Causes of Migration (College Board AP® Human Geography)

What are Push & Pull Factors?

• At a global scale, people generally migrate from the developing to the developed world

• The three largest flows of migration are: 

  • Asia to Europe

  • Asia to North America

  • Latin America to North America

• Migration can be international, meaning between two countries, or internal, meaning between areas within one country

  • Internal migration is the most common type of movement

• The difference between immigration to a place and emigration from the same place is net migration

Ravenstein's Laws of Migration

• Ravenstein’s Laws of Migration attempt to explain:

  • why migrants move

  • the distance they move

  • the major characteristics of migration

• According to Ravenstein’s Laws: 

  • Most migration is over short distances

  • Migration occurs in steps

  • Long-range migrants usually move to urban areas

  • Each migration produces a movement in the opposite direction (although not necessarily of the same volume)

  • Rural dwellers are more migratory than urban dwellers

  • Within their own country, females are more migratory than males, but males are more migratory over long distances (this is no longer true)

  • Most migrants are adults

  • Large towns grow more by migration than by natural increase

  • Migration increases with economic development

  • Migration is mostly due to economic causes

• The causes of migration can be divided into push and pull factors. Push and pull factors may be environmental, political, economic, or cultural

  • Push factors are forces that drive people away from their present location

    • Examples of push factors include war, political instability, a lack of jobs, or a lack of sufficient food or water

  • Pull factors are forces that draw people to a new place or location

    • Examples of pull factors are plentiful jobs, greater educational opportunities, or the opportunity to be near family

Obstacles to Migration

Intervening opportunities

• An intervening opportunity is something that causes a migrant to stop at a place between the place they left and the place they intended to move to 

  • An intervening opportunity indicates the presence of a nearer opportunity that reduces the desire to move farther

  • For example, someone may find a good job closer to their point of origin when migrating for economic reasons

Intervening obstacles

• An intervening obstacle is an environmental, cultural or political feature that limits migration

  • A desert or large body of water may make it impossible for the migrant to continue moving to their destination

  • A government’s laws limiting immigration may serve as an intervening obstacle

Step migration

• Step migration refers to migration that occurs in stages between the point of origin and the destination

  • An individual might move from Russia to Germany, before eventually moving on to England

  • A migrant might move from Argentina to Atlanta before moving to Washington, DC and then, finally New York