Migration | ICSE Class 8 Geography Notes

This note covers the meaning and types of migration, immigration and emigration, push and pull factors, rural and urban movements, changes in population, migrants’ experiences, historical migration, brain drain, and the social and economic effects of migration.

What is migration, and how are origin and destination connected?

Definition: Migration is the movement of people from one place to another. The place of origin is where they move from, and the place of destination is where they move to.

A migrant is a person who makes this movement. Migration connects places through people’s search for a better economic and social life. Economic life concerns work and income; social life includes living conditions and relationships with other people.

The same movement affects both ends of the journey. A person leaves the population of the origin and joins the population of the destination. Looking at just the place of arrival therefore gives an incomplete picture of migration.

Does migration have to be permanent?

Migration may be permanent, involving settlement for the long term; temporary, involving a limited stay; or seasonal, associated with a particular season. These terms describe the duration or timing of movement, rather than whether a national boundary is crossed.

A change of workplace and a change in family life may accompany migration. A migrant may earn away from home while relatives continue living at the origin. This connection between the two places is important when examining the benefits and difficulties of movement.

Draw two boxes labelled “Place of origin” and “Place of destination”. Join them with an arrow pointing towards the destination. Label the arrow “Movement of people”. The arrowhead shows where people arrive.

Migration may be interpreted as an effort to achieve a better balance between population and resources. This is a possible interpretation of movement, not a promise that every migrant will find secure work or improved living conditions.

How do immigration, emigration and migration types differ?

Immigration means movement into a place, and an immigrant is a person arriving there. Emigration means movement out of a place, and an emigrant is a person leaving it. One person can be both, depending on which place is being considered.

These terms describe direction. They are not names for two unrelated groups of people. To classify a movement correctly, first identify the place from whose point of view the movement is being described.

What do rural and urban mean?

Rural refers to the countryside and villages, while urban refers to towns and cities. The words at the beginning and end of a migration stream show the kinds of places people leave and enter.

The order matters. Rural to urban movement and urban to rural movement connect the same kinds of areas, but in opposite directions. Urban to urban migration begins in an urban area; it does not describe every movement that ends in a city.

Internal migration takes place within a country. International migration crosses a national boundary. These categories describe the boundary crossed, while rural and urban categories describe the settlements involved. Duration supplies another description of the same movement.

Ramesh’s movement between Ludhiana and Surat, discussed below, provides an urban to urban example within India. Historical movement from Europe to America and Australia provides an international example. Neither example requires assuming that migration follows one direction everywhere.

Note: Keep direction, settlement type and duration separate when describing migration. Knowing that someone has moved to a city does not, by itself, tell you where that person came from or how long the stay will last.

Why do push and pull factors influence migration?

Push factors make the place of origin seem less attractive. Pull factors make the destination seem more attractive than the origin. Together, they help explain why a person considers leaving one place and moving to another.

What can push people away?

Unemployment, meaning the absence of work for people seeking it, and poor living conditions are important push factors. Political turmoil, or serious political disturbance, can also make a place less attractive. People tend to move away from social and political unrest.

Other push factors include an unpleasant climate, natural disasters and epidemics, meaning outbreaks of disease affecting many people in an area. Poor social and economic development can also discourage people from remaining at the origin.

What can attract people elsewhere?

Better job opportunities and living conditions are pull factors. Peace and stability, security of life and property, and a pleasant climate can also attract migrants. A place’s attractions must be understood in relation to the conditions people are leaving.

This comparison groups related factors. It does not mean that every origin has all the listed problems or that every destination offers all the listed attractions. A description of migration should identify the factors supported by the particular example.

The word seem matters in the definitions. People may move because they expect a better life. The conditions they later experience can differ from their expectations, as the historical examples below show.

Push and pull factors can operate together. In Ramesh’s experience, family poverty, meaning a lack of resources to meet basic needs, helped explain the decision to leave, while perceived job opportunities, meaning expected chances of work, helped explain the choice of destination. The hardship at one end and the attraction at the other belong in the same explanation.

How are rural to urban and urban to urban migration linked to work?

Rural to urban migration connects village populations with work and services in towns and cities. Low job opportunities in rural areas, high demand for labour in urban areas and unequal development between them help explain this movement.

Cities offer employment, educational and medical facilities, and better means of transport and communication. These attractions draw people towards urban areas. Urbanisation, the growth of towns and cities and their populations, is connected with this movement.

Why do industrial areas attract workers?

Industrialisation means the development of industries. Industrial belts attract factory workers and also people providing services, including transport operators, shopkeepers, bank employees, doctors and teachers. Employment linked with industry therefore extends beyond work inside factories.

The Kobe-Osaka region of Japan is thickly populated because of the presence of a number of industries. This example links employment opportunities with population concentration.

Urban to urban migration occurs when people move between towns or cities. Ramesh moved from Ludhiana to Surat, learnt welding, the skill of joining metal parts, and subsequently travelled to different places with a contractor, a person arranging work on a contract. His experience shows that migration can involve further moves after the first destination.

Does reaching a city guarantee success?

In developing countries, poor rural migrants with limited literacy and without specialised job training frequently end up doing low-paid work in the informal sector. Here, informal sector refers to work outside the organised employment sector. “Frequently” describes a pattern, not every migrant’s outcome.

Low wages can make it difficult to support a whole family at the destination. A migrant’s spouse may remain in the village to care for children and elderly relatives. The reasons for moving and the difficulties after arrival must both be considered.

How does migration change population and connect households?

Population change is a change in the number of people living in an area over time. Births, deaths and migration are its components. Arrivals add people to a destination, while departures reduce the population at an origin.

In-migration means movement into the area being studied. Out-migration means movement out of it. These effects must be separated from births and deaths when explaining why the total population has changed.

How can the connection be followed?

1. Identify the origin and destination of the movement so that the direction is clear.
2. Count the movement as a departure from the origin and an arrival at the destination.
3. Consider births and deaths separately before drawing a conclusion about total population change.
4. Examine continuing links, such as money sent to relatives who remain at the origin.

Remittances are money sent by migrants to people at home. They connect earnings at the destination with household needs at the origin. In Ramesh’s case, money sent to his father supported daily consumption, healthcare and children’s schooling.

Some of that money was also used for agriculture, buying land and building houses. These uses show why the economic effect of migration is not confined to the migrant’s workplace. A household can benefit even while its members live apart.

Note: A departure reduces population through migration, but it does not prove that the area’s total population has fallen. Births, deaths and other movements must also be considered over the same period.

The social effects of migration concern relationships and living together. Family separation and difficulty adjusting to a new social environment are part of the experience too. An assessment based entirely on money would leave out these consequences.

What does the case study of Ramesh reveal about migration?

Ramesh’s experience connects poverty with the search for work. His family was heavily in debt. Three of his brothers and their families had to survive on three acres of land, with acres being units of land area.

He discontinued his studies after the ninth standard. Marriage increased the pressure on him. Successful migrants from his village, who worked in Ludhiana and supported relatives by sending money and goods, also influenced his decision to move.

How did his employment change?

Ramesh went to Punjab with a friend because of family poverty and perceived job promises at Ludhiana. He worked in a woollen factory for six months in 1988, earning Rs. 20 per day. Rs. is an abbreviation for Indian rupees.

He struggled to meet his own expenses and to adjust to the unfamiliar culture and environment. Under his friend’s guidance, he moved from Ludhiana to Surat. There he learnt welding.

At the later stage of the account, he had worked for two years as a contract welder at a construction site in Talcher, in Odisha’s coal region. With the contractor he had moved to places including Surat, Mumbai, Gandhi Nagar, Bharuch and Jamnagar.

What improved, and what remained difficult?

His family’s standard of living improved significantly. Yet he experienced the pain of separation from close relatives. His temporary and transferable job prevented him from bringing them to live with him. Better family income did not remove this difficulty.

On an outline map of India, locate Ludhiana and Surat using an atlas. Draw an arrow from Ludhiana to Surat. Label it “Change of workplace”. It shows the stated direction of movement, not a precise travel route.

The wage and remittance figures refer to different stages of his story. They should not be treated as present-day wages or combined to estimate savings from the earlier factory job.

What does a case study of nineteenth-century migration show?

In nineteenth-century Britain, growing demand for food and changes in agriculture helped produce major movements of people. The Corn Laws were laws restricting the import of corn. Their removal allowed food to be imported more cheaply than it could be produced within Britain.

British agriculture could not compete with these imports. Land was left uncultivated, and thousands of men and women lost their work. They moved towards cities or went overseas. This links economic change at the origin with migration.

Why did destinations need labour?

Food production expanded in places including America and Australia to meet British demand. Land had to be cultivated, homes built and settlements established. Railways and harbours were needed to connect agricultural areas with markets. These activities required workers as well as money.

Demand for labour where workers were in short supply, as in America and Australia, encouraged migration. This is a historical example of pull factors operating alongside the loss of livelihoods in places of origin.

A million means one thousand thousand people. The following figures describe nineteenth-century movements, rather than migration today.

The worldwide estimate and the Europe-to-overseas figure describe different scopes. They should not be added as though they were separate, non-overlapping groups. Both figures show the scale of movement while retaining the uncertainty in their wording.

On a world outline map, label Europe, America and Australia using an atlas. Draw arrows from Europe towards America and Australia. Label the arrows “Nineteenth-century emigration”. They represent broad directions, not exact ship routes.

This example connects the demand for food, employment changes and movement across countries. It also shows why explaining migration requires looking beyond the individual traveller to changes in work at both ends of the journey.

How did indentured migration affect Indian workers overseas?

Indentured labour was bonded labour under a contract requiring work for an employer for a specified period to pay for passage to a new country or home. In the nineteenth century, Indian contracts promised return travel after five years on an employer’s plantation.

A plantation is a large agricultural estate growing crops. Hundreds of thousands of Indian and Chinese labourers went to work on plantations, in mines, and on road and railway construction projects around the world during that century.

Where did most Indian workers come from?

Most Indian indentured workers came from present-day eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, central India and the dry districts of Tamil Nadu. Cottage industries, meaning small-scale household industries, declined, land rents rose, and land was cleared for mines and plantations.

These changes damaged poor people’s livelihoods. They could not pay rent, became deeply indebted and were forced to migrate for work. The main overseas destinations included Trinidad, Guyana and Surinam in the Caribbean region, as well as Mauritius and Fiji.

Were promises the same as actual conditions?

Many migrants agreed to leave because they hoped to escape poverty or oppression. Recruitment agents provided false information about destinations, travel, work and living conditions. Often migrants were not even told about the long sea voyage; sometimes less willing migrants were forcibly abducted.

On arrival, workers encountered harsh living and working conditions and few legal rights. This experience warns against treating the promise of work as proof of a good outcome. Expectations before departure and conditions after arrival could be very different.

How did migration affect culture and settlement?

Workers also developed forms of self-expression that blended different traditions. Cultural fusion means the mixing of cultural forms into new ones. In Trinidad, the Muharram procession became the carnival called Hosay, in which workers of all races and religions participated.

Most indentured workers stayed after their contracts ended, or returned to their new homes after a short stay in India. Large communities of people of Indian descent developed in these countries.

What is brain drain, and why do skilled people migrate?

Definition: Brain drain is the movement of highly skilled and qualified people to other parts of the world for better opportunities, viewed as a loss of their skills to the place they leave.

Skills are abilities developed through learning and practice; qualifications recognise education or training. Brain drain focuses on the movement of people with such developed abilities. It is therefore a particular issue within migration, rather than a name for every movement of people.

How are skills connected with development?

Human capital means the knowledge, skills and abilities embodied in people that help them work productively. Education, health and training help develop it. Engineers and doctors are examples of technically qualified people whose abilities result from education and training.

The services of skilled people support economic and social development. Their knowledge belongs with them: a person’s skill cannot be separated from the person in the way a machine can be moved separately from its owner.

What attracts qualified people abroad?

Technically qualified people, such as engineers and doctors, migrate to other countries because of the higher salaries they may get there. The possibility of improved earnings is a pull factor. Better opportunities are central to understanding brain drain.

The words may get are important. They describe the prospect of higher salaries without guaranteeing the same financial outcome for every individual. A decision to move involves expectations about work and living conditions.

Migration also involves transport expenses, higher living costs at the destination and the emotional costs of living in an unfamiliar social and cultural setting. Psychic costs is the term for these emotional difficulties, rather than a separate transport or housing payment.

Brain drain must therefore be examined from more than one viewpoint. A qualified worker’s opportunity to earn more and the origin’s concern about losing skilled services can arise from the same movement. They answer different questions about its consequences.

How can the positive and negative impacts of brain drain be assessed?

The effects of skilled migration concern migrants, their families, the origin and the destination. A positive effect for one group does not by itself show that every group benefits equally. The assessment must identify whose circumstances are being discussed.

What benefits can migration bring?

For qualified migrants, higher salaries are an attraction. Earnings can support improved living conditions. Where migrants send money home, remittances can help relatives meet household needs. Ramesh’s experience illustrates the remittance connection for labour migration, rather than providing a case of professional brain drain.

The destination gains access to the services of the qualified people who arrive. This follows from the connection between people and their skills. Their knowledge and training accompany them, allowing them to contribute where they work.

Why can the origin be concerned?

When qualified people leave, their services are no longer available at the origin in the same way. This is the central loss described by brain drain. It concerns the availability of skills as well as the number of people who move.

Education and training involve investment by individuals and society. The concern is therefore connected with the use of developed abilities. Money received from abroad and the availability of skilled services are different effects; one should not automatically be treated as a measure of the other.

A balanced conclusion keeps these effects distinct. Migration can improve earnings while leaving difficulties of separation or adjustment. Brain drain adds a specific concern about skilled services. Neither a promise of higher wages nor the label “brain drain” replaces examination of the actual circumstances.

Glossary

• Migration — Movement of people from one place to another, which may be permanent, temporary or seasonal.
• Place of origin — The place from which people move when they migrate elsewhere.
• Place of destination — The place to which people move and where they arrive.
• Immigration — Movement into a place, viewed from the area receiving the migrants.
• Emigration — Movement out of a place, viewed from the area migrants leave.
• Internal migration — Movement between places within a country, without crossing its national boundary.
• International migration — Movement from one country to another across a national boundary.
• Rural to urban migration — Movement from villages or countryside areas into towns and cities.
• Urban to urban migration — Movement from one town or city to another urban settlement.
• Push factors — Conditions making the place of origin seem less attractive to people.
• Pull factors — Conditions making a destination seem more attractive than the place of origin.
• Remittances — Money migrants send to people at home from their place of work.
• Indentured labour — Bonded labour under a contract for a specified period to pay for passage to a new country or home.
• Brain drain — Movement of highly skilled and qualified people abroad for better opportunities, viewed as a loss of skills at the origin.
• Human capital — Knowledge, skills and abilities embodied in people that help them work productively.

Common errors and misconceptions

• Misconception: Immigration and emigration describe unrelated people. Correct: The same migrant is an emigrant from the origin and an immigrant at the destination.
• Misconception: Migration must be permanent. Correct: Migration may be permanent, temporary or seasonal. Duration is separate from the direction of movement.
• Misconception: Every move ending in a city is rural to urban migration. Correct: The origin matters too; movement from another city is urban to urban migration.
• Misconception: A pull factor guarantees success after arrival. Correct: Pull factors make destinations seem attractive. Actual experiences may include low wages, difficult adjustment and separation.
• Misconception: Ramesh’s factory wage represents a current wage. Correct: Rs. 20 per day describes his factory employment in 1988, not earnings today.
• Misconception: Everyone who leaves a place is part of brain drain. Correct: Brain drain specifically concerns the movement of highly skilled and qualified people for better opportunities.
• Misconception: Every indentured worker returned to India after the contract. Correct: Most stayed overseas or returned to their new homes after a short stay in India.
• Misconception: Improved family income means migration has no social cost. Correct: Ramesh’s family benefited financially while he continued to experience painful separation.

Exam-style questions with model answers

Q1. A migrant leaves a place of origin and enters a place of destination. Name and explain the movement from each place’s viewpoint. [2 marks]

1. From the origin’s viewpoint, the movement is emigration because the person moves out of that place.
2. From the destination’s viewpoint, it is immigration because the same person moves into the receiving place.

Q2. Classify and explain these four movements: village to village, village to city, city to city, and city to village. Use rural for village areas and urban for city areas. [4 marks]

1. Village to village is rural to rural migration because both the place of origin and the destination are rural settlements.
2. Village to city is rural to urban migration because the person leaves a rural settlement and enters an urban one.
3. City to city is urban to urban migration because the person moves between two places that are both urban.
4. City to village is urban to rural migration because the origin is urban while the place of arrival is rural.

Q3. Unemployment and poor living conditions make an origin less attractive. Better job opportunities and peace make a destination more attractive. Identify and explain the four factors as push or pull factors. [4 marks]

1. Unemployment is a push factor because a lack of work makes the origin less attractive to someone looking for employment.
2. Poor living conditions are a push factor because dissatisfaction with life at the origin encourages consideration of moving elsewhere.
3. Better job opportunities are a pull factor because the prospect of employment makes the destination seem more attractive.
4. Peace is a pull factor because a more stable setting can attract people towards the destination described in the question.

Q4. Ramesh left a heavily indebted family, attracted by perceived jobs in Ludhiana. He struggled on Rs. 20 per day in 1988 and found adjustment difficult. Later, he learnt welding in Surat and sent Rs. 20,000 per year home. His temporary, transferable job kept him apart from relatives. Explain six aspects of this experience. [6 marks]

1. The family’s heavy debt was a push factor. It placed pressure on Ramesh to look for employment away from home.
2. Perceived job opportunities in Ludhiana were a pull factor. They helped explain why he chose that place as a destination.
3. The daily factory wage was difficult for him to live on. Arrival at the destination did not immediately remove financial hardship.
4. Adjustment to the new setting was difficult. His experience therefore involved a social difficulty as well as the problem of low earnings.
5. Learning welding developed a skill, and later remittances sent money home. His working life became connected with support for relatives at the origin.
6. The temporary, transferable job kept him separated from relatives. Better earnings and financial support coexisted with a continuing personal cost.

Q5. Nearly 50 million people emigrated from Europe to America and Australia in the nineteenth century. In the same century, worldwide, some 150 million are estimated to have left home across oceans and long land distances. Explain three precautions when using these figures. [3 marks]

1. Retain “nearly” with 50 million and the estimated wording with some 150 million. Neither figure is presented as an exact count.
2. Keep the geographical scopes distinct. The first describes departures from Europe towards America and Australia; the second describes movements worldwide.
3. Keep the figures in their nineteenth-century historical context. They cannot be presented as measurements of present-day migration or added as separate, non-overlapping totals.

Q6. Indian indentured contracts promised return travel after five years on plantations. Many migrants hoped to escape poverty; agents gave false information. Living and working conditions were harsh, with few legal rights. Most workers stayed overseas or returned there after a short visit to India. Explain five features of this migration. [5 marks]

1. The movement involved contracted labour. The contracts connected the promise of return travel with completion of five years of work on the plantations.
2. Poverty encouraged many workers to accept recruitment. Their hope of escaping hardship helped explain why an overseas opportunity appeared attractive.
3. False information affected recruitment. Workers’ expectations before departure therefore did not necessarily reflect the conditions they would encounter after reaching the destination.
4. Harsh living and working conditions, together with few legal rights, made the experience difficult. The existence of a contract did not ensure favourable treatment.
5. Most workers remained overseas or returned there after a short Indian visit. The promised return journey did not mean that everyone settled permanently back in India.

Q7. Highly skilled and qualified people move abroad for better opportunities, raising concern about loss of skills at the origin. Engineers and doctors may obtain higher salaries, but face transport expenses, higher living costs and emotional difficulties in unfamiliar surroundings. Name the migration issue, identify its attraction, and explain the costs. [3 marks]

1. The issue is brain drain: migration of highly skilled and qualified people abroad, considered from the origin’s concern about losing their skills.
2. Higher salaries are a pull factor. The word “may” matters because the statement describes an opportunity, rather than a guaranteed outcome for everyone.
3. Costs include transport expenses, higher living costs and emotional difficulties in unfamiliar surroundings. A comparison based on salary alone would leave these out.

Q8. A departure removes a person from the origin and an arrival adds a person to the destination. Births add people and deaths remove people. Explain two reasons why migration alone cannot establish an area’s total population change. [2 marks]

1. Births add people as well, so departures alone do not establish the final population total.
2. Deaths remove people too, so arrivals alone do not show the complete population change.

Key takeaways

• Migration connects an origin and a destination through movement that may be permanent, temporary or seasonal.
• The same person can be an emigrant at the origin and an immigrant at the destination.
• Push factors make origins seem less attractive; pull factors make destinations seem more attractive than origins.
• Rural to urban and urban to urban migration differ in their origins, even though both end in urban areas.
• Ramesh’s experience combines improved family living standards with low initial earnings, difficult adjustment and continuing separation.
• Historical migration figures must retain their period, geographical scope and qualifications such as nearly or estimated.
• Indentured migration combined hopes of escaping hardship with deceptive recruitment, harsh conditions and lasting overseas settlement.
• Brain drain concerns highly skilled migrants; its assessment must distinguish earnings, migration costs and the origin’s loss of skilled services.

Test yourself

What is the place of origin?

It is the place from which a migrant moves to another place.

Can the same migrant be an immigrant and an emigrant?

Yes. The person leaves the origin as an emigrant and enters the destination as an immigrant.

What distinguishes urban to urban migration?

Both the origin and the destination are towns or cities.

Why is unemployment a push factor?

It makes the origin less attractive to people seeking work elsewhere.

What are remittances?

They are money sent by migrants to people at home.

Why could Ramesh not bring his relatives to live with him?

His job was temporary and transferable, so separation continued despite improved family income.

What qualification accompanies the historical figure of 50 million European emigrants?

The figure is nearly 50 million, referring to nineteenth-century movement to America and Australia.

What distinguishes brain drain from migration generally?

It concerns highly skilled and qualified people moving abroad for better opportunities, with a resulting concern about skills at the origin.