What Is Migration?
Migration is the movement of people from one place to another with the intention of living there permanently or for a long period of time. People have migrated throughout human history — from early humans spreading out of Africa, to great waves of movement during the 19th and 20th centuries.
A person who leaves a country to live permanently elsewhere is called an emigrant. A person who arrives in a new country is called an immigrant. The same person is an emigrant from their home country and an immigrant in their new country.
Net migration is the difference between the number of people arriving in a place and the number leaving:
If more people arrive than leave, a country has net positive migration (a migration gain). If more people leave than arrive, it has net negative migration (a migration loss).
Push and Pull Factors
Geographers explain why people migrate using the idea of push and pull factors.
Push factors are negative conditions in a person's current location that drive them to leave:
- Lack of jobs or very low wages
- War, conflict, or political persecution
- Natural disasters (earthquakes, floods, droughts, volcanic eruptions)
- Famine or food shortages
- Poor healthcare or education
- Environmental degradation (e.g. land no longer suitable for farming)
- Persecution due to religion, ethnicity, or political beliefs
Pull factors are positive conditions in a new location that attract people:
- Better employment opportunities and higher wages
- Safety and political stability
- Better healthcare and education systems
- Family and community already living there
- Higher quality of life
- More land or resources available
- Religious or cultural freedom
In 2023, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported that over 110 million people were forcibly displaced worldwide — meaning they had been forced to leave their homes due to conflict, persecution, or disaster. This is the highest number ever recorded. The countries with the largest numbers of displaced people include Syria, Afghanistan, Ukraine, South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Types of Migration
Migration can be classified in several ways:
By distance / type:
- Internal migration: Moving within the same country — for example, from a village to a city in search of work. This is the most common form of migration globally.
- International migration: Moving from one country to another.
By reason:
- Economic migration: Moving primarily to find better-paid work or economic opportunities. Economic migrants choose to move — they are not forced.
- Forced migration: Moving because staying is too dangerous or impossible. Includes refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs).
- Seasonal migration: Moving temporarily for work during certain seasons — for example, farm workers who follow harvests.
Key terms:
- Refugee: A person who has been forced to flee their country because of war, persecution, or natural disaster, and who cannot return safely.
- Asylum seeker: A person who has left their country and applied for refugee status in another country, but whose case has not yet been decided.
- Internally displaced person (IDP): A person forced from their home who remains within their own country's borders.
Rural-to-Urban Migration
One of the most important migration trends in the modern world is rural-to-urban migration — people moving from the countryside to cities.
This happens because:
- Cities offer more jobs — in factories, offices, shops, and services.
- Cities have better schools and hospitals.
- City wages are often significantly higher than rural wages.
- Young people are attracted by the social and cultural opportunities of city life.
Rural-to-urban migration has driven rapid urbanisation in Asia, Africa, and South America. Cities like Lagos (Nigeria), Dhaka (Bangladesh), and Mumbai (India) have grown enormously over the past 50 years, partly because of huge numbers of migrants from rural areas.
When large numbers of people leave a rural area, those left behind are often elderly and less economically active. Schools close due to falling pupil numbers, shops close for lack of customers, and public transport services are cut. This can create a downward spiral — as services decline, more people leave, causing further decline. Geographers call this rural depopulation. It is a major challenge in parts of rural Europe, Japan, and many developing countries.
Effects of Migration
Migration has effects on both the place people leave (the source area) and the place they arrive in (the destination).
In the source area (place of origin):
- Population decreases, often becoming older on average (young people leave more often)
- Skills and working-age people are lost — this is called brain drain
- Pressure on services is reduced (less demand for schools, hospitals)
- Remittances (money sent home by migrants) can be very significant — for some countries, remittances total more than all foreign investment combined
In the destination area:
- Population grows
- More workers available — helps the economy
- Cultural diversity increases — new foods, languages, arts, and ideas
- Pressure on housing, schools, and hospitals can increase
- In some cases, tensions can arise between existing residents and newcomers over jobs, culture, or resources
Real world: Syrian refugee crisis — forced migration on a global scale
The Syrian civil war, which began in 2011, triggered one of the largest forced migration events since World War II. By 2015–2016, over 1 million refugees had crossed the Mediterranean to reach Europe, with many fleeing through Turkey, Greece, and the Balkans. Germany alone accepted over 800,000 asylum seekers in 2015. The crisis exposed enormous differences in how EU countries responded — some opened borders, others built fences. It also highlighted the international legal distinction between refugees (entitled to protection under the 1951 Geneva Convention) and economic migrants (who choose to move for better opportunities).
Real world: Polish workers in the UK — economic migration within the EU
When Poland joined the European Union in 2004, the UK was one of only three EU countries to immediately allow Polish workers full rights to work. Within five years, an estimated 600,000 Polish-born people were living in the UK — the largest migration wave in British history. Pull factors included wages three to four times higher than in Poland. Push factors included limited job opportunities at home. Polish migrants filled critical gaps in construction, food processing, and healthcare. After Brexit (2016), freedom of movement ended, and many returned to Poland or moved to other EU countries.
Real world: Bangladesh — rural-to-urban migration and the garment industry
Bangladesh has experienced rapid rural-to-urban migration since the 1980s, driven by the growth of its garment industry. Today, over 4 million workers — mostly young women from rural areas — work in garment factories in Dhaka and Chittagong. Push factors include floods and erosion in rural Bangladesh (especially in the delta region, which regularly loses farmland to rivers). Pull factors include factory wages, which, while low by global standards, are significantly higher than rural incomes. The remittances these workers send back to their home villages support millions of rural families.
Where do you see this in real life? Think about your own community — are there people who have moved from other countries or regions? What brought them? Are there people who have left for other places? Migration shapes the food, languages, businesses, and culture of almost every town and city in the world. Look at a local restaurant, a construction site, or a hospital ward — migration is often visible in the people who make these things work.
Practice Problems
Explain the difference between a push factor and a pull factor in migration, and give one example of each.
Show answer
What is the difference between internal migration and international migration? Give an example of each.