Geography - Migration & Urbanisation

• Migration types: internal migration, international / external migration, forced migration, assisted / voluntary migration, natural migration.
• Internal migration: when people move within the same country and stay inside its borders.
• International / external migration: when people move between different countries and cross international boundaries.
• Forced migration: when people move due to the influence of political, economic, or humanitarian factors that cause them to abandon their original homes.
• Assisted / voluntary migration: when people move voluntarily, typically for better economic or social opportunities.
• Natural migration: when people are forced to move due to climate change, disasters, or other environmental factors.
• Push factors: these are factors that convince, encourage, or force people to move.
• Pull factors: these are factors that attract people to relocate.
• Urbanisation: a process where an increasing proportion of the population lives in towns and cities resulting in their growth.
• People moving from rural to urban areas, and natural increase creating a higher birth rate in the urban areas causes urbanisation.
• Types of urbanisation: urban sprawl, edge cities, mega cities.
• Urban sprawl: expansions of a city or town into the surrounding areas, often by car-dependent development.
• Edge cities: expansion of a city or town along transportation corridors resulting in commuter suburbs.
• Mega cities: extremely large cities with populations of more than 5 million.
• Challenges associated with mega cities: overpopulation, pollution, traffic congestion.
• Overpopulation: too many people for the resources available.
• Pollution: high pollution due to population density and activities.
• Traffic congestion: overload transportation systems abd clogged roads.
• potential advantages of mega cities: economic opportunity, cultural diversity, infrastructure.
• economic opportunity: more resources and jobs.
• Cultural diversity: melting pot of cultures and variety of experiences.
• Infrastructure connectivity: well-developed infrastructure and better transportation options.
• Informal settlements are settlements that exist outside the legal housing system and are made of makeshift housing, which may be makeshift from scrap materials or hastily built with no clear ownership or planning.
• Causes of informal settlements: poverty, displacement, population growth, urbanisation.
• Poverty: low income levels and lack of financial resources.
• Displacement: forced relocation.
• Population growth: rapid population growth.
• Urbanisation: faster growth of cities and expansion of urban areas.
• Living conditions of informal settlements: inadequate housing and lack of proper facilities, high population density, lack of basic services (water, sanitation, electricity), high exposure to healthy hazards and lack of proper waste disposal, lack of security and safety.