✅ Voluntary migration
The person chooses to move. Economic migrants, students and people joining family are usually voluntary migrants. Example: Polish workers who moved to the UK after Poland joined the European Union in 2004.
International Migration » Types of Migrant and Why People Migrate
What you'll learn this session
Study time: 30 minutes
Cambridge spec: 6.3.1, 6.3.2
- What migration means and the difference between internal and international migration
- The types of migrant: economic migrant, asylum seeker and refugee, voluntary and forced
- Push and pull factors: economic, social, political and environmental
- Intervening obstacles that stop or slow a move
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Unlock This CourseWhat is migration?
People move home all the time. Geographers are interested in moves that change where someone lives for a long period, either within one country or into another country. A move that is only a holiday or a day trip is not migration. Remember, migration is the movement of people from one place to live in another, for a long time or for good.
Key terms:
- Internal migration: migration within one country, for example from a village to a city in the same country.
- International migration: migration from one country to another, crossing an international border.
- Emigrant: a person who leaves a country to live in another one. Think "exit".
- Immigrant: a person who arrives in a country to live there. Think "in".
The same person is both. A woman who moves from Poland to the UK is an emigrant from Poland and an immigrant to the UK. The word depends on which country you are looking from.
Types of migrant
Not everyone who migrates has the same reason, or the same freedom to choose. Geographers sort migrants into groups.
💼 Economic migrant
Moves mainly to find work or earn a better income. They can usually choose when and where to go.
📝 Asylum seeker
Has left their own country and formally asked another country for protection, but is still waiting for the decision.
🏠 Refugee
Has been forced to leave their country because of a well-founded fear of persecution, conflict or violence, and has been officially accepted as needing protection.
Key terms:
- Economic migrant: a person who migrates to find work, or to earn more money.
- Asylum seeker: a person who has applied for protection in another country and is waiting for a decision on that claim.
- Refugee: a person whose claim has been accepted, or who is recognised as being outside their own country and unable to return because of a well-founded fear of persecution (being treated very badly or attacked because of who you are or what you believe) for reasons such as race, religion, nationality, membership of a social group or political opinion. People fleeing conflict and violence are also treated as needing protection. The 1951 Refugee Convention, an international agreement, is the legal base.
The legal difference
An asylum seeker says they need protection and is waiting for a decision. If the claim is accepted, the person is recognised as a refugee. If it is turned down, they are not a refugee and may be asked to leave. Economic migrants are not covered by the refugee definition because they are moving for work, not to escape persecution.
Voluntary and forced migration
🚫 Forced migration
The person has little or no choice because staying is too dangerous. Refugees are forced migrants. Example: millions of Syrians left Syria after war began in 2011, many moving to Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan.
In real life the line is not always sharp. A farmer who leaves after a long drought may feel the move was forced, but is often counted as an economic migrant.
Why do people migrate? Push and pull factors
People usually migrate because of a mix of reasons.
- Push factor: a negative feature of the place someone lives that makes them want to leave.
- Pull factor: an attractive feature of a different place that draws people towards it.
Both can be sorted into four groups. Use this table in the exam.
| Type | Push factors | Pull factors |
|---|---|---|
| Economic | Unemployment, low wages, poverty, few jobs | Job opportunities, higher wages, a chance to send money home |
| Social | Poor schools and healthcare, discrimination, few services | Better education and healthcare, family and friends already there |
| Political | War, conflict, persecution, unstable government | Safety, peace, stable government, human rights |
| Environmental | Drought, floods, volcanic eruptions, hurricanes, land that no longer grows crops | Safer land, fertile soils, a mild climate, lower risk of hazards |
Examples from around the world
- Economic (Europe): after 2004 many people from Poland moved to the UK, pushed by lower wages and pulled by jobs and higher pay.
- Economic (Africa): many Zimbabweans have moved to South Africa, pushed by unemployment and a weak economy at home and pulled by work in mines, farms and cities.
- Political (Asia): in 2017 hundreds of thousands of Rohingya people fled violence in Myanmar and crossed into Bangladesh. They are an example of forced migration.
- Political (Europe): after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, millions of Ukrainians left for neighbouring countries such as Poland.
- Environmental (Caribbean): after the Soufriere Hills volcano erupted on Montserrat in 1995, most of the island's people left. Many moved to other Caribbean islands or to the UK, because the south of the island became unsafe.
- Social (global): students from many countries move to the UK, Canada and Australia, pulled by universities and education.
Intervening obstacles
A person may have strong push and pull factors and still not move. An intervening obstacle is anything that stands in the way of a migrant, making the move harder, slower, or impossible.
💰 Cost
Travel, visas and paying people to arrange a journey can be very expensive.
📜 Laws and borders
Visa rules, border controls and quotas (a fixed limit on how many people may enter) can stop people entering a country.
🌊 Physical barriers
Seas, deserts and mountains make journeys dangerous, such as crossing the Mediterranean Sea.
🗣️ Language and distance
Not speaking the language, or being far from home and family, can put people off.
This is why most migrants move to a nearby country, and why richer, better connected people have more choice about where to go.
Worked example
Question: A family in a village has little work, and a drought has ruined the crops. A cousin in a city abroad says there are building jobs. Sort the factors.
Push: little work (economic), drought (environmental).
Pull: building jobs (economic), family already there (social).
Type of migrant: economic migrant, because the main reason is work, and voluntary because they can choose.
Common mistakes
Writing "refugee" for anyone who moves abroad: an economic migrant is not a refugee. Mixing up emigrant and immigrant: emigrants exit, immigrants arrive. Writing only "money" for a push factor: say what it is, such as "few jobs and low wages". Forgetting that one move can have several reasons, so link push and pull together.
Exam-style question
Fig. 1.1 is a table of made-up data about why 200 people left Country M for Country N.
| Main reason given | Number of people |
|---|---|
| Better paid jobs | 96 |
| Escaping conflict | 54 |
| Joining family | 30 |
| Drought and failed crops | 20 |
(a) Define the term refugee. [2 marks]
(b) Identify the main reason given by most people in Fig. 1.1. [1 mark]
(c) Explain the difference between an asylum seeker and a refugee. [2 marks]
(d) Explain how push and pull factors, and intervening obstacles, may affect a decision to migrate from Country M to Country N. [6 marks]
Model answer
(a) A person forced to leave their own country (1) because of a well-founded fear of persecution or conflict, who is recognised as needing protection (1).
(b) Better paid jobs (1).
(c) An asylum seeker has applied for protection and is waiting for a decision (1). A refugee has had their claim accepted and is recognised as needing protection (1).
(d) Level 3 answer: Push factors are negative features of Country M that make people want to leave, such as conflict (54 people) and drought that ruins crops (20 people), which are political and environmental. Low wages are an economic push factor too (1). Pull factors are attractions of Country N, such as better paid jobs, which 96 people gave as their main reason, and family already living there, which is a social pull (1). Safety is also a political pull (1). Push and pull work together, because people compare the two places. A person leaving conflict is pushed by danger and pulled by safety (1). Even so, intervening obstacles may stop people moving. Visa rules and border controls may keep some out (1), and the cost of travel or a dangerous journey across a sea or desert may mean only some can afford to go (1).
Exam tip
In a 6 mark "explain how" question, use all the words in the question: write about push, pull and obstacles, and use the figures from Fig. 1.1 at least once.