Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Migration
Human migration involves the movement of a person (a migrant)
between two places for a certain period of time. It is often considered a
relatively permanent relocation as compared to temporary spatial
mobility, which includes all kinds of movement such as commuting,
temporary working away from home, circulating 'back and forth' and
visiting. Commonly, the migrant's migration decision is motivated by
'hope' that the move will bring positive returns to themself, or them-
selves, and/or provide better opportunities for their children.
Internal migration
Internal migration within national political boundaries has always been
the largest kind of population redistribution enumerated since demo-
graphic statistics have been collected and compared at global scales. Its
character is often differentiated by the source and destination of such
flows, with rural-to-urban migration almost always being the most
prevalent internal migration stream. Urban-to-urban and urban-to-
suburban movement has occasionally predominated in advanced, highly
urbanized economies such as the US. Most significantly, migration has
been a fundamental factor in economic development precisely because
capitalist growth and accumulation depends upon the ready availability
of migrant labour. With urban-industrialization processes evolving
under successive phases of capitalist expansion from the eighteenth
century onwards, in-migration of a much-needed labour force from
less-developed rural areas has contributed to the rapid growth of the
world's urban centres in the global North and South (Todaro 1976;
Skeldon 1997).
Concerning urbanization patterns in the global South, Michael
Lipton (1977) has argued convincingly of an 'urban bias' in develop-
ment theory and practice. To Lipton, modernization's messages and
advocacy of conventional economic development theory and practice,
such as urban industrialization, adoption of modern technological
innovations and the like, have always discriminated against the rural
poor of the global South - in this case, by making them urban poor.
With rural development ignored, or treated as a secondary concern
across the global South, many have had to in-migrate to their nearby
cities in search of work, to make a living, or simply survive. Once
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