Migration

Chapter Summary

• Migration = moving across an official boundary intending to live there permanently (UN: 1+ year)
• Migration can be voluntary (free choice) or involuntary/forced (no choice)
• Movement is also either internal (within a country) or international (between countries)
• Push factors drive people away from origin; pull factors attract them to a destination
• Personal, national, and legal barriers can stop or slow migration
• 281 million people are international migrants (2020) — about 3.6% of the world's population
• Rural-to-urban migration dominates in developing countries; counter-urbanisation (urban-to-rural) dominates in developed ones
• Migration creates winners and losers at the origin, destination, and for the migrant themselves
• Remittances are one of the most powerful positive impacts on developing countries
• Case study: Mexico → USA is the classic example of international labour migration

1. What Actually Is "Migration"?

Before anything else, get this definition rock solid, because exam questions love to test whether you actually understand it rather than just recognising the word.

Notice the two conditions hiding in that definition — crossing an official boundary, and intending to stay. A tourist crossing a border isn't migrating (no intention to stay). A commuter crossing a city boundary every day for work isn't migrating either, even though they cross a line — they're not settling there. This is why the mind map in the source material separates "Temporary/Circular Commuting" out from true migration pathways.

Immigration vs Emigration — don't mix these up

This trips up more students than you'd expect, purely because the words look so similar:

2. Voluntary vs Involuntary Migration

Every single migration example you'll ever be given can be sorted using two independent questions. Get in the habit of asking both — this is exactly how the exam mark scheme is structured (see the worked example in the source material).

3. Push and Pull Factors

This is the engine behind every migration decision, forced or voluntary. Think of it like a tug of war: the push is the rope pulling you away from where you are, and the pull is the rope pulling you toward somewhere else.

These factors are then sorted into four categories — a useful structure for essay answers: