numbers, typically at night, from Mexico into the
US, from Mozambique into South Africa, from Bulgaria and Turkey into Greece,
from north Africa into Spain and Italy and from Bangladesh into India.
The pressures of human migrations, whether as outright conquest or by slow
cultural infiltration and resettlement, have affected the grand epochs in
history and in land (for example, the decline of the Roman Empire); under the
form of colonization, migration has transformed the world (such as the
prehistoric and historic settlements of Australia and the Americas). Population
genetics studied in traditionally settled modern populations have opened a
window into the historical patterns of migrations, a technique pioneered by
Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza.
Forced migration has been a means of social control under authoritarian regimes,
yet free-initiative migration is a powerful factor in social adjustment and the
growth of urban populations.
In December 2003, The Global Commission on International Migration (GCIM) was
launched with the support of Secretary-General of the United Nations Kofi Annan
and several countries, with an independent 19-member commission, a threefold
mandate and a finite lifespan ending December 2005. Its report, based on
regional consultation meetings with stakeholders and scientific reports from
leading international migration experts, was published and presented to Kofi
Annan on 5 October 2005.
International migration challenges at the global level are addressed through the
Global Migration Group, established in 2006.
Different types of migration include:
Seasonal human migration mainly related to agriculture and tourism to urban
places
Rural to urban, more common in developing countries as industrialization takes
effect (urbanization)
Urban to rural, more common in developed countries due to a higher cost of urban
living (suburbanization)
International migration
Pre-modern migrations
Early human migrations and Historical migration
Scheme of Indo-European migrations from ca. 4000 to 1000 BC according to the
Kurgan hypothesis.
Austronesians expansion map
4th to 6th century Migration Period
Historical migration of human populations begins with the movement of ***
erectus out of Africa across Eurasia about a million years ago. *** sapiens
appear to have occupied all of Africa about 150,000 years ago, moved out of
Africa 70,000 years ago, and had spread across Australia, Asia and Europe by 40,000
years BC. Migration to the Americas took place 20,000 to 15,000 years ago, and
by 2,000 years ago, most of the Pacific Islands were colonized. Later population
movements notably include the Neolithic Revolution, Indo-European expansion, and
the Early Medieval Great Migrations including Turkic expansion. In some places,
substantial cultural transformation occurred following the migration of
relatively small elite populations, Turkey and Azerbaijan being such examples.
In Britain, it is considered that the Roman and Norman conquests were similar
examples, while "the most hotly debated of all the British cultural transitions
is the role of migration in the relatively sudden and drastic change from Romano-Britain
to Anglo-Saxon Britain", which may be explained by a possible "substantial
migration of Anglo-Saxon Y chromosomes into Central England (contributing 50%–100%
to the gene pool at that time."
Early humans migrated due to many factors such as changing climate and landscape
and inadequate food supply. The evidence indicates that the ancestors of the
Austronesian peoples spread from the South Chinese mainland to Taiwan at some
time around 8,000 years ago. Evidence from historical linguistics suggests that
it is from this island that seafaring peoples migrated, perhaps in distinct
waves separated by millennia, to the entire region encompassed by the
Austronesian languages. It is believed that this migration began around 6,000
years ago. Indo-*** migration from the Indus Valley to the plain of the
River Ganges in Northern India is presumed to have taken place in the Middle to
Late Bronze Age, contemporary to the Late Harappan phase in India (ca. 1700 to
1300 BC). From 180 BC, a series of invasions from Central Asia followed,
including those led by the Indo-Greeks, Indo-Scythians, Indo-Parthians and
Kushans in the northwestern Indian subcontinent.
From 728 BC, the Greeks began 250 years of expansion, settling colonies in
several places, including Sicily and Marseille. In Europe, two waves of
migrations dominate demographic distributions, that of the Celtic people and
that of the later Migration Period from the North and East, both being possible
examples of general cultural change sparked by primarily elite and warrior
migration. Other examples are small movements like that of the
Magyars into Pannonia (modern-day Hungary). Turkic peoples spread from their
homeland in modern Turkestan across most of Central Asia into Europe and the
Middle East between the 6th and 11th centuries. Recent research suggests that
Madagascar was uninhabited until Austronesian seafarers from Indonesia arrived
during the 5th and 6th centuries AD. Subsequent migrations from both the Pacific
and Africa further consolidated this original mixture, and Malagasy people
emerged.
One common hypothesis of the Bantu expansion c. 1000 BC to c. 500 AD
Before the expansion of the Bantu languages and their speakers, the southern
half of Africa is believed to have been populated by Pygmies and Khoisan-speaking
people, today occupying the arid regions around the Kalahari Desert and the
forest of Central Africa. By about 1000 AD, Bantu migration had reached modern
day Zimbabwe and South Africa. The Banu Hilal and Banu Ma'qil were a collection
of Arab Bedouin tribes from the Arabian Peninsula who migrated westwards via
Egypt between the 11th and 13th centuries. Their migration strongly contributed
to the Arabization and Islamization of the western Maghreb, which was until then
dominated by Berber tribes. Ostsiedlung was the medieval eastward migration and
settlement of Germans. The 13th century was the time of the great Mongol and
Turkic migrations across Eurasia.
Between the 11th and 18th centuries, there were numerous migrations in Asia. The
Vatsayan Priests from the eastern Himalaya hills, migrated to Kashmir during the
Shan invasion in 1203C. They settled in the lower Shivalik hills in 1206C to
sanctify the manifest goddess. In the Ming occupation, the Vietnamese expanded
southward in a process known as nam tiến (southward expansion). Manchuria
was separated from China proper by the Inner Willow Palisade, which restricted
the movement of the Han Chinese into Manchuria during the early Qing Dynasty, as
the area was off-limits to the Han until the Qing started colonizing the area
with them later on in the dynasty's rule.
The Age of Exploration and European colonialism led to an accelerated pace of
migration since Early Modern times. In the 16th century, perhaps 240,000
Europeans entered American ports. In the 19th century, over 50 million
people left Europe for the Americas. The local populations or tribes, such
as the Aboriginal people in Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Australia, Japan and
the United States, were usually far overwhelmed numerically by the settlers.
Modern migrations
Industrialization and the rise of nationalism/imperialism
While the pace of migration had accelerated since the 18th century already (including
the involuntary slave trade), it would increase further in the 19th century.
Manning distinguishes three major types of migration: labor migration, refugee
migrations, and urbanization. Millions of agricultural workers left the
countryside and moved to the cities causing unprecedented levels of urbanization.
This phenomenon began in Britain in the late 18th century and spread around the
world and continues to this day in many areas.
Industrialization encouraged migration wherever it appeared. The increasingly
global economy globalized the labor market. The Atlantic slave trade diminished
sharply after 1820, which gave rise to self-bound contract labor migration from
Europe and Asia to plantations. Overpopulation , open
agricultural frontiers, and rising industrial centers attracted voluntary
migrants. Moreover, migration was significantly made easier by improved
transportation techniques.
Romantic nationalism also rose in the 19th century, and, with it, ethnocentrism.
The great European industrial empires also rose. Both factors contributed to
migration, as some countries favored their own ethnicities over outsiders and
other countries appeared to be considerably more welcoming. For example, the
Russian Empire identified with Eastern Orthodoxy, and confined Jews, who were
not Eastern Orthodox, to the Pale of Settlement and imposed restrictions.
Violence was also a problem. The United States was promoted as a better location,
a "golden land" where Jews could live more openly. Another effect of
imperialism, colonialism, led to the migration of some colonizing parties from "home
countries" to "the colonies", and eventually the migration of people from "colonies"
to "home countries".
Transnational labor migration reached a peak of three million migrants per year
in the early twentieth century. Italy, Norway, Ireland and the Guangdong region
of China were regions with especially high emigration rates during these years.
These large migration flows influenced the process of nation state formation in
many ways. Immigration restrictions have been developed, as well as diaspora
cultures and myths that reflect the importance of migration to the foundation of
certain nations, like the American melting pot. The transnational labor
migration fell to a lower level from 1930s to the 1960s and then rebounded.
The United States experienced considerable internal migration related to
industrialization, including its African American population. From 1910–1970,
approximately 7 million African Americans migrated from the rural Southern
United States, where blacks faced both poor economic opportunities and
considerable political and social prejudice, to the industrial cities of the
Northeast, Midwest and West, where relatively well-paid jobs were available.
This phenomenon came to be known in the United States as its own Great Migration.
With the demise of legalized segregation in the 1960s and greatly improved
economic opportunities in the South in the subsequent decades, millions of
blacks have returned to the South from other parts of the country since 1980 in
what has been called the New Great Migration.
The World Wars and their aftermath Balkan Turks in 1912
Swiss woman and her children leaving Civil war in Russia, around 1921
The First and Second World Wars, and wars, genocides, and crises sparked by them,
had an enormous impact on migration. Muslims moved from the Balkan to Turkey,
while Christians moved the other way, during the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
Four hundred thousand Jews had already moved to Palestine in the early twentieth
century, and numerous Jews to America, as already mentioned. The Russian Civil
War caused some three million Russians, Poles, and Germans to migrate out of the
new Soviet Union. Decolonization following the Second World War also caused
migrations.
The Jewish communities across Europe, the Mediterranean and the Middle East were
formed from voluntary and involuntary migrants. After the Holocaust (1938 to
1945), there was increased migration to the British Mandate of Palestine, which
became the modern state of Israel as a result of the United Nations Partition
Plan for Palestine.
Provisions of the Potsdam Agreement from 1945 signed by victorious Western
Allies and the Soviet Union led to one of the largest European migrations, and
the largest in the 20th century. It involved the migration and resettlement of
close to or over 20 million people. The largest affected group were 16.5 million
Germans expelled from Eastern Europe westwards. The second largest group were
Poles, millions of whom were expelled westwards from eastern Kresy region and
resettled in the so-called Recovered Territories (see Allies decide Polish
border in the article on the Oder-Neisse line). Hundreds of thousands of Poles,
Ukrainians (Operation Vistula), Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians and some
Belarusians were expelled eastwards from Europe to the Soviet Union. Finally,
many of the several hundred thousand Jews remaining in Eastern Europe after the
Holocaust migrated outside Europe to Israel and the United States.
Pakistan-India
Rural Sikhs in a long ox-cart train heading towards India. Margaret Bourke-White,
1947. The migration was a "massive exercise in human misery," wrote Bourke-White.
In 1947, upon the Partition of India, large populations moved from India to
Pakistan and vice versa, depending on their religious beliefs. The partition was
promulgated in the Indian Independence Act 1947 as a result of the dissolution
of the British Indian Empire. The partition displaced up to 12.5 million people
in the former British Indian Empire, with estimates of loss of life varying from
several hundred thousand to a million. Muslim residents of the former British
India migrated to Pakistan (including East Pakistan which is now Bangladesh),
whilst Hindu and Sikh residents of Pakistan and Hindu residents of East Pakistan
(now Bangladesh) moved in the opposite direction.
In modern India, estimates based on industry sectors mainly employing migrants
suggest that there are around 100 million circular migrants in India. Caste,
social networks and historical precedents play a powerful role in shaping
patterns of migration. Migration for the poor is mainly circular, as despite
moving temporarily to urban areas, they lack the social security which might
keep them there more permanently. They are also keen to maintain a foothold in
home areas during the agricultural season.
Research by the Overseas Development Institute identifies a rapid movement of
labour from slower- to faster-growing parts of the economy. Migrants can often
find themselves excluded by urban housing policies, and migrant support
initiatives are needed to give workers improved access to market information,
certification of identity, housing and education.
Theories for migration for work in the 21st century
Overview
Migration for work in the 21st century has become a popular way for individuals
from impoverished developing countries to obtain sufficient income for survival.
This income is sent home to family members in the form of remittances and has
become an economic staple in a number of developing countries. There are a
number of theories to explain the international flow of capital and people from
one country to another.
Neoclassical economic theory
This theory of migration states that the main reason for labor migration is wage
difference between two geographic locations. These wage differences are usually
linked to geographic labor demand and supply. It can be said that areas with a
shortage of labor but an excess of capital have a high relative wage while areas
with a high labor supply and a dearth of capital have a low relative wage. Labor
tends to flow from low-wage areas to high-wage areas. Often, with this flow of
labor comes changes in the sending as well as the receiving country.
Neoclassical economic theory is best used to describe transnational migration,
because it is not confined by international immigration laws and similar
governmental regulations.
Dual labor market theory
Dual labor market theory states that migration is mainly caused by pull factors
in more developed countries. This theory assumes that the labor markets in these
developed countries consist of two segments: primary, which requires high-skilled
labor, and secondary, which is very labor-intensive but requires low-skilled
workers. This theory assumes that migration from less developed countries into
more developed countries is a result of a pull created by a need for labor in
the developed countries in their secondary market. Migrant workers are needed to
fill the lowest rung of the labor market because the native laborers do not want
to do these jobs as they present a lack of mobility. This creates a need for
migrant workers. Furthermore, the initial dearth in available labor pushes wages
up, making migration even more enticing.
The new economics of labor migration
This theory states that migration flows and patterns cannot be explained solely
at the level of individual workers and their economic incentives, but that wider
social entities must be considered as well. One such social entity is the
household. Migration can be viewed as a result of risk aversion on the part of a
household that has insufficient income. The household, in this case, is in need
of extra capital that can be achieved through remittances sent back by family
members who participate in migrant labor abroad. These remittances can also have
a broader effect on the economy of the sending country as a whole as they bring
in capital. Recent research has examined a decline in U.S. interstate
migration from 1991 to 2011, theorizing that the reduced interstate migration is
due to a decline in the geographic specificity of occupations and an increase in
workers’ ability to learn about other locations before moving there, through
both information technology and inexpensive travel. Other researchers find
that the location-specific nature of housing is more important than moving costs
in determining labor reallocation.
Relative deprivation theory
Relative deprivation theory states that awareness of the income difference
between neighbors or other households in the migrant-sending community is an
important factor in migration. The incentive to migrate is a lot higher in areas
that have a high level of economic inequality. In the short run, remittances may
increase inequality, but in the long run, they may actually decrease it. There
are two stages of migration for a worker: first, they invest in human capital
formation, and then they try to capitalize on their investments. In this way,
successful migrants may use their new capital to provide for better schooling
for their children and better homes for their families. Successful high-skilled
emigrants may serve as an example for neighbors and potential migrants who hope
to achieve that level of success.
World systems theory
World systems theory looks at migration from a global perspective. It explains
that interaction between different societies can be an important factor in
social change within societies. Trade with one country, which causes economic
decline in another, may create incentive to migrate to a country with a more
vibrant economy. It can be argued that even after decolonization, the economic
dependence of former colonies still remains on mother countries. This view of
international trade is controversial, however, and some argue that free trade
can actually reduce migration between developing and developed countries. It can
be argued that the developed countries import labor-intensive goods, which
causes an increase in employment of unskilled workers in the less developed
countries, decreasing the outflow of migrant workers. The export of capital-intensive
goods from rich countries to poor countries also equalizes income and employment
conditions, thus also slowing migration. In either direction, this theory can be
used to explain migration between countries that are geographically far apart.
Historical theories
Ravenstein
Certain laws of social science have been proposed to describe human migration.
The following was a standard list after Ravenstein's (1834-1913) proposal in the
1880s. The laws are as follows:
every migration flow generates a return or countermigration.
the majority of migrants move a short distance.
migrants who move longer distances tend to choose big-city destinations.
urban residents are often less migratory than inhabitants of rural areas.
families are less likely to make international moves than young adults.
most migrants are adults.
large towns grow by migration rather than natural increase.
Migration stage by stage
Urban Rural difference
Migration and Technology
Economic condition
Lee's laws divides factors causing migrations into two groups of factors: push
and pull factors. Push factors are things that are unfavourable about the area
that one lives in, and pull factors are things that attract one to another area.
Push Factors
Not enough jobs
Few opportunities
Primitive conditions
Desertification
Famine or drought
Political fear or persecution
Slavery or forced labour
Poor medical care
Loss of wealth
Natural disasters
Death threats
Lack of political or religious freedom
Pollution
Poor housing
Landlord/tenant issues
Bullying
Discrimination
Poor chances of marrying
Condemned housing (radon gas, etc.)
War
Pull Factors
Job opportunities
Better living conditions
Political and/or religious freedom
Enjoyment
Education
Better medical care
Attractive climates
Security
Family links
Industry
Better chances of marrying
See also article by Gürkan Çelik, in Turkish Review: Turkey Pulls, The
Netherlands Pushes? An increasing number of Turks, the Netherlands’ largest
ethnic minority, are beginning to return to Turkey, taking with them the
education and skills they have acquired abroad, as the Netherlands faces
challenges from economic difficulties, social tension and increasingly powerful
far-right parties. At the same time Turkey’s political, social and economic
conditions have been improving, making returning home all the more appealing for
Turks at large. (pp. 94–99)
Climate cycles
The modern field of climate history suggests that the successive waves of
Eurasian nomadic movement throughout history have had their origins in climatic
cycles, which have expanded or contracted pastureland in Central Asia,
especially Mongolia and the Altai. People were displaced from their home ground
by other tribes trying to find land that could be grazed by essential flocks,
each group pushing the next further to the south and west, into the highlands of
Anatolia, the Pannonian Plain, into Mesopotamia or southwards, into the rich
pastures of China. Bogumil Terminski uses the term "migratory domino effect" to
describe this process in the context of Sea People invasion.
Other models
Migration occurs because individuals search for food, sex and security outside
their usual habitation. Idyorough is of the view that towns and cities are a
creation of the human struggle to obtain food, sex and security. To produce food,
security and reproduction, human beings must, out of necessity, move out of
their usual habitation and enter into indispensable social relationships that
are cooperative or antagonistic. Human beings also develop the tools and
equipment to enable them to interact with nature to produce the desired food and
security. The improved relationship (cooperative relationships) among human
beings and improved technology further conditioned by the push and pull factors
all interact together to cause or bring about migration and higher concentration
of individuals into towns and cities. The higher the technology of production of
food and security and the higher the cooperative relationship among human beings
in the production of food and security and in the reproduction of the human
species, the higher would be the push and pull factors in the migration and
concentration of human beings in towns and cities. Countryside, towns and cities
do not just exist but they do so to meet the human basic needs of food, security
and the reproduction of the human species. Therefore, migration occurs because
individuals search for food, sex and security outside their usual habitation.
Social services in the towns and cities are provided to meet these basic needs
for human survival and pleasure.