Humans have spread across Earth during the past 7,000 years. This diffusion of human settlement from a small portion of Earth’s land area to most of it resulted from migration. To accomplish the spread across Earth, humans have permanently changed their place of residence—where they sleep, store their possessions, and practice their customs with family and friends.

Key Issue 1: Where Are Migrants Distributed?

Migration & Geography Migration is a permanent move to a new location and is a specific type of relocation diffusion. Geographers study migration because it helps reveal changes in population in places and regions around the world. The cultural exchange that occurs when migrants arrive at new locations provides the basis for analyzing and understanding cultural change.

Migration is a form of mobility, a broad term encapsulating all types of movements from one location to another. Movements that occur on a regular basis (daily, weekly, monthly, or annually), such as commuting from home to work, are called circulation. Most people migrate for three main reasons: economic opportunity, cultural freedom, and environmental comfort.

Migration Principles Nineteenth-century geographer E.G. Ravenstein’s “laws” are the foundation for contemporary geographic migration study. The “laws” are organized into three groups that help us understand where and why migration occurs:

• The distance that migrants typically move (discussed in Key Issues 1 and 2).

• The reasons why migrants move (discussed in the first part of Key Issue 3).

• The characteristics of migrants (discussed in the second part of Key Issue 3).

The migration transition identifies economic and social changes in a society that also produces the demographic transition. International migration usually occurs in stage 2 of the demographic transition, whereas internal migration often occurs during stages 3 and 4.

International Migration involves a permanent move from one country to another. International migration may be voluntary or forced. Voluntary migration is migration where a person has chosen to move (for economic or environmental reasons), while forced migration means a person was compelled to move (by cultural or environmental factors). This distinction is not always easily identifiable.

Approximately 9 percent of the world’s people are international migrants.

At the global scale, the three largest flows of migrants are:

• From Latin America to North America.

• From Asia to Europe.

• From Asia to North America.

Generally, the patterns show migration from developing countries to developed countries. Asia, Latin America, and Africa have net out-migration. North America, Europe, and the South Pacific have net in-migration.

Internal Migration is the permanent movement of a person or people within the same country. Internal migration can be divided into two types: interregional and intraregional. Interregional migration is the movement from one region of a country to another. The movement within the same region of a single country is called intraregional migration.

Immigration & Emigration The flow of migration always involves two-way connections – emigration is migration from a location, while immigration is migration to a location.

The difference between the number of immigrants and the number of emigrants is the net migration. If the number of immigrants is greater than the number of emigrants, the net migration is positive, and the region has net in-migration. If the number of emigrants is greater than the number of immigrants, the net migration is negative, and the region has net out-migration.

The United States has more foreign-born residents than any other country, approximately 45 million as of 2018. The highest in-migration rates are in the petroleum exporting countries of Southwest Asia. The largest migration flow is from Mexico to the United States.

Migration Patterns in Europe Europe, including Russia, is home to 78 million of the world’s 258 million immigrants in 2017. Russia is the country of origin for the largest number of emigrants. The migration of large numbers of refugees has changed migration patterns within Europe.

Changing U.S. Immigration The United States is situated in a unique position in the study of international migration, as it is inhabited overwhelmingly by direct descendants of immigrants. About 80 million people migrated to the United States between 1820 and 2018, including 45 million who were alive in 2018. Immigration in the United States can be conceptualized into three main eras:

• Colonial settlement in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

• Mass European immigration in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

• Asian and Latin American immigration in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.

U.S. Immigration at Independence According to the first census in 1790, the U.S. population was 3.9 million, including 950,000 who had immigrated to one of the colonies currently part of the United States. Immigration to the United States in this era primarily came from two key places: Europe and sub-Saharan Africa. Most Africans were forced to migrate to the United States as slaves, while most Europeans were voluntary migrants.

Nineteenth-Century U.S. Immigration From 1840 until the outbreak of World War I, the source regions for new migrants coincided with the Industrial Revolution diffusing from its hearth in Great Britain. Most of the immigrants that came to the United States in the second half of the nineteenth century came from Germany, Ireland, and Scandinavia. In the early twentieth century many of the immigrants came from Eastern and Southern Europe.

Recent U.S. Immigration After World War II most new migrants to the United States came from Asia and Latin America. Asians and Latin Americans have come to the United States in recent decades after many of their countries entered stage 2 of the demographic transition.

3.1 Key Terms

Chain migration A series of migrations within a group that begins with one person who through contact with the group, pulls people to migrate to the same area.

Circulation Short-term, repetitive, or cyclical movements that recur on a regular basis.

Emigration Leaving an area as part of a permanent move (in common language, this word has blended into immigration which includes both)

Forced migration When people migrate not because the want to but because they have no other choice

Immigration Coming into an area as part of a permanent move (in common language this combines the terms immigration and emigration)

Internal migration Permanent movement within a particular country.

Net migration The difference between immigrants and emigrants per 1,000 inhabitants. (+Positive net migration means more people moving in than moving out, -negative net migration means more people moving out than moving in)

Step migration Migration that follows a path of a series of stages or steps toward a final destination.

Step-migration Migration to a far away place that takes place in stages

Transnational migration Moving across a border into another country

Voluntary migration People choosing to migrate (not being forced)

Migration A form of relocation diffusion involving a permanent move to a new location.

Migration transition A change in the migration pattern in a society that results from industrialization, population growth, and other social and economic changes that also produce the demographic transition.

Mobility All types of movements between locations.

Settlement A permanent collection of buildings and inhabitants.

Base line In the United States a baseline is the principal east-west line (i.e., a parallel) upon which all rectangular surveys in a defined area are based