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Jul 1, 2020 · Migration is the movement of people from one place to another, to settle in a new location. Migration can be voluntary or involuntary and can occur for a variety of different reasons, including economic, environmental and social issues.
- Overview
- Causes of migration
- Causes of migration in Africa
- Causes of migration in the Pacific
- Effects of migration
Migration is the movement of people from one place to another with the intent to settle. Learn more about why it was important!
Human migration is the movement of people from one place to another with the intention of settling in the new location. When large numbers of people relocate, historians ask questions about why these people moved and what impacts their movements had.
Broadly speaking, there are two categories of factors that influence people’s decisions to migrate. Push factors occur where someone is currently living and make continuing to live there less attractive. A push factor could be political unrest, a lack of job opportunities, or overcrowding. Pull factors occur in a potential destination and make it an attractive place to migrate to. A pull factor could be better job opportunities or having relatives or friends who have already moved to this location.
Stop and consider: What is human migration?
Choose 1 answer:
Choose 1 answer:
•(Choice A)
In the preindustrial era, environmental factors like droughts, natural disasters, and climate all influenced human decisions about where to migrate. The expansion of Bantu-speaking peoples through Central Africa illustrates this relationship between environment and migration. Before we look at the movement of Bantu people, it is important to note that Bantu does not refer to a single community of people. It is a language family whose speakers also shared many cultural practices. There are several hundred distinct Bantu languages, of which Swahili is most widely spoken today.
People speaking Bantu languages spread from West Africa throughout Central and Southern Africa starting around 2000 BCE—see the first map below, where yellow depicts regions containing predominantly Bantu-speakers. Bantu-speakers migrated to and settled in places where the climate was well-suited to Bantu agricultural practices - see second map below.
Stop and consider: Based on these two maps, what might have caused Bantu-speakers to expand to the areas that they did?
[Possible answer]
The crops raised by Bantu-speaking farmers, such as millet and sorghum, grew best in the tropical savannah that covered much of sub-Saharan Africa. This made these regions the most attractive locations for new settlement. Sometime before 500 BCE, bananas were introduced to mainland Africa. Because bananas could grow in rainforest climates, the adoption of banana cultivation opened even more territory to Bantu expansion.
Bantu-speakers also possessed ironmaking technology, which allowed them to create stronger, more effective tools and weapons. Bantu-speakers had widely-shared agricultural practices and types of tools. This fact makes it easy to follow the spread of Bantu throughout central Africa. The presence of iron tools, for example, allows archaeologists to distinguish Bantu living sites from non-Bantu sites, such as those of the Pygmies in rainforest regions, and the Khoisan in more arid regions.
The most important factor limiting how many people can live in a given area is the ability to produce food. On the many small islands of the Pacific Ocean, limited space and limited production capacity helped cause migration. We don’t have population figures for the prehistoric Pacific, but we are able to make some guesses based on other evidence. The general relationship appears to have been that the larger the island, the more people it could support.2
The obvious obstacle to travel in the Pacific was the long stretches of open ocean between islands. Pacific Islanders used a combination of technology—such as catamarans and outrigger canoes—and knowledge of the environment and astronomy to navigate between islands.
Stop and consider: What technology allowed people to migrate to new islands in the Pacific?
Choose all answers that apply:
Choose all answers that apply:
•(Choice A)
In central Africa, the spread of Bantu-speaking people had effects on the environment. Introducing new crops and farming techniques altered the natural landscape. Raising cattle also displaced wild animal species. Agriculture improved the ability of Bantu-speakers to reproduce and expand more quickly. But, agriculture also had more noticeable impacts on the environment than hunting and gathering.
The plants and animals that people spread and cultivated throughout the Pacific allowed them to survive. However, these actions also had impacts on the island environments. The introduction of non-native plants and animals, as well as human activity, altered the ecosystems of the islands they chose to live on.
What were some effects of bringing new plants and animals to new environments?
[Possible answer]
In the most extreme example of human effects on a Pacific island, the people who settled Easter Island destroyed the environment to the point where it was hardly habitable. Both humans and the rats that had travelled with them hunted and wiped out local bird populations. The Easter Islanders cut down all the large trees, which made agriculture more difficult as fertile topsoil eroded. It also meant they couldn't build boats to leave the island. Because of human actions, the island was no longer able to support a large human population.
Stop and consider: What was most responsible for altering the environment of Easter Island?
Feb 28, 2019 · Reasons to flee. Migration has long been characterized and complicated by war, enslavement, and persecution. Jews fled their ancestral lands after waves of exile and the destruction of...
- Europe and Asia have the most international migrants. An estimated 86.7 million international migrants lived in Europe in 2020, followed by 85.6 million in Asia.
- The United States has more international migrants than any other country. With nearly 51 million migrants in 2020, the U.S. leads the world on this measure by a wide margin.
- India remains the top origin country for the world’s migrants. India has been a large source of international migrants for more than a century. In 2020, 17.9 million international migrants traced their origins back to India, followed by Mexico with about 11.2 million and Russia with about 10.8 million.
- Remittances – the money that migrants send to their home countries – decreased by about $11 billion from 2019 to 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic arrived.
- To escape past or future persecution based on race, religion, nationality, and/or membership in a particular social group or political opinion. Za'atari refugee camp, Jordan | UNHCR/ Brian Sokol.
- To escape conflict or violence. In many countries, but not the United States, families and individuals who immigrate to escape conflicts like war and violence can be considered for refugee status or asylum.
- To find refuge after being displaced due to environmental factors. Natural disasters, erosion, and other environmental factors caused by climate change are real threats that disproportionately affect people living in poverty.
- To seek superior healthcare. Imagine living in a country with limited access to healthcare when you’re suffering from serious health problems. Not fun.
Jun 21, 2024 · human migration, the permanent change of residence by an individual or group; it excludes such movements as nomadism, migrant labour, commuting, and tourism, all of which are transitory in nature. A brief treatment of human migration follows.
Identifying the causes and consequences of international labor migration is essential to our broader understanding of globalization. Scholars across diverse academic fields, including economics, political science, sociology, law, and demography, have attempted to explain why individuals voluntarily leave their homelands.
