Distribution of Migration

Introduction

Migration streams create patterns of migration around the world

Spatial interaction examines how people and ideas move between, and within, areas of the world
Migration can create voluntary immigrants, but also has negative effects by creating:

Internally displaced people are forced from their home regions due to conflict, however they remain within their home country

Countries in Northern and sub-Saharan Africa and Asia (Southwest, South and Southeast Asia)

Refugees are forced from their home nation to avoid persecution

Many people leave their countries looking for asylum in countries that will grant them refugee status
There are over 10 million refugees worldwide

Net Migration Rate - World

This map illustrates countries that have net-in migration (blue) or net-out migration (brown). Refugees will often seek to move to more developed countries, but distance and political issues can make this difficult.

Global Patterns

Most people move from MDCs to LDCs in search of jobs and resources

Three largest migration streams:

Asia to Europe
Asia to North America
Latin America to North America

Nations in North America, Oceania and Europe have net-in migration

The US has the highest number of foreign born residents – around 10% of the total population of the country
Canada and Australia have higher percentages of immigrants compared to the US

Countries in all regions of Asia, Africa and Latin America have net-out migration

The Middle East has the highest percentage of immigrants in the world

Most are moving from other Middle Eastern countries, or from South and Southeast Asia, in search of jobs

US Migration Patterns

US migration is divided into three major eras:

Colonization Migration (one nation establishing ownership in different territory)
European Migration
Migration from less developed countries

The US government began establishing quotas, limitations, on immigrants in the early 20^th century (although the earliest attempts to limit migration began in the 19th century)

The goal was to slow the immigration of Europeans and restrict poor immigrants from regions of Asia and Latin America

Forced migration by the US government has occurred twice:

Slavery from Africa (mostly Western Africa)
Native American tribes

1830 Indian Removal Act/Trail of Tears

Migration during Colonization

Prior to the establishment of the nation in 1776, over one million immigrants had moved to the colonies
Another million moved between our nationhood and the beginning of the Civil War (1861)

Most came from the United Kingdom
Almost 500,000 slaves were brought from Africa through forced migration

European Immigration

In the early 19^th and 20^th centuries over 75 million people emigrated from European nations

British to the US, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa
Spanish and Portuguese to Central America (including the Caribbean) and South America

Three waves to the United States from Europe

Irish and Germans escaping persecution and economic hardships in the 1840s and 1850s
Western Europeans and Scandinavians during the height of the Industrial Revolution in the US (1870s - 1890s)
Southern and Eastern Europeans during the time between 1900 and 1910 looking for manufacturing jobs and economic opportunities

IMAGES CREATED BY GAVS (Images are available in the Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons; Creative Commons License Attribution)