8.2A 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:

  -> Voluntary

  -> Forced

  -> impelled or political
• Voluntary migrant = The individual or household has a free choice about whether to move or not
• Voluntary migrant (Internal vs external):

  Internal

  • Rural to urban for jobs
  • Urban to rural retirement


  External

  • West Indians to the UK
  • British doctors to the USA
• Forced migrant = Occurs when the individual or household has little or no choice but to move
• Forced migrant (internal vs external)

  internal

  • British inner city slum clearance
  • Amerindians into rainforest reserves


  External

  • African slaves to America - Atlantic slave trade
  • War 8.1 million refugees were recorded leaving Ukraine in 2022
• Impelled and political migration = due to environmental or human factors
• Impelled and political migrant (internal vs external)

  Internal

  • Natural disasters – Mt Pinatubo, Philippines


  External

  • Muslims and Hindu in India 
• Counter-migration = 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
  • 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