Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Not all migrants from one place follow the same
steps. When 1000 people leave a village and migrate to a
town in a given year, most, if not all, of them may dream
of making it to, and in, the “big city.” But only about 500
may actually move from town to city, and of these, only
200 eventually reach the metropolis that impelled them
to move in the fi rst place. Along the way the majority are
captured by
intervening opportunity
. This happened
during the Great Migration when African Americans by
the tens of thousands migrated northward after World
War I to seek work in growing cities like Chicago and
Cleveland. Many found employment in St. Louis and
Cincinnati; that is, they encountered intervening oppor-
tunities along their northbound routes.
Along any route of migration, whether direct, in
steps, or interrupted by intervening opportunity, a volun-
tary migrant weighs push and pull factors.
Distance small:
Interaction strong
Distance large:
Interaction slight
Increasing Distance
Types of Push and Pull Factors
What specifi c factors impel people to pull up stakes and
leave the familiar for the uncertain? What specifi c factors
help migrants choose a destination? Research has shown
that typically a combination of factors, not just one, leads
to deciding it is time to move and deciding where to go.
Any single factor can be either a push for the migrant to
leave the home country or a pull to the new country, and
which factor matters most depends on the migrant and
the circumstances surrounding the decision to migrate.
Figure 3.8
Distance Decay
.
© E.H. Fouberg, A.B. Murphy, H. J. de Blij, and John
Wiley & Sons, Inc.
push factors more accurately than pull factors. Push fac-
tors include individual considerations such as work or
retirement conditions, cost of living, personal safety and
security, and, for many, environmental catastrophes or
even issues like weather and climate. Pull factors tend
to be vaguer and may depend solely on perceptions con-
strued from things heard and read rather than on experi-
ences in the destination place. Often, migrants move on
the basis of excessively positive images and expectations
regarding their destinations.
When considering pull factors, the principle of
distance decay
comes into play (Fig. 3.8). Prospective
migrants are likely to have more complete perceptions
of nearer places than of farther ones, which confi rms the
notion that the intensity of human activity, process, or
function declines as distance from its source increases.
Since interaction with faraway places generally
decreases as distance increases, prospective migrants
are likely to feel much less certain about distant destina-
tions than about nearer ones. This leads many migrants
to move to a locale closer to home than they originally
contemplated.
Migration streams may appear on maps as long,
unbroken routes, but in fact they often consist of a series
of stages, a phenomenon known as
step migration
. A
peasant family in rural Brazil, for example, is likely to
move fi rst to a village, then to a nearby town, later to a
city, and fi nally to a metropolis such as São Paulo or Rio
de Janeiro. At each stage a new set of pull factors comes
into play.
Legal Status
Migrants can arrive in a country with (legally) or without
(illegally) the consent of the host country. Each country
around the world determines who is allowed to migrate to
their country and under what circumstances. If you apply
for and receive a work visa from another country, you are
legally allowed to live in the country and work there for
the time allotted on the visa, which is usually a period of
months or years. Having a visa makes you a legal migrant
because you have your documents, your visa, to show your
legal right to be in the place. If you do not have a visa, you
are an illegal, or undocumented, migrant in the country.
Undocumented or illegal migrants choose quite different
options for fi nding their way into the country than legal
migrants do, simply because they do not want to be caught
for fear of
deportation
, being sent back home.
Economic Conditions
Poverty has driven countless millions from their home-
lands and continues to do so. Perceived opportunities in
destinations such as western Europe and North America
impel numerous migrants, both legal and illegal, to cross
the Mediterranean, the Caribbean, and the Rio Grande
