Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
285,000,000 Americans, that means about 8,000,000 people leave one state and move to another each
year.
“The brain drain”
Brain drain
refers to the global tendency for highly educated and skilled citizens of devel-
oping countries to migrate to the more developed nations. This population shift saps (or
drains) the developing world of intellectual resources as it adds them to the already more
well-to-do countries. People the world over seek education that prepares them for mod-
ern highly skilled, good-paying jobs. The economies of developing countries typically do
not, however, generate large-scale employment of this type. In contrast and by their very
nature, the economies of developed countries do. Indeed, in some developed nations the
number of such jobs exceeds the indigenous supply of qualified applicants. One result is
immigration laws in developed countries that give preference to highly trained foreigners
who are prepared to fill the vacancies. In the United States, for example, the 1990 Immig-
ration Act set aside 140,000 slots annually for foreigners with valuable skills. The years
since have witnessed pressure to increase that number. The effect of these and similar
policies is to increase the brain drain. While this policy clearly benefits the receiving de-
veloped countries, it also exemplifies the saying that “the rich get richer, and the poor get
poorer.”
Principally because of this domestic (that is, interstate) migration, the populations of states
and regions of the United States are growing at different rates (see Figure 12-2). Nevada, for
example, grew by an astounding 66 percent during the 1990s, while the population of North
Dakota grew by only 0.5 percent. Overall, we can pinpoint discernible regions of growth.
The highest rates of increase are occurring in the southern tier of states (the
Sunbelt
) plus the
Northwest. The lowest rates of growth are occurring in the Northeast and Upper Midwest (
the
Snowbelt
).
As implied above, these differences have little to do with natural increase and are only modestly re-
lated to immigration from foreign lands. Instead, the patterns in Figure 12-2 are largely a function of
domestic migration in general and complementary migration fields in particular. That is, people have
generally relocated from the low-growth areas to the high-growth areas.
This relationship has been in high gear for at least the past 30 years. Reasons for it include
A surge in retirees migrating from the northern Snowbelt (a push factor) to the warmer
climes of the Sunbelt (a pull factor)
