Pull Factors of Migration

8 Key excerpts on "Pull Factors of Migration"

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  Human Migration

  A Geographical Perspective

  • Gareth J. Lewis(Author)
  • 2021(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  As long ago as 1938 Herberle (1938) argued that migration is caused by a series of forces which encourage an individual to leave one place (push) and attract him to another (pull). In other words, if an individual’s needs cannot be satisfied at his present location, then a move elsewhere may be considered. On the other hand, despite being satisfied with his present situation, information about greater opportunities elsewhere may persuade the individual to move. For each migration, however, several push and pull forces may be operating and interacting, so that the move cannot be attributed wholly to either force. However, by examining large migration flows, the common stimulants to movement may be established. Bogue has succinctly summarized these ‘push-pull’ forces as follows:

  Push factors

  (1) Decline in a national resource or in the prices paid for it; decreased demand for a particular product or the services of a particular industry; exhaustion of mines, timber or agricultural resources.

  (2) Loss of employment resulting from being discharged for incompetence, for a decline in need for a particular activity, or from mechanization or automation of tasks previously performed by more labour-intensive procedures.

  (3) Oppressive or repressive discriminatory treatment because of political, religious or ethnic origins or membership. (4) Alienation from a community because one no longer subscribes to prevailing beliefs, actions or mode of behaviour — either within one’s family or within the community. (5) Retreat from a community because it offers few or no opportunities for personal development employment or marriage. (6) Retreat from a community because of catastrophe — floods, fire, drought, earthquake or epidemic.

  Pull factors

  (1) Superior opportunities for employment in one’s occupation or opportunities to enter a preferred occupation. (2) Opportunities to earn a larger income. (3) Opportunities to obtain desired specialized education or training such as a college education. (4) Preferable environment and living conditions — climate, housing, schools, other community facilities. (5) Dependency — movement of other persons to whom one is related or betrothed, such as the movement of dependents with a bread-winner or migration of a bride to join her husband.

  (6) line of new or different activities, environment or people, such as the cultural, intellectual or recreational activities of a large metropolis for rural and small-town residence (Bogue, 1969, 753-4).

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  21st Century Geography: A Reference Handbook

  • Joseph P. Stoltman(Author)
  • 2011(Publication Date)
  • SAGE Publications, Inc

    (Publisher)

  Migration involves people leaving a place (origin) and arriving at a new place (destination) under varying circum- stances. Migration is not pursued in isolation because the decision to migrate is linked to numerous push and pull factors. If City A has 30% unemployment and City B has a 5% or lower unemployment rate, it seems apparent that the economic hardship would act as the push factor to encourage people to leave City A and the opportunity (low unemployment rate) would act as the factor pulling people toward City B. There are intervening obstacles, which may impede migration, and that discussion is presented later in the chapter. Wherever there are movements of people, there are consequent demographic, social, and economic changes with spatial implications. Geographers study the spatial nature of movement and seek to derive the motives that people have for moving. The geographic contexts for 231 232 • HUMAN GEOGRAPHY migration occurs in multiple forms, such as people fleeing regions experiencing military conflicts, land-poor people settling new lands that are available for agriculture, or the mass migrations of Europeans moving to the Americas during times of religious, economic, and political repres- sion. These movements represent humans' quest for new beginnings and illustrate the migration phenomenon and restructuring of populated places in the world. Geography as a spatial discipline synthesizes and analyzes migration at different scales in the context of a place of origin and a place of destination. What Is Migration? What is migration? It can be defined spatially, based on where and how long individuals change their residential address domestically or internationally. Is the move perma- nent or semipermanent? Is it migration if a person moves from downtown Los Angeles to Hollywood? How about Mr.

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  Politics and Culture in the Developing World

  • Richard J. Payne, Jamal R. Nassar(Authors)
  • 2015(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  3 Push factors are generally negative developments and circumstances that motivate people to leave their homes. These include human rights violations, forced resettlement programs, poverty, natural and environmental disasters, and the lack of educational and cultural opportunities. Many Mexicans migrate to the United States because they cannot compete with highly subsidized U.S. grain exports to Mexico under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Pull factors, which also attract people away from their homes, include employment opportunities, political and social stability, and family reunification.

   

  push factors  ■     The factors that motivate people to leave their homes, such as human rights violations, violence, and political instability.

   

  pull factors  ■     The factors that motivate people to leave their homes, such as employment opportunities, higher wages, and educational opportunities.

  PUSH FACTORS

  The United States was settled by people who sought religious and political freedom. During the Cold War, many Europeans came to the United States to escape oppressive governments. The large influx of Cuban immigrants to Florida and other parts of America resulted from Cuba’s system of communism under the leadership of Fidel Castro. Dictatorships in Africa, Asia, and Latin America pushed people away from those societies to democratic societies in North America, Western Europe, and parts of the developing world. Ethnic violence and civil wars, as we will discuss later, continue to create some of the most horrible violations of human rights and contribute to mass migration and refugee problems. Transitions to democracy, although reducing the flow of people seeking protection from human rights abuses, have contributed to an increase in migration for economic and social reasons. The fall of dictatorships and authoritarian governments removed many political obstacles to emigration. A common characteristic of authoritarian regimes is their tendency to control the movement of people, both within the country and internationally.

  Overpopulation

  has been a major cause of migration. People move from overcrowded areas when economic opportunities decline to places that offer better opportunities. As population growth puts pressure on the land available for agriculture, people leave the countryside and move to urban areas in search of employment. Revolutions in communication and transportation have made it easier for people to migrate across national boundaries when their societies become too overcrowded. This trend is strengthened by the fact that even though the population of developing countries is increasing, rich countries in North America, Europe, and Asia are experiencing the aging and decline of their populations. In other words, overpopulation in poor countries is occurring at a time when rich countries are faced with

  underpopulation

  . Prosperity in rich countries influences women to stay in school longer, put more emphasis on work, marry later, and have fewer children, if any. As fertility drops, life expectancy increases. The net result is that industrialized societies are having fewer young people to support the larger numbers of elderly citizens. Italy, Germany, Greece, and Spain have more people over the age of 60 than there are people under the age of 20.4

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  Internal Migration in Contemporary China

  • D. Davin(Author)
  • 1998(Publication Date)
  • Palgrave Macmillan

    (Publisher)

  4 Why People Migrate The very first year we farmed our contract land the crops failed. The grain we got was next to nothing - never mind paying our taxes, it wasn't even enough to keep belly from backbone. That's why there's so many of us trying to make a living in the city this year. Some of the men pop corn and some of them are in construc- tion teams putting up buildings for the government. The women have gone to the cities as maids. None of us arc beggars, at least none from our village .... We leave the village to work and make money .... We started working when we got to Hefei. We worked there for a week and then made enough for our fares to Beijing. Making money in the big cities is easy. (Child migrant from Anhui interviewed in Beijing in 1984. Zhang and Sang 1986: 3-7) Individuals migrate because they think that they can improve their own lives or those of their families by doing so. Economic migration is triggered by the knowledge (or belief) that better economic opportu- nities exist in some other place. It follows that where regional and local economic inequality is considerable, people are like ly to migrate if it is possible for them to do so. Factors such as poverty, lack of econ- omic opportunity, land shortage and low living standards at home function as push factors, while prosperity, opportunity, available employment and higher living standards in the place of destination are pull factors. The individual's decision to migrate involves a process of weighing up potential costs and benefits. 1 Migrants have to consid er general factors such as the cost of travel and accommodation, the chances of finding work and the prevailing wage rates in the destina- tion area compared with those in the home area. They will also be swayed by individual factors such as contacts with relatives or friends in the destination areas, or the potential effect of their absence on the household left behind.

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  A Long Way to Go

  Irregular Migration Patterns, Processes, Drivers and Decision-making

  • Ms Marie McAuliffe, Mr Khalid Koser(Authors)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • ANU Press

    (Publisher)

  103 5 Seeking the views of irregular migrants: Decision-making, drivers and migration journeys Marie McAuliffe 1 A substantial body of research indicates that a number of complex, interrelated factors impact on the movement of irregular asylum and non-asylum migration flows (Castles, 2013; de Haas, 2011; Havinga & Böcker, 1999; Koser, 2011; Middleton, 2005; Neumayer, 2004). In some of the literature, the factors related to asylum seeker migration have been characterised as either ‘push’ or ‘pull’ factors, both in terms of the decision to migrate as well as choice of destination country (Havinga & Böcker, 1999; Neumayer, 2004; Zimmermann, 1996). Generally, push factors from the country of origin include: the political and security situation in-country (home and/or host country); the state of the economy, and access to income; the outlook for the future, and in particular the prevailing pessimism (Adhikari, 2013; Hatton, 2011; Theilemann, 2006). Pull factors, on the other hand, include: asylum seeker policies in destination countries; how welcoming destination countries are perceived to be; perceptions of destination countries’ acceptance of refugees; the state of 1 The author is grateful for research assistance from Simone Gangell and Paul Hayes in the preparation of this chapter. A LoNG WAy To Go 104 the economies of destination countries; and the existence of diaspora and communities in destination countries (Koser, 1997; Koser & Pinkerton, 2002; Neumayer, 2004; Theilemann, 2006; Toshkov, 2012). There is also a range of ‘enabling’ factors that act to facilitate flows, and that are less prevalent in the literature. 2 These enabling factors cannot be characterised by the linear push–pull construct, but act to facilitate or underpin movement.

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  Applied Human Geography

  • Rodolfo B. Valdenarro(Author)
  • 2019(Publication Date)
  • Delve Publishing

    (Publisher)

  An assortment of variables may impact an individual’s choice about whether, where, and how to relocate. We ordinarily outline these as push factors and draw factors (Lee, 1966). Push components are things that make somebody need to leave their present area. Financial inconveniences, abuse, war or other savagery, and natural emergencies are generally normal push factors. Force components are things that make a specific goal appealing. Monetary chances , political opportunity, and social or ideological criticalness (e.g., the significance of the place where there is Israel to Jews) may comprise significant force factors. Relocation isn’t commonly an individualized choice, attempted by an individual in segregation from their other social connections. One basic Migration: The Human Movement to Other Places 187 structure that relocation takes is chain movement. Chain relocation happens when transients follow in the strides of individuals in their interpersonal organization, for example, relatives, who have moved before them. In the event that chain movement is overwhelming enough, whole towns in the sender nation may successfully be transplanted to the collector nation. Chain movement happens on the grounds that vagrants utilize their informal communities to facilitate the change to another spot. A cousin who has effectively caused the voyage to can send back data about circumstances in the collector nation and the potential obstacles in making the adventure. When the new transient arrives, it is simpler to get settled in, to comprehend the traditions of the new spot, and to look for some kind of employment on the off chance that they definitely know individuals in the spot they settle. Relocation is a ceaseless procedure that has been the subject of political discussion around the world.

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  Economics of Migration

  • Julius Issac(Author)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  11 A similar reaction to obviously temporary changes of prosperity can be found in practically all countries of immigration, so that our approach has some justification. This tendency of migration to adapt itself to temporary changes of prosperity has several causes. We shall deal later with the costs of migration, but in this context it is necessary to mention that migration is to a large extent financed by assistance from friends or relatives in the new country. This help can be given more liberally in times of prosperity. Expectations—apart from periods of political or social unrest—are based on present conditions, and it is usually presumed that the present trend will not change. On the other hand a great deal of migration is caused by an attempt to escape immediate destitution, so that long-term expectations are only of secondary importance.

  A distinction has been made between “push” and “pull” migration. It may safely be assumed that the migrant who is driven from his country by adverse conditions of life or by other circumstances is more concerned with his present lot than with more or less vague expectations for the future. The migrant who has lived under tolerable conditions but who expects to become better off by migration will attach more importance to future prospects. He will often be prepared for a considerable lowering of his standards of living during the first years after his immigration, if he is convinced that this loss will be atoned for by later gains. The settler in an undeveloped region is usually well aware that conditions for himself and his family will be very hard and that he will live much less comfortably than before his emigration, until he has become settled and paid off his debts. In the same way other categories of immigrants are prepared to sacrifice present satisfactions. They will not be discouraged by the fact that they will have to become acquainted with the language, customs, and habits of the new country before they can expect to receive their fair share of its benefits. Such reflections will affect their decisions only in so far as they will take account in their calculations of the losses which may occur during the period of transition. They will leave their country only if the margin between their present standard and the corresponding standard in the new country is wide enough to allow for their handicap as newcomers. This includes provision for unemployment, likely to occur during the first stage after their arrival. If the labour market is ruled by free competition, especially in an expanding economy—as in the chief countries of immigration up to the last war—the individual immigrant will soon find some kind of employment if he sells his services below their market price. He is more mobile than his native competitors, who are already settled, and his inferior standard of living enables him to work at a wage rate low enough to overcome the bias of employers against foreign labour. Even if below the general subsistence level, this rate may be still attractive for him. This margin between the general wage level and the level of wages for immigrants’ jobs has been very considerable during the pre-restriction period of U.S.A. immigration. In 1905–07—a period of extensive immigration comprising various phases of the business cycle—wages of a single man immigrant in comparison with the American worker’s wages were as follows:12

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  Climate and Human Migration

  Past Experiences, Future Challenges

  • Robert A. McLeman(Author)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Cambridge University Press

    (Publisher)

  2.7.2 The Influence of Macroeconomic Factors on Migration A variety of macroeconomic processes and forces have been identified as influencing migration, often working in conjunction with other micro-, meso-, and macro-scale pro- cesses (Massey et al. 1993). In industrialized countries, an increase in economic growth and employment opportunities in a given location is often associated with increasing in- migration (Karras and Chiswick 1999). Differences in economic growth between loca- tions and the resulting wage differentials are believed to influence migration patterns at intraregional and international scales (Todaro 1969, Karras and Chiswick 1999). For example, Milne (1993) observed that internal migration patterns in Canada seemed to follow regional economic performance within the country. Blanchflower and Shadforth (2009) have observed similar connections between economic performance and migra- tion from continental Europe to the United Kingdom in the past decade, while Mayda (2009) found that OECD countries with better income opportunities have generally attracted higher levels of international migration. The difference in potential income opportunities that commonly exists between rural areas and urban centers has long been believed to be a key driver of rural-urban migration (Todaro 1969). Urban centers that develop large pools of economic and human capital may influence a stronger attraction to potential migrants than other centers (Sassen 2001). Some economic sectors where the work is typically place-specific, such as agri- culture and construction, may rely heavily on migrant or transient workers (Passel 2007). In other economic sectors, such as light manufacturing and the garment indus- try, companies can move production facilities to sites where low-wage workers, often female, are available.

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