Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Only estimated net migration can be studied. However, a recent change in the
reporting scale now enables evaluation of data at the level of counties and
metropolitan areas. Naturally, local data is considerably more variable than data
aggregated at state levels, but data at the local level presents a patchwork of
contrasting, local situations. Observing data at this level reveals other phenomena as
well, such as urban sprawl, which is a phenomenon that is easily visible around
Washington DC and Dallas, for example, but which is in reality widespread (see
Chapter 7). One may also see a diversity of local situations within states, such as the
fact that Texas is highly attractive to migrants due to urban growth in cities like
Dallas, Houston, Austin and San Antonio; meanwhile, the high plains of west Texas
suffer from abandonment just as the rural states further north. The situation in
Georgia is similar to that of Texas. Florida is very attractive to migrants, with the
exception of the Miami metropolitan area which has experienced a net migration
loss. The situation in California can be compared with that of Florida. In California,
cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego actually contribute to the
state's migration deficit, while the inlands and northern part of the state remain
attractive to migrants. The use of net migration rates enables demographers to
identify the relative attractiveness of areas such as the uplands of the Ozark
Mountains in southern Missouri and northwestern Arkansas, the Appalachians and
New England in the East, as well as all the mountains of the West. The former
Cotton Belt of the rural South continues to lose population, as do most of the rural
counties of the High Plains.
American expansionist tradition and settlement practices would have populations
leave territories considered too dense in order to inhabit other less populated areas.
There are two major exceptions to this rule: the depopulation of the High Plains and
the influx of new residents to Florida.
Considering all metropolitan areas in order to filter through urban sprawl, it
appears that the country's major cities are experiencing internal migratory deficits.
Outbound migration from the New York metropolitan area continues on a massive
scale, as it does for most cities in the Manufacturing Belt. Yet, the internal migration
deficit of California's big cities, a more recent phenomenon, is no less spectacular,
while the trend in Miami reflects the limitations of the attractiveness of large cities,
even in a state that is particularly attractive to migrants. The most attractive cities are
the big cities of the desert, Phoenix and Las Vegas, while the success of cities in the
Southeast Atlantic (with the exception of Miami) probably represents the most
significant trend of the early years of the twenty-first century. The Texas triangle
follows in third position. The comparison of the two previous maps showed a high
level of continuity both before and after the turn of the twenty-first century. The
boom in Utah, no doubt related to the build-up for the 2002 Winter Olympic Games
