Humanities Group Work

Group Participants;
 Shaurya Gidhwani
 Jeremy Charles
 Etame Godwill
 Gabriel

1. What do we understand by Migration?

Migration is defined as the movement of a population from an area to another. It

can also be referred to “The physical movement of people from a particular area
to another.” Migration may occur as families, large groups or units. Migration can
either be permanent, temporary, or seasonal. The means for migration are water,
air and land. A few reasons why people migrate are economic factors, social factors,
political factors, environmental factors, etc. Some people who migrate are either
called emigrants, immigrants, refugees or internally displaced persons. There are
many types of migration. Examples; Internal Migration, External Migration, etc.

2. What are Push and Pull factors?

Migration is broadly understood as a permanent or semi-permanent change of

residence. In other words, migration may be defined as a form of relocation
diffusion (the spread of people, ideas, innovations, behaviors, from one place to
another), involving permanent moves to new locations. The reasons that people
migrate are determined by push and pull factors, which are forces that either
induce people to move to a new location, or oblige them to leave old residences.
These could be economic, political, cultural, and environmental. Push factors are
conditions that can force people to leave their homes and are related to the
country from which a person migrates. Push factors include non-availability of
enough livelihood opportunities, poverty, rapid population growth that surpasses
available resources, "Primitive" or “poor” living conditions, desertification,
famines/droughts, fear of political persecution, poor healthcare, loss of wealth, and
natural disasters. Pull factors are exactly the opposite of push factors—they attract
people to a certain location. Typical examples of pull factors of a place are more job
opportunities and better living conditions; easy availability of land for settling and
agriculture, political and/or religious freedom, superior education and welfare
systems, better transportation and communication facilities, better healthcare
system and stress-free environment attractive, and security.

3. How does Migration Effect Students

Migration is one of the main ways of alleviating poverty in developing

countries. However, there are concerns about the potential negative
effects of migration on the educational achievement of the children that
are left behind in villages when one or both of their parents out-migrate
to cities. This paper examines changes in school performance before and
after the parents of students out-migrate. Surprisingly, we find that there
is no significant negative effect of migration on school performance. In
fact, we find that educational performance improves in migrant
households in which the father out-migrates. Migration presents both
opportunities and challenges for societies, communities and individuals. Migration
alters the structure of families. While it is true that economic factors are major
drivers, migration involves highly diverse groups of people, including girls, boys,
women, men, and better-off as well as poorer people. Experience has shown that
children are affected by migration in different ways: children are left behind by
migrant parents; they are brought along with their migrating parents; and they
migrate alone, independently of parents and adult guardians. Other children do
not move, but are nevertheless affected because they live in communities that send
or receive large numbers of migrants. Some children are return migrants or have
been repatriated. Children left behind may benefit from having migrant parents. It was
reported that remittances sent home by parents can increase consumption, finance
schooling, buy health care and fund better housing. Whether children benefit depends
on their access to those extra resources, which may depend partly on sex, age and the
context of care when left behind. The involvement of substitute care or the lack of care
causes difficulties for some children's emotional well-being and psychological
development. Adults and children are affected by the loss of working-age community
members in high out-migration communities (but others may come to replace them).
Children who migrate with their parents face different opportunities and challenges.
Marginalization and discrimination in the country of settlement, barriers to accessing
social services, challenges to the rights to citizenship and identity, parents' economic
insecurity, and social and cultural dislocation may affect some children. None of these
are necessary outcomes, however. Most migrant children flourish and contribute
positively to their new communities; and policies and programs can be devised to
support and protect those children who may become vulnerable. According to the
Convention on the Rights of the Child, it is the duty of any country to ensure that all
children enjoy their rights, irrespective of their migration status or that of their parents.
The Innocent children under the study are far from being a homogeneous population
and they differ from each other in cultural, religious, linguistic and ethnic backgrounds,
yet, in some cases, their family composition is not far from that of other children of the
country of settlement. However, the situations of the children and youth in immigrant
families, particularly those who come from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs),
remain critical in several areas, including health, education, economic security, housing
and work opportunities. Children who migrate independently of their parents or adult
guardians are in many ways similar to adult migrants in seeking new social and
economic opportunities. These children, sometimes referred to as 'unaccompanied
minors', may actively seek migration opportunities as a result of many factors. Yet many
migrant children are not recognized as migrants because they are identified using other
terms, such as domestic workers, street children or foster children. Many of these
children send remittances to their families, combine work with schooling or training and
manage to save, although there is little information to facilitate comparison of the
benefits against the many costs and risks migrant children face. Independent migrant
children are significantly affected by the absence of protection and support from their
families, and by the challenges of their new situations after migration.

Assignment:
Definition of Asylum: Asylum implies the possibility of remaining in a country either
permanently or at least on a temporary basis pending resettlement elsewhere. It also implies
protection, by virtue of the principle of non-refoulement, against expulsion or return to a country
where the person concerned has reason to fear persecution.

Definition of Unaccompanied Children: An unaccompanied child is a person who is under

the age of eighteen, unless, under the law applicable to the child, majority is, attained earlier and
who is “separated from both parents and is not being cared for by an adult who by law or custom
has responsibility to do so.