8.1C Changes in International Migration

• • Environmental, economic and political events affect both the source areas (country of origin) of many migrants and their destinations
  • Resulting in flows of voluntary economic migrants and involuntary or forced refugees and asylum seekers
  • Temporary movement, such as tourism, is not counted as migration
• International migration occurs for different reasons:

  • Voluntary migrants are often economic migrants seeking better jobs and standard of living
  • Other migrants feel as though they have no choice but to leave their country of origin through political change
  • Some flee across borders because they fear death or persecution from war, natural disasters, religious or political persecution
• International migration occurs for different reasons:

  • They apply for ‘asylum’ in a host country and whilst the application is being considered they are known as asylum seekers 
  • If their application is successful, they may be granted temporary or permanent residency. Legally they now become refugees
  • Environmental changes such as global warming force some people to leave their homes and even countries
  • Low-lying Pacific Islands such as Kiribati and Tuvalu
• Migration changes:

  
• • The push-pull model of migration
  • The model shows that places of origin have both positive reasons to stay and negative reasons to leave (push factors)
  • If the negatives outnumber the positives people might decide to migrate

  
• When deciding whether to leave, and then on their journey, migrants face various challenges (intervening obstacles) and processes:

  • Costs of travel
  • Family pressure to stay
  • Physical barriers such as distance, seas and mountains
  • Human traffickers and smugglers
  • Difficulty with new languages and filling out paperwork
  • Government policy on immigration
  • Border controls
• • Globalisation has increased the movement of migrants around the world and is an important flow within the global economy
  • In 1970 approximately 90 million people were living in a country they weren’t born in
  • In 1990 that figure had increased to approximately 153 million
  • In 2020 it was estimated to be 281 million