Internal Migration Patterns

Ravenstein’sReminders

Don’t forget, Internal Migration is movement within a country, and interregional migration is movement between regions within the same country.

Interregional migration was more common during the manifest destiny era of westward settlement as farmers left the more densely packed eastern seaboard in search of open farmland.

Settlement of the US interior began after 1790.

By 1830, people were inhabiting the river valleys and fertile lowlands as far west as the Mississippi.

INTERNALMIGRATION

Westward expansion was sped in the early 1800s by the digging of an extensive canal system.

By the mid 1800s, pioneers were passing right through the interior of the country on their way to California.

Settlers did not like the tough, grassland sod of the Great Plains and so most Settlement was either East of 98th Meridian or in California (dashed red line).

After 1880, settlers began filling in the gaps between the 98th meridian and California as agricultural developments allowed settlers to cultivate and farm the Great Plains.

Railroad development after the 1840s also encouraged westward expansion.

Railroads also encouraged settlement of the US interior by selling land adjacent to railroad beds to farmers.

US PATTERNS OF INTERNAL

MIGRATION

During the late 1900s, the US center of population stopped moving west and started moving south.

During the 1980s and 1990s, 5 million people each year were moving into the South from the West, Midwest and Northeast.

Many have migrated to the South for economic reasons. New jobs each year have increased at a rate of 5% in the South but only 2% in the rest of the US.

Others have migrated for environmental reasons (out of the Rust Belt and into the Sun Belt.

In the early 2000’s, interregional migration has slowed significantly and the net migration between any two regions is now roughly zero.

US PATTERNS OF INTERNAL

MIGRATION

RussiaUSSR’s resource-rich regions were not located in the same place that its people lived, but Soviet policy encouraged factories to be built near the raw materials, not the markets.

Russia’s Far North (Siberia) contained 45% of its land, but only 2% of its people.

At first, the Soviet government forced people to move to the Far North region, but then switched to an incentive system. Both systems failed and usually half of each year’s immigrant crop would move back to the West and South.

The present Russian government has switched its methods of factory location.

PATTERNS OF INTERNAL

MIGRATION

Most of Brazil’s population live in a string of large cities on or near the coast.

To entice people to migrate inland, in 1960, Brazil built itself a new city and relocated its capital from Rio to that new city: Brasilia. Moving a capital to move a population is called a FORWARD CAPITAL.

At first population began to grow slowly, but thousands have migrated to Brasilia recently in search of jobs.

Many of the workers could not afford housing and many others could not find work and thus could not afford housing. These workers were forced to create hastily constructed squatter settlements on the outskirts of town and otherwise unattractive land (steep hillsides and ravines).

These slum villages are called Favelas.

Brazil

PATTERNS OF INTERNAL

MIGRATION

PATTERNS OF INTERNAL

MIGRATION

China’s recent economic boom has occurred largely along the coastal plains of the country’s eastern third.

Over 100 million people have emigrated from rural areas further inland to pursue jobs on the eastern seaboard.

The film Last Train Home documents the annual return of tens of millions of those workers to their native villages for the Chinese New Year.

It is the largest mass migration on the planet.

Link to Website and Trailer

CHINA

EUROPEAN INTERREGIONAL

MIGRATION

TO REITERATE:

The creation of “The Schengen” in 1985 allowed citizens of Schenen Treaty countries to move, work and own property freely in any other member countries.

This treaty has caused a lot of interregional migration, mostly from the south and east to the north and west.

INTRAREGIONALMIGRATION

RURAL TO URBAN

URBAN TO SUBURBAN

SUBURBAN TO RURAL

While interregional migration tends to make headlines, movement within a region (INTRAREGIONAL MIGRATION) is far more common.

Worldwide, most move from rural to urban (stage 2 of the Dem Trans).Within the US, most move from urban to suburban (stage 3 /4 of the Dem Trans).

Began in Europe and US in 1800s with the industrial revolutionToday, 75% of people in MDCs live in urban areas

Many LDCs (Asia esp) are now seeing heavy urbanization43% of Asians are now urbanized

20 million worldwide move to urban areas each year in search of work

Most intraregional migration in MDCs is from cities to suburbs (suburbanization)The trend began in in the 1950s and continues to today

The move is not a economic push or pull, but is rather an environmental pull as suburbs offer detached houses, yards, free off-street parking, better schools and transportation systems than link them to the urban area

Suburbanization is leading to sprawl in the US

Counterurbanization: net migration from urban to rural areas (stage 4 Dem Trans)The US now sees more counterurbanizatoin than urbanization

Some C-U is from rapid suburb growth, but most is from older or wealthier couples moving from the environmental pull of rural life.

Some do move to follow jobs as US manufacturing moves to rural areas to take advantage of cheap land

The space-time compression of modern transpo and commo systems make rural living more feasible