COLLEGE OF SOCIAL AND MANAGEMENT SCIENCES

DEPARTMENT OF TOURISM AND EVENTS MANAGEMENT

COURSE TITLE: THEORIES OF HUMAN MOVEMENT COURSE CODE: TEM 106

THEORIES OF HUMAN MOVEMENT

1. PUSH AND PULL THEORY OF MIGRATION

Analyzing labor migration also requires us to consider factors other than distance. We need to
also think about the geographical context of both the places where people leave and the places
where people go.

Geographers summarize the motivations for migration by considering how the relationship
between two points (origin and destination) are affected by push factors and pull factors . Push
factors exist at the point of origin and act to trigger emigration; these include the lack of
economic opportunities, religious or political persecution, hazardous environmental conditions,
and so on. Pull factors exist at the destination and include the availability of jobs, religious or
political freedom, and the perception of a relatively benign environment. Pushes and pulls are
complementary — that is, migration can only occur if the reason to emigrate (the push) is
remedied by the corresponding pull at an attainable destination. In the context of labor migration,
push factors are often characterized by the lack of job opportunities in sending areas or countries,
and pull factors are the economic opportunities presented in receiving areas or countries.

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Figure: 1 Push and Pull Factor of migration

The flow of migrants between two places may not totally develop if intervening obstacles exist
between them. The number of migrants is directly proportional to the number of opportunities at
a given place and inversely proportional to the number of intervening obstacles. (One may also
think of intervening obstacles as intervening opportunities; that is, the presence of other places
between an origin and destination point to which one could migrate.) Therefore, the volume of
migration from one place to another is associated not only with the distance between places and
number of people in the two places, but also with the number of opportunities or obstacles
between each place. This is especially true in labor migration.

Figure 2 summarizes Lee's (1966) push-pull theory in graphic form. It shows possible migration
between a place of origin and a place of destination, with positive and negative signs signify pull
and push factors, respectively. Flows take place between two places, but there are intervening
obstacles to these spatial movements. Although these obstacles are represented by "mountain"
shapes, keep in mind that the obstacles need not be limited to physical barriers. Restrictive
immigration laws, for example, can present a formidable barrier to prospective migrants. Note
that both the origin and destination have pushes and pulls, reflecting the reality that any migrant
must consider both the positives of staying and the negatives of moving, as well as their
converses. The logic of the push-pull theory is that if the plusses (pulls) at the destination
outweigh the plusses of staying at the origin, as shown below, the migration is likely to occur.

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Figure 2. Lee's Push-Pull Theory

Source: Based on Lee (1966).

Push and pull factors

Push factors are the reasons why people leave an area. They include:

 lack of services
 lack of safety

 high crime

 crop failure

 drought

 flooding

 poverty

 war

Pull factors are the reasons why people move to a particular area. They include:

 higher employment
 more wealth

 better services

 good climate

 safer, less crime

 political stability

 more fertile land

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  lower risk from natural hazards
Migration usually happens as a result of a combination of these push and pull factors.
Fig. 3: Push and Pull Factors
Table 1: Determinant of Migration Push and Pull Factors
Factors of Migration Push Factors
People think about emigrating
from places that have few job
opportunities. Because of
economic restructuring, job
ECONOMIC prospects often vary from one
country to another and within
regions of the same country.
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Pull Factors
People immigrate to places
where the jobs seem to be
available. An area that has
valuable natural resources,
such as petroleum or uranium,
may attract miners and
engineers. A new industry
may lure factory workers,
technicians, and scientists.
 Forced international migration
has historically occurred for
CULTURAL two main cultural reasons:
slavery and political
instability. Millions of people
were shipped to other
countries as slaves or as
prisoners, especially from
Africa to the Western
Hemisphere. Wars have also
forced large-scale migration of
ethnic groups in the 20th and
21st centuries in Europe and
Africa. Another push factor
would be the fear of
prosecution and these people
would be refugees: people
who have been forced to
migrate from their homes and
cannot return for fear of
persecution.
Migrants are pushed from
ENVIRONMENTAL their homes by adverse
physical conditions. Water-
either too much or too little-
poses the most environmental
threat. Many people are forced
to move by water-related
disasters because they live in a
vulnerable area, such as a
floodplain. A lack of water
pushes others from their land.
Hundreds of thousands have
been forced to move from the
Sahel region of northern
Africa because of their
drought conditions. The
capacity of the Sahel to
sustain human life has
declined because of
population growth and years
of low rainfall.
Political conditions can also
operate as pull factors,
especially the lure of freedom.
People are attracted to
democratic countries that
encourage individual choice in
education, career, and place of
residence. After Communists
gained control of Eastern
Europe in the late 1940s,
many people in that region
were pulled toward the
democracies in Western
Europe and North America.
Attractive environments for
migrants include mountains,
seasides, and warm climates.
Proximity to the Rocky
Mountains lures Americans to
the state of Colorado, and the
Alps pull French people to
eastern France. England,
France, and Florida attract
migrants, especially retirees,
who enjoy swimming and
lying on the beach. Regions
with warm winters attract
migrants from harsher
climates.