Push Factors of Migration

12 Key excerpts on "Push 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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  Refugees Worldwide

  [4 volumes]

  • Doreen Elliott, Uma A. Segal, Doreen Elliott, Uma A. Segal(Authors)
  • 2012(Publication Date)
  • Praeger

    (Publisher)

  Neoclassical theories are primarily used to describe labor migration, especially by using the model of push and pull factors. These theories generally centre on the individual’s decision to migrate based on a rational process of weighing costs and benefits. Most migration theory to date is related to labor migration and sociocultural adaptation (Phillmann 2007, p. 31).

  Standard migration theory distinguishes among pull, push, and network forces. This concept describes causes of migration within the frame of number of negative (push) factors in the region of origin that make people move away, combined with a number of positive (pull) factors that attract migrants to new destination. Network forces assist in the move.

  In this way, environmental conditions also operate as push or pull forces and as a catalyst in the migration process. Reuveny (2005, p. 4) argues that natural disasters are largely idiosyncratic, and their effects on migration are temporary, fast acting, and localized. Cumulative environmental degradations are largely slow-moving and human-made. Their effects are permanent and relatively dispersed. Nevertheless, the effects of production accidents (such as chemical spills) can advance quickly but tend to be temporary. Development projects can change the environment and their effects on migration are permanent but localized. Similarly O’Lear (1997, pp. 612–614) argues that environmental degradation is a relevant push factor in migration processes.

  Environmental conditions can play a positive role as the pull factors as in the case of “amenity migration” that is defined as the (relatively) voluntary migration motivated by the opportunity to live in a better natural or/and sociocultural environment. In this way, the concept of amenity migration is a positive reaction to environmental conditions, with people moving to a better-quality environment. On the contrary, environmentally induced migration is a negative human response to environmental change or natural disaster when people leave their habitats relatively involuntarily.

  Phillmann (2007, p. 31) argues that the basic model of push and pull factors could be applied to environmentally induced migration but that the neoclassical theories

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  The Migration and Settlement of Refugees in Britain

  • A. Bloch(Author)
  • 2002(Publication Date)
  • Palgrave Macmillan

    (Publisher)

  Migration is often explained in terms of push–pull factors (Castles and Miller, 1998). The term push–pull is used because migration is seen as a combination of push and pull factors that result in the decision to migrate. Push factors are usually negative and include conflict, political instability and social inequality. Pull factors, those that attract people to a particular receiv- ing country, include employment possibilities and freer communities in the country of destination (Loescher, 1993). Push–pull theories have been criticized for their parsimony as they are not able to explain actual movements of people nor are they able to predict the factors Theories of Refugee Migration 65 that will affect future migratory flows (Boyd, 1989; Kunz, 1973). In addition, economically based theories of migration presume that indi- vidual migrants are able to make free choices in order to maximize their well being and that the consequence of this free choice is market equilibrium. They fail to take account of structural factors that prevent the free movement of people such as border controls and fail to con- sider the situation of the millions of refugees and displaced people around the world (Davis, 1989). Historical-structuralist approach The historical-structuralist approach had its origins in Marxist political economy that emphasizes the unequal distribution of economic and political power in the global economy (Castles and Miller, 1998). The function of migration is to mobilize cheap labour for capital. Thus the early push–pull thesis was superseded by more structural approaches that consider the role of capitalism and the state (Zolberg, 1989). The historical-structuralist approaches have been criticized. According to Castles and Miller (1998, p. 23): ‘The historical-structural approach often saw the interests of capital as all-determining, and paid inadequate attention to the motiva- tions and actions of the individuals and groups concerned’.

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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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  The Atlas of Environmental Migration

  • Dina Ionesco, Daria Mokhnacheva, François Gemenne(Authors)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Environmental change and events can be associated with different mobility outcomes, forced or voluntary, short term or long term, depending on the specific context and characteristics of the environment, country, localityor household. It is important to remember that the impacts of environment on mobility are seldom direct, except when sudden disasters physically displace people. Instead, migration is motivated by a variety of factors, among which environmental concerns are usually secondary. Environmental stress adds to other existing considerations that motivate migration, such as economic concerns (a search for higher incomes and more stable jobs), political motives (conflict, violation of human rights, discrimination), demographic pressures (growing population, pressure on food production systems), or social and personal motives (marriage, reuniting with family). Disasters or gradual degradation of vital resources can also act as an aggravating factor undermining livelihoods: mass destruction following disasters, or the gradual loss of ecosystem services (such as the availability of drinking water, agricultural potential, natural protection from hazards) may for example lead to economic, political or personal insecurity, thus indirectly contributing to migration or displacement of populations, In fact, what sometimes seems to be economically or politically driven migration or displacement can at times turn out to be related to underlying environmental causes, which can be hard to identify at first sight. Individuals may be moving in the hope of finding better living conditions and economic opportunities elsewhere as their livelihoods become increasingly insecure due to recurrent environmental shocks, such as drought or floods; or in anticipation of future irreversible changes, such as sea-level rise.

  In the context of disasters, the risk of displacement is not straightforward either, and is based on several elements: the existence of a hazard; the physical exposure of the population, of assets and of livelihoods to the hazard; pre-existing vulnerability of people, which is a key factor in the outcome of a hazard and in the way in which it will impact the population; and finally, the preparedness and response capacity of the population. Exposure can be influenced by demographic change: as the population grows in hazard-prone areas, more people and more assets become exposed to hazards. Urban population growth is infact one of the greatest drivers of disaster risk. In addition, people's vulnerability is shaped by economic, social, political and physical factors, such as unequal wealth distribution, social inequality or discrimination, age, health or disabilities. It can also be influenced by environmental factors: recurrent hazards or gradual environmental degradation can undermine people's livelihoods and increase their vulnerability in the long term. It is often those who are already extremely vulnerable and less able to prepare for and respond to a disaster, who suffer the greatest impact and highest risk of forced displacement.

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  Governing Climate Induced Migration and Displacement

  IGO Expansion and Global Policy Implications

  • Andrea C. Simonelli, Kenneth A. Loparo, Graycar(Authors)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Palgrave Macmillan

    (Publisher)

  Capitalist development causes both pull- and push-based migration. Globalization essentially means flows across borders of capital, commodities, ideas, or people. National governments remain suspicious of the latter two (Castles, 2007). This body of work, however, does not consider the larger sphere of situational influences that can affect a potential migrant. A subsistence farmer who has a poor growing season is not necessarily looking to move into a new career as much as to supplement a current short-term difficulty. The same can be said for the same farmer whose business has dried up due to trade agreements. NAFTA has been a disaster for small farmers in Mexico, increasing rural poverty. An estimated two million Mexican corn farmers have been forced out of business by cheaper, subsidized US imports (Belton and Morales, 2009). These examples and their implications begin to question the extent to which migration is purely voluntary in the sense of economic maximization or is forced based on prevailing outside influences. This discrepancy will be discussed further in the next chapter. 1 Forced migration as a field of study Forced migration studies is a subfield of migration studies. It is concerned with the types of “push” factors which drive migrants to leave their homes. This also includes studies on displacement types, such as disaster induced displacement, development induced displacement, environmental displacement, and all those labeled refugees. 2 The main debate within this subfield is whether refugee studies should be part of forced migration studies or be a separate field of study. Hathaway (2007) argues that marrying refugee studies with forced migration studies will take away from the special circumstances of refugees and encourage work on the phenomenon itself instead of on refugee rights

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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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  Labour Migration from Turkey to Western Europe, 1960-1974

  A Multidisciplinary Analysis

  • Ahmet Akgunduz(Author)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  In both cases the industrial revolution has destroyed traditional systems of production, but has at the same time brought about a population explosion by drastically reducing the death rate. The result is a surplus of people who cannot find employment in their own countries, and who are faced with a choice between poverty and near starvation at home, or emigration to Western Europe where industry urgently needs labour. 29 Similarly, Abadan-Unat 30 argues that ‘the major push factors in the sending countries are: unemployment, poverty and economic underdevelopment’. According to Salt, 31 the push factors are ‘higher population growth rates’ and ‘widespread unemployment and slow economic growth’. Salt and Clout 32 put forth that ‘all the time an underlying factor has been natural increase of population’ and ‘the disparity between population and economic growth’. The authors mention Turkey as an example for their view. Kağıtçıbaşı, 33 by making reference to Castles and Kosack, lists ‘the major push factors’ as ‘unemployment and underemployment, poverty and slow industrialisation’. Since the arguments of ‘unemployment’ and ‘fast population growth’ will be dealt with in ensuing parts of relevance, here I pay attention only to the argument of ‘slow economic and industrial growth’ (and thus the disparity between economic and population growth and poverty), and whether it tallies with the Turkish case, thus helping to explain the causes of migration pressure. Easily accessible data on the economic performance of Turkey, however, paints rather the opposite picture to that described above. According to the OECD, 34 for example, during the migration years, with the exception of 1960 and 1961, annual real growth in gross domestic product (GDP) of Turkey was quite high, notwithstanding noticeable fluctuations in annual performance

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  Climate Change, Migration and Conflict in Bangladesh

  • Md Rafiqul Islam(Author)
  • 2023(Publication Date)
  • Routledge India

    (Publisher)

  Reuveny, 2008 ). In the case of migration and settlement of people in Bangladesh, the mediating factors are the history of Bengali migration, political and military support, and social networks that facilitate the migration process.

  As discussed in the contextual study chapter migration of Bengali people from the rural to urban migration as well as migration from the plainland to the CHT has a long history. The sheltering of poor and environmental change–induced migrants in the urban areas has a long history and a rather normal process. People used to come to the city center for work opportunities. This trend has increased significantly after the 1980s with the rapid urbanization and industrialization. Now, the situation is acute as more and more climate change-induced migrants are coming to the major cities every year for their shelter and livelihood. This migration process is mostly organized by the connections and social networks of the migrants. But in the CHT the British and Pakistani colonial powers promoted the migration process for their economic benefit and to gain political control over the area (Mohsin, 1997 ; Adnan, 2004 ; Tripura, 2008 ). After 1975, the government of Bangladesh continued the policy that was initiated under Pakistani rule and encouraged migration to the CHT to gain political control as well as reduce population pressure in low-lying areas of Bangladesh (Lee, 1997 , 2001 ; Suhrke, 1997 ). This significant increase in migration flows during the period 1977–1989 has been categorized as “political migration,” which exacerbated the emerging ethnopolitical conflict (Adnan & Dastidar, 2011 ; Chakma, 2010 ; Mohsin, 1997 ; Panday & Jamil, 2009 ). This migration process was sponsored by the Bangladesh state and specifically intended to diminish and weaken the aspirations of the tribal people to the right to self-determination in the CHT (Mohsin, 1997 ; Adnan & Dastidar, 2011

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  The Tragedy of Failure

  Evaluating State Failure and Its Impact on the Spread of Refugees, Terrorism, and War

  • Tiffiany O. Howard(Author)
  • 2010(Publication Date)
  • Praeger

    (Publisher)

  In an earlier study, I explore the relationship between poor economic condi- tions and forced migration (Howard 2003). The results of that analysis are mixed and at best indicate a weak relationship (Appendix G). Despite the dis- appointing findings of that work, I continue to argue that beyond the theories of violence, socio-economic factors represent a root cause of forced migration. The inability to establish a relationship between forced migration and eco- nomic insecurity can largely be attributed to the failures of previous quantita- tive studies to devise and incorporate more specific measures of economic insecurity. The forced migration literature mainly explores those situational and struc- tural factors that facilitate the occurrence of abrupt population movements. These studies conclude that forced migration is largely the result of ethnic conflict, interstate and regional conflict, civil war, genocide and politicide, dis- sident behavior, and abrupt polity changes. This work builds on the findings of this body of literature by exploring the role the state plays in creating threats to human security and the varying effects that the extent and nature of these security threats have on forced migration. I argue that the field currently suffers from the inability of the literature and existing statistical models of forced migration to move beyond traditional conflict and violence theories as generators of refugees and IDPs. Consequently, this narrow research focus has created a dearth in the literature. The main purpose of this chapter is to address this absence within the literature and provide a comprehensive analysis that is inclusive in its approach to understanding those factors that generate forced migrants. EVALUATING STATE FAILURE AS A CAUSE OF FORCED MIGRATION 45 This chapter examines the relationship between state failure and forced migra- tion.

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