Types of Migration: Why People Feel Compelled to Move

Types of Migration: Why People Feel Compelled to Move — By Stacey Walker

As the world’s population steadily increases, more and more people are looking to leave their crowded cities and countries to find a little piece of real estate they can call their own. Some move within their own country while others uproot their lives entirely and move to places with a language they don’t speak and a culture they don’t yet understand. And depending on the type of migration, it’s not exactly an easy process.

Historically, migration was a means of finding food or escaping droughts. Today, the reasons for leaving one place for another are a little more modernized, but the main principle remains: people are searching for a better life.

Common Causes of Migration Today

Economic: Different industries are more lucrative in certain cities or countries. For example, many American States are known for being meccas for a particular set of professionals (think tech professionals) and they may have higher salaries. On the other end of the spectrum, a high cost of living could also force people to move to more affordable states just to get by.

Social: People will occasionally move closer to family or friends — sometimes this is because they migrated away previously. Alternatively, if their quality of life is suffering, moving to a new state or country serves as a much needed escape.

Political: This is often the motivation for refugees, who are leaving their home due to civil unrest or political destabilization. Discriminatory politics, war, persecution, or the threat of death are the driving force for many desperate escapes.

Environmental: Natural disasters such as flooding, wildfires, and earthquakes can force people to move from one city to another. Moving may be an escape from future threats, the same disasters, loss of a home or income, or the desire to be closer to family for financial and social support.

Types of Migration: The Migration Laws

The main driving force for people being pushed from their homes has to do with safety and security. Places with high crime rates, few opportunities, and crumbling infrastructure will see a higher rate of emigration whereas places with low crime rates, political stability, and low chances of natural disaster will see a higher influx of population.

Migration usually results from a variety of these forces experienced at once. In the 1880s, geographer E. G. Ravenstein created a set of migration ‘laws’ still accepted today. They state that:

Most migrants will travel a short distance;
Those traveling long distances will likely settle in urban areas;
Most migration occurs in steps;
Most migration is rural to urban;
Each migration flow produces a ‘counterflow’;
Most migrants are adults;
Most international migrants are male while more internal migrants are female.

And although there are exceptions to these ‘rules’ and a much larger world population today, the main principles still hold. However, it’s also important to note that not all migration is the same. There are several types of migration that will have different impacts.

The Main Types of Migration

Internal Migration

The easiest type of migration, internal migration encompasses those who move to a new home within the same city, state, country. These are likely the type of people who are moving for economic and social reasons or environmental if their state or area is particularly affected.

Based on historic examples — like settlers crossing the Appalachians to the 1930’s Dust Bowl — internal migration has been an ever-present part of American society. The United States Census Bureau reports that 13.6% of people in the United States move houses within a year and 2.3% move to a new state. And while these percentages seem low, that’s still over 43 million and 6 million people respectively.

Internal migration within a state is largely due to improving housing situations, such as divorce, marriage, and work. Climate and weather are also huge factors that encourage migration; warmer states see more migrants.

External Migration

Movement to a new state, country, or continent is considered external migration. The United States is the largest recipient of migrants from other countries with 50.6 million as of 2020. Worldwide, 280.6 million emigrants left their country for another.

While 77% of immigrants in the United States are residing legally, external migration is often a point of contention — typically because people worry about the distribution of resources. However, when observing this through a historical lens, most migrants are beneficial to the economy and create jobs.

In the United States, the largest immigrant populations can be found in cities within coastal states such as California, Florida, and New York, which are also states that tend to be well-known around the world.

Population Transfer

A type of forced migration, population transfer occurs at the hands of local governments who wish to rid the region of people due to their ethnicity or religion. It may also be linked to government infrastructure or initiatives such as China’s Three Gorges Dam in 2008, where over a million residents were moved before thousands of cities, towns, and villages were flooded by the reservoir.

Impelled Migration

When people leave their homes due to political unrest, warfare, religious persecution, or anything else that may impact them or their family’s safety, they fall under the impelled migrant category. In this case, an individual feels that they need to leave their country to live a better life even though they may not necessarily want to leave their home; leaving is generally the lesser of two evils.

Step Migration

When a person moves in a series of steps from their place of origin to a destination that they may see as more favorable to their desired lifestyle, they are going through step migration. If someone starts on a farm, for example, and decides that they want to live in a city, they may first go to a village and then a town and then a city. This could be a safer way to meet one’s goals financially, earning a little more money with each migration. This kind of movement was common in England, especially with the industrialization of cities.

Chain Migration

Oftentimes, one person – usually the family’s patriarch – will leave their family behind and make their way to a new country before anyone else, allowing them to earn enough money to bring others over. Chain migration happens when there are a series of migrations within a family or group of people. This type of migration has been historically popular, especially with those immigrating to North America. It allows a family to slowly settle in and adjust.

Chain migration often results in migration fields where clusters of people from a specific region populate certain neighborhoods or towns. Modern neighborhoods like Little Italy and Chinatown in New York City are examples of this.

Return Migration

Return migration is the process of migrants returning to their places of origin. It’s also called circular migration. If someone moved with certain goals or needs that weren’t met, they might feel compelled to move home. The First Nations reserves in Northern Canada frequently see examples of this as children move to a Southern Canadian city for high school or post-secondary education and struggle to find a community, causing them to migrate back home and miss out on their education.

Seasonal Migration

Often seen with laborers and retirees, seasonal migration is where people move to a climate that suits their work. It is common to see farmhands from other countries work during the summer in one area and then return home following the final harvest to work locally. Equally common are retirees leaving their homes during winter for somewhere warmer and returning when the weather improves.

Conclusion

Migration has always occurred, starting with the migration of Homo erectus from Africa across Eurasia 1.75 million years ago. It’s how countries like America, Canada, Britain, and Australia have become the modern multi-cultural melting pots that they are. These movements result in population changes, changes in social and cultural characteristics, and have huge impacts on local economies and physical environments.

And with the world’s population continuing to grow, migration is likely to become even more prevalent, amalgamating cultures, beliefs, and languages into newly developed ones that are something entirely independent and unique.

To find similar articles like “Types Of Migration: Why Humans Feel Compelled To Move” explore our exclusives page. Or, to find interactive tools that deal with topics relating to “Types of Migration” explore our web mapping applications page where you’ll find hundreds of useful tools related to religion, climate change, social justice, and more.

Want Millennial Cities Content Delivered to Your Inbox?

Want free articles, news, tools, and information just like, “Retention Pond vs Detention Pond: Which is Better for Stormwater?” Subscribe below and we’ll add you to the list!

Sources Used and Other Examples of Migration

https://www.nationalgeographic.org/activity/introduction-human-migration/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z8x6wxs/revision/2

Journal of Economic Perspectives—Volume 25, Number 3—Summer 2011—Pages 173–196 Internal Migration in the United States (https://pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1257/jep.25.3.173 9 September)

https://www.census.gov/acs/www/about/why-we-ask-each-question/migration/