7 Key excerpts on "Consequences of Migration"

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  eBook - ePub

  The Atlas of Environmental Migration

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

    (Publisher)

  The increasing incidence of some of these environmental threats is attributable to the very progress humanity has accomplished since the Industrial Revolution, Climate change constitutes one of the greatest challenges humanity will have to face, as it calls into question the economic and lifestyle choices our society has made, by threatening our very survival as a species. We have no other choice but to try to reduce our impact on the environment, and to adapt to some of the irreversible changes we have caused, or face increasing social and economic costs and damage. Migration will inevitably be part of this picture, either as a social and human cost of inaction or restrictive policies, or as a positive strategy to reduce risks and people's vulnerability, if we make the right political and economic choices. Good migration management can be part of the solution, together with sound environmental and sustainable development policies.

  Part 2 of the Atlas delves into the complex interaction between environmental phenomena, human society and migration, presents various sudden-onset events and slow-onset processes, natural or human-made, which affect the planet's population, and looks into the mechanisms through which environmental factors affect human mobility. A special focus is placed on climate change, the effects of which are often poorly discerned from other environmental phenomena. Environmental migration is then discussed within the wider context of the traditional drivers of migration.

  Understanding environmental hazards

  Our planet is a very complex system of interrelated natural geophysical, meteorological and climatological processes, which are associated with sudden, rapidly occurring natural events, as well as with long-term slowly developing processes of environmental change. The face of the planet keeps changing: the continuous movement of tectonic plates modifies the shape of the continents, builds new mountains and volcanoes, and forms fault lines. These internal geological processes provoke sudden-onset events such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, landslides or avalanches, causing widespread damage to cities and infrastructure, and often resulting in great human losses.

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  Migration Theory

  Talking across Disciplines

  • Caroline B. Brettell, James F. Hollifield, Caroline B. Brettell, James F. Hollifield(Authors)
  • 2022(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Geography is a discipline closely associated with maps and spatial reasoning. Maps, especially thematic ones, challenge us to visualize spatial distribution of phenomena across space and over time at various scales. Anything that is unevenly distributed is eminently mappable and thinking in maps invites us to consider spatial arrangements. The varied movement of people has been an irresistible subject for geographical inquiry and theorization since the inception of the modern discipline. Why is a cluster of migrants located in one place and not another? How are clusters linked through networks and how do these distributions influence space and place? What structural or environmental forces are driving human mobility? Mapping forces one to select a scale of analysis; consequently, geographers have a proclivity to shift scales, from the local to the global, and even jump scale when necessary. Not limited to any single container of convenience, such as the territorial state, geographers consider various socio-legal containers when theorizing about migration from neighborhoods, to cities, to meta-regions such as Europe or Africa. Geographic scholarship is increasingly interested in how these containers are enforced, deformed, and reconstituted in response to migration. Finally, geography is concerned with a deeper understanding of context and placemaking, seeing space as layered with information such as: the physical environment, the ethnic composition of residents, and their socioeconomic well-being. Human mobility is often a response to and a catalyst for these layers, and thus the social and environmental contexts of areas of departure and reception invite geographical theorization.

  This chapter will consider some of the foundational theories that shape geographical understandings of migration and human mobility. It argues that, as a discipline, geography has a long-standing thematic interest in human migration, because the movement of people “continually disrupts and remakes geography, as spatial linkages and interconnections both form and dissolve when people move” (Skop 2019: 108). As international migration has intensified since the 1990s, geographic scholarship that empirically demonstrates these flows and theorizes their impact has steadily increased (Price and Benton-Short 2008; King 2012; Czaika and de Haas 2014; Winders 2014; Yeoh and Ramdas 2014; Ehrkamp 2017, 2019, 2020; Collins 2020). Theoretically, geographers have worked across disciplines, and have modified existing theories, as well as inserted innovative theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches. At the core of much of this work is a profound interest in explaining spatial patterns and human networks, as well as a sensitivity to scalar shifts and bordering practices. Human geographers offer theoretical insights about the migrant experience, limits to human mobility, practices of placemaking, development, and integration, as well as the intersectionality of gender, race, and class in understanding migration (Silvey and Lawson 1999; Carling 2002; van Riemsdijk 2014; Yeoh and Lam 2016). Because of geography’s inclination to examine the relationship between society and environment, there is also a growing research interest in the environmental drivers of migration, especially connected to climate change (Hugo 1996; Piguet 2010; Piguet, Kaenzig, and Guélat 2018; Jockish et al. 2019).

  Within the sub-disciplines of geography, population geographers have an obvious interest in migration. The International Journal of Population Geography, later renamed Population, Space, and Place

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  eBook - ePub

  The SAGE Handbook of International Migration

  • Christine Inglis, Wei Li, Binod Khadria(Authors)
  • 2019(Publication Date)
  • SAGE Publications Ltd

    (Publisher)

  8 Geography and Migration Emily Skop

  Introduction

  This chapter considers how geographers take account of the inherently spatial phenomenon of migration. First, the chapter discusses the unique spatial perspective that broadly makes geography an ideal discipline for studies of migration, including utilizing core spatial concepts like space, place, networks, movement, scale, and territory, as well as the discipline's methodological diversity, and its tendency towards interdisciplinary engagement. Second, the chapter focuses on the way the discipline of geography has conceptualized and examined migration through a discussion of key theoretical framings within the field, including neoclassical spatial analysis, the socio-spatial lens, and the geopolitical turn. Third, the chapter reflects on the major developing trends and debates in the discipline of geography with regards to migration studies, with an eye towards future research and interdisciplinary perspectives, with special attention given to ‘crisis’ migration as well as the mobilities paradigm.

  The Discipline of Geography

  Migration – a process that evolves over space and time – involves the continual reshaping of space as persons move. Migration has risen dramatically in the past two centuries, and the result is constant transformation and dislocation, which in turn has prompted significant attention to the phenomenon by geographers. Indeed, geographers are especially interested in migration because it continually disrupts and remakes geography, as spatial linkages and interconnections both form and dissolve when people move. The socio-spatial patterns, causes, and Consequences of Migration are innumerable and include complicated, multi-scalar phenomena, all of which are studied by geographers.

  The geographical lens encourages a unique spatial perspective when it comes to the study of migration. While definitions have been highly contested and subjected to pages of debate, below are some generalities that pertain to migration studies. Among its most important differentiating features, the geographical lens (and the spatial perspective more specifically) is:

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  eBook - ePub

  Population Geography

  A Systematic Exposition

  • Mohammad Izhar Hassan(Author)
  • 2020(Publication Date)
  • Routledge India

    (Publisher)

  United Nations Multilingual Demographic Dictionary defines migration as ‘a form of geographical or spatial mobility between one geographic unit and another, generally involving a change in residence from the place of origin or departure, to the place of destination or arrival’. Thus, migration is different from other forms of mobility such as temporary movement of tourists, or frequent trips of people in business, or constant movements of nomads, or movement of students for the purpose of studies, or daily movement of commuters to place of work. These movements do not involve any permanent or semi-permanent change in the place of residence to qualify as migration.

  The study of migration occupies an important place in population studies, as together with fertility and mortality, migration determines the size, distribution and growth of population along with its composition and characteristics. As compared with the other two components, migration has been a more popular subject of interest for population geographers. Interestingly, demographers have paid very little attention to this component of population change. Population geographers have since long been concerned with the relationships between movement of people, distance and interacting areas (Woods, 1979:165). Along with its various demographic, social and economic effects, population geographers have also been concerned with the environmental influences upon migration streams and consequences in areas of departure and destination (Clarke, 1972:130).

  Mobility and migration: general terms and concepts

  As noted previously, migration refers to permanent or semi-permanent change in the place of residence of an individual or a group of individuals from one location to another. Hence, it is different from the more general term mobility, which refers to all types of movements of people (Rubenstein and Bacon, 1990:75). Thus, the term mobility includes both permanent (and semi-permanent) and temporary movements of people over the earth. With regard to temporary movements, the examples of which have already been cited, a distinction is generally made between a cyclic and a periodic movement. A cyclic movement includes short duration trips to place of work (i.e. commuting), or frequent business trips of people in business, or movement of nomads, which is comparatively irregular in timing. A periodic movement, on the other hand, involves a longer period of residence away from home base than that in the cyclic movement (Blij and Muller, 1986:103). Periodic movement includes the movement of students away to other locations for the purpose of studies, or the movements of military personnel to military bases, training schools or combat zones. The movement of migrant labourers and their families is also periodic movement, although it is more cyclic than that of students or military personnel. Still another form of periodic movement is what is commonly known as transhumance

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  New Diasporas

  • Nicholas Van Hear(Author)
  • 2005(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Consequences of Migration crises

  Having examined the character of the 10 migration crises in Chapters 3 and 4 , I turn in this chapter to some of the socioeconomic consequences of these migration crises. Pursuing the question “crisis for whom?”, I look at the effects of migration crises on the three principal parties involved in them: the migrant communities themselves; the territories and established populations receiving those communities; and the territories the migrant communities were obliged to leave. Since the data available varies greatly among the 10 cases, examples are used selectively in this chapter.

  The effects of migration crises on migrant communities

  Migrants’ testimonies of their experience during mass exodus portray the atmosphere of tension and panic that prevails when ethnic rivalry, racism or xenophobia are heightened. They show how fear is a powerful means of inducing people to move, particularly when memories of earlier episodes of violence and upheaval are touched off. Among Haitians in the Dominican Republic, for example, the folkloric memory of the 1937 massacre of Haitians was deeply held: “In 1937 they tossed babies into the air and caught them on bayonet points. I didn’t want that happening to my kids”, a black Dominican laundress told Reuter news agency, after fleeing with her Haitian-born husband and five children (Reuter 10 September 1991). Likewise, the memory among Rohingyas of Operation Dragon King in 1978 was still fresh in the early 1990s.

  Testimonies also show how physically and psychologically traumatic are the effects of mass exodus on the people forced to move. As well as suffering the fear and indignity of being rounded up by the police or army, physical assaults by the security forces or members of the majority community are routine. Arbitrary treatment leaves a lasting sense of injustice. Documents are often confiscated or torn up, and less tangible dimensions of identity destroyed. Households are split up, and children separated from their parents. People are obliged to leave behind their livelihoods and possessions, or to sell their assets at knock-down prices; belongings may be stolen or lost, and wages owed forgone; and the prospect of recovering assets is a forlorn one. A lifetime’s effort may be lost, a way of life destroyed. An ethnic Nepali woman factory worker expelled from Bhutan told Amnesty International:

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  An Introduction to Population Geographies

  Lives Across Space

  • Holly R. Barcus, Keith Halfacree(Authors)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  CHAPTER 5Placing human migration    

  5.1 INTRODUCTION: DEFINING MIGRATION

  5.1.1 What is migration?

  Migration remains the most widely studied and examined element within Population Geography (Boyle 2003, 2004). Moreover, whilst Geographers have played a pivotal role in shaping our contemporary understanding of it, the topic is of interest to numerous academic disciplines, including Demography, Sociology, Political Science, Economics and Anthropology (Brettell and Hollifield 2008a). In this respect, approaching migration as it occurs within the life course has considerable potential for bringing together a scattered body of scholarship often fragmented by “disciplinary partitioning” (Olwig and Sørensen 2002: 7).

  But what exactly is migration? Initially put, as in a recent textbook, it is “the movement of people to live in a different place” (Holdsworth et al. 2013: 96) or a “permanent change in residence.” It is residential relocation. Or, as expressed in UK and US censuses, a migration is deemed to have occurred when one’s “usual address” has changed within the last 1 or 5 years, respectively (ONS 2013; USCB 2013). Simple, then, one might think! However, as Holdsworth et al. (2013: 98) also noted, careful consideration of these definitions immediately raises a host of questions: what precisely is meant by “different place,” “live in,” “permanent,” or “usual address”? Consequently, by the end of the present chapter, “migration” will have been demonstrated to be at least as complex and multi-dimensional a concept as Chapter 4 revealed “fertility” to be.

  Starting with the idea of “different place,” the type of areal unit(s) involved in a migration is an initial important consideration when defining it specifically. A crucial starting point is whether a political boundary is crossed during a move. For example, an individual could move from one county to another within the same US state or from one state to another. Both moves are conventionally described as intra-national or internal migration, because neither involves leaving the US. In contrast, a move from the US to Canada, crossing an international border, is an international migration

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  Governing Climate Induced Migration and Displacement

  IGO Expansion and Global Policy Implications

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

    (Publisher)

  Theoretical studies of migration have focused on economic push-pull factors and larger spatial models versus individual journeys (Anthony, 1990; Clark, 1986; Hyman and Gleave, 1978; Lewis, 1982; Petersen, 1978; Weidlich and Haag, 1988; Young, 2002). Demographic studies are attentive to the characteristics of migrants, their means for social mobility, the direction of migration, and their destination (Mangalam and Schwartzweller, 1968). However, demographics are purely descriptive and do not lead to any theory development without knowing more about the drivers of migration. Migration as related to social institutions, group coherence, and collective behavior has been relatively neglected for purely economic models (Petersen, 1978). These focus on labor migration and have dominated migration analysis with their emphasis on job opportunities, labor markets, and rising expectations. The sociological theories of migration study a much smaller unit of analysis, the individual migrant. They also argue that the economic assumptions about the individual being a utility maximizer are an inadequate basis for theorizing social action (Boswell, 2008). The sociological focus is on the choice of leaving or staying based on the advantages and disadvantages of the two alternatives. This focus can also have a strong tendency to be economically driven, with the exception that it also includes those escaping religious or political oppression. This literature is also very US-centric, beginning with explanations for the Irish potato famine and other large-scale westward European migrations (Petersen, 1978). Over the years, this field has amassed a quantity of knowledge which has yet to be connected by a general explanatory system. Because migration is such a broad issue of inquiry, developing a framework that can interpret its diversity has been lagging. Migration theory tends to be time-bound, culture-bound, and discipline-bound. As a social phenomenon, it cannot be understood in meaningful terms without a comprehensive grasp of the interplay of demographic, economic, psychological, and other dimensions that converge in the process of migration (Mangalam and Schwartzweller, 1968).

  Human migration has been around much longer than any economic or sociological analysis. Scientists date large-scale human migrations out of the African continent as far back as 130,000 years ago (Balter, 2011). This assumes that early human ancestors migrated great distances to follow big game and eventually occupied all the continents. No dominant species had ever spread so far, so fast. Early civilizations also migrated with the rotation of crops as well as across open water with the advent of capable sailing vessels around 4000 B.C., became pastoralists, and began to expand by direct conquest (McNeill, 1984). Human history is almost entirely based on migrations. The English today are not indigenous to England, neither are the Malays to Malaysia, nor the Turks to Turkey (Sowell, 1996). What is interesting is that considering it has been a natural activity of all times and places (Pronk, 1993), migration has become a topic of international debate. The advent of the national border, the international search for jobs during the Industrial Revolution, and the post-World War I (WWI) refugee flows changed the way in which migration was seen. Until this time, migration had been conceived of as an exercise of individual decision and choice. Before WWI, passports and official regulation of migration were thought of as improper infringements on personal freedom. However, a mass of refugees threatened to put a strain on industrial societies (and their social welfare systems) and became a potential threat to native born citizens (McNeill, 1978). This opened the door to using migrants as political pawns; irrational and inaccurate opinions have found great influence (O’Brien, 1996).

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