Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
The manufacture of computer equipment and electronic components is not
absent from the Manufacturing Belt (see Figure 6.5). The Boston metropolitan area
has a prominent place in the American electronics industry, but it only comes in
second place after cities on the West coast, of which San Francisco (including
Silicon Valley) is by far the leader. The employment distribution map for
metallurgical industries shows the opposite trend with an activity that remains
largely concentrated in the Manufacturing Belt (see Figure 6.6).
Thus, while the share of manufacturing employment fell from 22% to 15%
between 1970 and 2000, industrial reorganization played a significant role in the
general movement of internal migration in the United States.
6.4. A population on the move
The residential mobility of the American population is one of the remarkable
characteristics of this country, even right from its origins. We have seen how these
migrations constantly redraw the country's demographic map. Americans often live
in unremarkable, undifferentiated, urban environments.
In a living space which is culturally and linguistically homogenous, and
characterized by a sense of universality and easy mobility, changing one's
metropolitan context and state of residence is relatively easy. Such mobility is a
structural advantage in that the workforce adapts to economic opportunities, thus
optimizing labor market adjustments. In this way, the United States differs
profoundly from the “Old World”.
The pattern of internal migration changes with the economic cycle. To simplify,
one might speak of the period from the end of the First World War in 1918 to 1970
as “Fordist”, and the period since 1970 as contemporary. From its inception to the
outbreak of the First World War, the US economy was driven by a pioneering cycle:
development of new land and natural resources lured migrants to the West while the
industrial cities of the Manufacturing Belt continued their development thanks to
European immigration. Westward expansion was the logical outcome of internal
migration during this period and California is the product of this trend.
At the same time, the South, with its plantation economy and uneasy race
relations between blacks and whites, remained outside of this great movement, even
if Texas and a part of the Southwest also drew settlers. The First World War caused
unprecedented acceleration of industrial growth, while the social institution of
