Migration case studies

1. Forced migration – New Orleans• October 2005• Virtually the entire population of the city has been displaced, a large

proportion of it perhaps permanently, presenting a host of profound economic, social and psychological challenges to individuals, communities and all levels of government.

• Rhode Island more than 100 evacuees in Navy housing. • Ohio has 20 in Red Cross shelters, plus almost 2,000 staying with relatives

or friends. • California has 807 families in hotels, while Massachusetts is putting up

some 200 individuals at an old military base on Cape Cod. • States on the edge of the devastated area have larger numbers, of course,

with 50,000 in Arkansas and 200,000 in Texan shelters and homes.

• Two weeks after it blew through the US Gulf Coast, it's clear that hurricane Katrina has resulted in the largest displacement of Americans in 150 years - if not the largest ever. The scale is monumental.

• Many evacuees are putting down roots in new areas and say they'll never return. Others face months of a temporary existence before they can go home. Whatever they do, the nation may never be the same, as a smaller New Orleans rises up from its ruins.“

• This is the biggest resettlement in American history. A whole city has been uprooted

• If nothing else, the resettlement is already a story in state-to-state generosity. As of Sunday, there were an estimated 374,000 hurricane Katrina refugees in shelters, hotels, homes and other housing in 34 states and the District of Columbia, according to the Red Cross and state relief officials. The total number of refugees may surpass 1 million, but a large percentage have been absorbed into their own relative's homes, say experts.

• In many cases evacuees have ended up in places far from their native Gulf coast. A surprisingly large percentage of them say they like what they see. Take Arizona. Whether it's the clear weather in the Valley of the Sun, the helpful support, or being far from the reach of hurricanes, many of the hundreds of evacuees brought to Arizona intend to stay.

Effects• Pressure on host country resources• Pressure on emergency services• Poor living conditions in refugee camps,

eyesore and create problems for host country/state.

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9v1zf9zdjAM

• Recovery may take a long time – New Orleans will never return to the same state.

• People never want to return.

Zimbabwe – political forced external• Rhodesia - White people had power - took a privileged position in many

areas of society

• After the country's independence as Zimbabwe in 1980, white people had to adjust to being an ethnic minority in a country with an African government.

• Many white people emigrated in the early 1980s, being uncertain about their future, but many remained.

• The country gained its independence as Zimbabwe in April 1980, under a government led by Robert Mugabe. Following independence, the country's white people lost their former privileged position.

• Political unrest and the illegal seizure of farms resulted in a further exodus commencing in 1999. Two white farmers and an unknown number of African farm workers were killed while defending their farms from these seizures.

• The result was that white emigration gathered pace. In the ten year period from 1980 to 1990 approximately 2/3 of the white population left Zimbabwe.

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/political-conflict-in-zimbabwe/7277.html

Effects

• Robert MugabeWhite people moved to surrounding areas – pressure on land and scarce resources.

Collapse of economy

Lack of investment from other countries due to corruption

Black people have lost faith in their leader after country plummets into poverty

Black farmers left – poor knowledge and skills in farming. Lead to food shortage.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxvjPnZAaMo

USA – Voluntary• The Great Migration was the movement of 1.75 million

African Americans out of the Southern United States to the North, Midwest and West from 1910 to 1930.

• African Americans migrated to escape racism and seek employment opportunities in industrial cities.

• Many moved from Texas and Louisiana to California where there were jobs in the defence industry. From 1965–70, 14 states of the South, especially Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi, contributed to a large net migration of blacks.

• African Americans moved as individuals or small family groups. There was no government assistance, but often northern industries, such as the railroads, meatpacking and stockyards, recruited people. The primary factor for migration was the racial climate and widespread violence of lynching in the South. In the North, they could find better schools and adult men could vote (joined by women after 1920). Burgeoning industries meant there were job opportunities.

Effects

Pressure on receiving states for jobs especially where there is competition.

Still some racial tension and segregation in north,

Pressure on housing, education services in general.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/the-great-migration/3900.html

Effects• Demographic changes• The Great Migration of African-Americans created the first large, urban black

communities in the North. It is conservatively estimated that 400,000 left the South during the two-year period of 1916-1918 to take advantage of a labour shortage created in the wake of the First World War. The 20th century cultures of many of the United States' modern cities were forged in this period:

• In 1910, the African American population of Detroit was 6,000. By the start of the Great Depression in 1929, this figure had risen to 120,000.

• In 1900 Chicago had a total population of 1,698,575.By 1920 the population had increased by more than 1 million residents. During the second wave of the Great Migration (from 1940–1960), the African American population in the city grew from 278,000 to 813,000. The South Side of Chicago was considered the black capital of America.

• Other cities, such as St. Louis, Cleveland, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York, also experienced surges in their African-American populations.

• In the South, the departure of hundreds of thousands of African Americans caused the black percentage of the population in most Southern states to decrease. For example, in Mississippi, blacks decreased from about 56% of the population in 1910 to about 37% by 1970[7] and in South Carolina, blacks decreased from about 55% of the population in 1910 to about 30% by 1970

Polish into Britain – voluntary international• Just over two years later and the UK’s population is

swelling at the fastest rate recorded in forty years and has recently topped the 60 million mark. Much of this has been credited to the bus, plane and boatloads of young, hungry Eastern Europeans arriving seeking employment, and with it a chance of a new start in a land of increased opportunity, or the funds to kick start businesses or property purchases back home otherwise beyond their means. How many are there exactly in the UK? Officially, around half a million Eastern Europeans were officially registered to work as of Summer 2006. Depending on where you stand, this phenomenal wave of immigration is either a death knell for British values and the tradition of the blue-collar British worker, or a powerful boost to the British economy while others in Europe stagnate.

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6TWU4axz4E

Advantages Disadvantages

To Poland Cheap source of labour to do dangerous jobs such as in asbestos factories; and unskilled work and dirty jobs not wanted by the British people, such as street cleaning.

Cause of racial tension at times of high unemployment in Britain. Need to provide housing, services and specialist education to cope with language difficulties low paid work such as catering and farming.

To Britain Reduces unemployment and pressure on resources. Earns foreign exchange.

Lose best skilled people needed in home economy. Decline of framing and services. Reduces birth rate in rural areas.

To the migrant Higher wages, higher standard of living than in Poland. Miss their family.

Social problems of integration due to foreign language and customs. Newly learned skills of little use to Polish economy.

Top the migrants family Money sent back from migrant raises standard of living.

Family life may break down. Lose the young males vital to work in the villages.

Uganda

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/idi-amin-expels-the-asians-from-uganda/7698.html

Uganda – Political forced external

• Idi Amin ruled in 1970s.• Asian expulsion – Indians forced out to other

countires e.g. Britian.• Refugee camps set up e.g. North Wales• 1972: Asians given 90 days to leave Uganda• http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/

stories/august/7/newsid_2492000/2492333.stm

• Britain was unable to negotiate a compromise with Idi Amin and eventually about 50,000 Asians were forced to leave Uganda. Most of those with British passports - around 30,000 - came to the UK.

• Many arrived virtually penniless having been expelled without compensation for businesses and property.

• Some were also robbed by troops en route to the airport. • There were many objections to their arrival - Leicester

Council even took out newspaper advertisements warning them not to come to the city.

• Idi Amin's rule was one of Uganda's most brutal periods. • He was overthrown in 1979 and lived in exile in Saudi

Arabia until his death in 2003.

Voluntary Migration: (internal):Brazil rural-urban

Push factors for the North East region

Pull factors for the South East region

Low unreliable rainfall often less than 750mm

Periodic droughts and crop failure

Poverty, starvation and malnutrition

Limited employment opportunities and low wages

Few people own their land

Overpopulation High mortality rates

especially amongst the young

Infertile soils, often salty or leached

Better paid jobs available in factories

More employment opportunities – work can be gained in the informal sector

More comfortable housing and better quality of life than in the rural areas

Access to education and other services e.g. medical care, entertainment

More reliable sources of food

Internal voluntary migration - BrazilGreatest movement have been out of NE where successive droughts have led to crop failure, famine and poverty.

Dominant direction of movement has been to large urban areas in the SE region. (Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte).

Migration has reduced problem of overpopulation in the NE by relieving pressure on food supplies, water and fuel wood.

But area now has fewer people of working age, especially males due to age and sex selectivity of migration.

In cities migrants provide cheap labour force but huge volumes of migrants into cities has caused great problems.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/crowded-cities-rio-de-janeiro/518.html

Australia