Causes of Migration (Edexcel A Level Geography)

Causes of Migration

• Most migrants move for work; known as economic migrants

• Others move to re-join family members, as part of the diaspora growth

• Post-colonial migrant flows to the UK when former colonies became part of the Commonwealth

  • After the second World War, many countries had labour shortages and needed to rebuild their economies

  • The 1948 British Nationality Act, gave people from UK colonies, the right to live and work in Britain

  • Job vacancies in the UK offered an opportunity to people in Caribbean countries, who were also struggling economically post-war

  • Many of those who came, became manual workers, drivers, cleaners, and nurses in the newly-established NHS and known as the Windrush Generation

• International migrants are not always the poorest, as money is needed to make a journey (even human trafficking has costs to the migrant)

• There are other causes of migration, including displacement of refugees due to conflict and poverty in countries of origin

Types of Migrants

• Forced migration still occurs today - Syrian refugee crisis, Ukrainians forced to flee from Russian invasion etc.

• Counter-migration, in which governments detain migrants who enter or attempt to enter their countries illegally and return the migrants to their home countries

• Impelled migration as a result of natural disasters has unexpected consequences

  • Many Montserratians fled to the United States when Plymouth was destroyed in 1995 and were given ‘temporary protected’ immigration status

  • The U.S. government told Montserratian refugees to leave in 2005 - not because the volcanic crisis was over or because the housing crisis caused by the eruption was solved

  • Rather, the U.S. government expected the volcanic crisis to last at least 10 more years; so, the Montserratians no longer qualified as ‘temporary’ refugees

Economic Theory & Migration

• There are five economic theories for migration:

Five Economic Theories of Migration

Movement of Labour

• In many nation states, the movement of labour is unrestricted and is based on the notion that humans are an economic resource for businesses to exploit

• It is considered an efficient way of allocating resources e.g. regional movements in the UK

• Flows of migrants are focused on core economic development regions, at varying levels from local, national and international

• In order to achieve maximum economic output, businesses argue that people should be allowed to move freely to available jobs, therefore, migration is considered an effective method of achieving this

• This is the basis of free movement of labour and allows workers to seek work in another country, without requiring any visa

• This principle also applies to some global regions such as the European Union (EU) but not at a global level - China restricts all movement of its workers, both internally and internationally

• However, free movement creates winners and losers:

Advantages and Disadvantages of Free Movement of Labour

Barriers to freedom of movement - China's hukou records

• As of 2020, 60.6% of the total Chinese population lived in urban areas, a dramatic increase from 17.92% in 1978

• When the Communist Party in China came to power in 1949, under Mao Zedong (Chairman Mao)

• One of its goals was to create economic stability between the country’s large rural farming population (periphery) and its growing urban areas (core)

• One problem China saw, was the potentially large influx of rural workers to the cities looking for higher paying jobs

• To avoid protests, strikes and slum development such as those in Latin America and Indian cities, the Chinese government implemented the Huji system in 1958

• This was to serve three main functions:

  • Control of internal migration

  • Management of social protection

  • Preservation of social stability

• The plan was to implement a classification system to keep record of all Chinese people as either a rural or urban citizen. The government then tied all social benefits (healthcare, education, social security, working rights, etc.) to a person’s local government

• The system is called “huji” but it’s commonly known by the name of the records “Hukou.” The Hukou System was implemented in 1958 and is still in place today

• The Hukou System effectively limits the amount of rural-urban migration. People from rural China would be far less likely to move to urban areas if it means giving up their healthcare, education and social security

• People from urban areas were given preferential treatment

• They got better social benefits; since their local governments had more resources

• They had access to higher paying jobs and rural workers were limited in the urban marketplace 

• Because the people from urban areas were more likely to have an education, they were also considered more likely to protest  

• The preferential treatment was considered a way of calming the risk of any major uprising against the Communist Party

Impact on rural regions

• Whilst urban citizens enjoy a supply of labour opportunities and comfortable benefits for their families

• Rural people struggle as farming in rural China is very difficult

• The terrain is mountainous and the land lacks sufficient nutrients for farming

• Access to clean water is scarce and there is often extreme draught

• There is little economic infrastructure and a lack of access to modern farming equipment

• As China’s economic power grew, the cities grew, and jobs become more available, the trade-offs for rural farmers to move to the city became more attractive

• In recent years, the rate of Chinese rural-urban migration is the largest in the history of the world

• More than 250 million Chinese people are estimated to migrate to the cities each year (that’s 2/3 of the population of the US)

• The Chinese population remained primarily rural all the way up to 2012. During that year, China’s urban population officially grew larger than the rural population

Floating population – 240 million people as of 2020

• Non-hukou migrant without local residency rights are also called the 'floating population'

  • Often it is the parents moving to the cities, leaving their young children to be raised by grandparents

  • These children are the forgotten casualties of China’s economic boom

  • These migrants have no access to healthcare, workers' rights etc. in urban areas

Reform

• Whilst the Hukou System has been successful, it is widely disliked 

• The Communist Party created an organized caste system with Hukou where the people from rural areas were systematically discriminated against

• In 2014, reform was finally addressed by the government with the removal the rural and urban system of Hukou

• All Chinese people will now simply be called residents, but, all social benefits are still tied to a resident’s hometown

• There is a process to transfer residency, but it is extremely limited in the major cities 

• However, it will be easier for people from rural areas to move to other rural towns and smaller cities

Impact

• The socio-economic impacts of 50+ years of “rural” and “urban” classification are incalculable

• Generations were conditioned to believe they were second-rate citizens and received second-rate treatment

• Even with restrictions somewhat relaxed, it will take help and a number of years for the damage to be repaired

• This is an acceptable condition for China, as they have successfully avoided squatter settlements and public protests around their major cities 

• Today, there are still over 250 million people in rural areas living on less than $2/day