b:chap3-98.not 

 

GEOG 201

CHAPTER 3

By now you should be familiar with the fact that every chapter in Rubenstien has a section at the end labeled KEY TERMS. Understanding these are crucial to understanding the chapter itself. Be sure that you spend adequate time looking these over and then to fully develop an understanding of them note where they occur in the chapter and how they are used. Rubenstien has highlighted these words making it easy for you to locate them.

 

I. Introduction

Note the difference between:
 Migration and Mobility
 Immigration and Emigration
 Further note that: Net migration = Immigration - Emigration
 
II. Why do people migrate?
A. In class we discussed the relationship between migration and demographics and used and analog example of a series of sunken bathtubs. Recall the following factors and how they operate:
1. Births (CBR)
2. Deaths (CDR)
3. Rate a which bathtub is "filling" (RNI)
4. Size of the bathtub (Carrying Capacity)
5. Rate at which the capacity of the bathtub changes (Technological Change)
6. Overflow/Inflow (Immigration, Emigration, & Net migration)
7. Channels and barriers (Obstacles)
 
B. Push, Pull & Obstacles -- review in some detail how the migration occurs and note the three broad classifications of push and pull factors:
1. Economic
2. Political (Rubenstien likes the word Cultural, also includes Religious)
3. Environmental
C. Characteristics of Migrants
1. What historically was the mix of genders in international migration to the US? What is it today? What might have caused this change?
2. In regards to age cohort (or group) how has the immigration pattern to the US changed? Does this affect schools? Does this affect taxes? Does this affect politics?

III. Involuntary Emigration (this is not adequately discussed in Rubenstein, but represents an extremely important part of our heritage as a nation, you may want to skip ahead and skim through Chapter 7 for a discussion of material on this point)

A. Enslaved peoples
1. The first Africans were brought to the US in 1619 a year prior to the Mayflower's arrival at Plimouthe Plantation (Massachusetts)
B. Political Refugees: A number of international political factors has and continues to cause the flow of refugees. These include:
a. War
b. Independence and the arisal of ethnic rivalries/hatreds
c. Government ideologies and rivalries -- during your readings and class lectures note the difference in Cuban experience and the Haitian

  

III. Voluntary Migration -- Why has US Immigration Changed

A. European Immigration to the United States -- Three historical waves

1. Prior to 1840 mostly British immigrants with small numbers of Germans, Dutch, French, Scandinavians,

2. First Wave -- 1840-60 -- primarily German, Irish & English

PUSH FACTORS
-Macro level -- Demographic, Economic, Technological
a. Population pressure, Northern and Western Europe in Stage 2 of the Demographic Transition caused by the Industrial Revolution (check data on England from Chap 2)
b. Not enough jobs, agriculture increases in scale needing less labor and industry, although producing ever increasing numbers of jobs, could not keep pace with the labor growth rate
 
-Micro level -- War & Famine
a. The economic upheavals of the Industrial Revolution plus the Population Explosion lead to great instability, 1848 was a year of revolutions throughout Western Europe (what did Karl Marx write at this time???)
b. Germany experienced some of the greatest disruptions resulting in large-scale emigration
c. Throughout the 1840's Ireland suffered a series of Potato famines, the resulting starvation in part was a direct result of a very unfair economic situation which favored a small land owning elite over the mass of people
d. From Ireland came a great outpouring of destitute people with little more than the clothes on their backs -- this was the first large scale immigration of poverty stricken people to the US and created our original large city slum areas
 
PULL FACTORS
-Primarily Macro Level -- Agricultural Land & Industrial Jobs
a. Low cost agricultural land available on the frontier and elsewhere for those that could afford the initial investment
b. The industrial revolution had become firmly established by 1824 with the founding of the world's first Planned Industrial City (Lowell, MA) -- textile manufacturer
c. Resources were so bountiful and investment capital exported from Europe so available the American industry and agriculture suffered from LABOR SHORTAGES despite being in stage 2 of the demographic transition
1) Importation of foreign labor was encouraged by industry as a means of keeping wage costs down 
2) Additional information: in the West in the 1860s deals were cut between American railroad robber barons, like California Governor Leyland Stanford (yes, that's Stanford as in the Prez's daughter's school), and Chinese labor tycoons to supply cheap Chinese laborers for railway construction. In Washington State, as late as the early 20th century the Northern Pacific and Great Northern imported cheap Japanese crews for similar reasons.
 
3. End of first wave -- Civil War 1861-1865
4. Second Wave -- 1870 - 1890 -- Still Northern & Western Europe
PUSH FACTORS
-Macro level -- Demographic, Economic, Technological
a. Primarily the same as before
-Micro level -- Social/Family
a. Chain migration -- family reunification & networks
 
PULL FACTORS -- remians much the same as First Wave
a. Agricultural opportunities remain high
b. Industry continues to expand, becomes world leader in heavy industry -- especially steel
c. As labor attempts to unionize owners seek new cheaper replacement labor
 
5. End of second wave -- Panic of 1893 -- recession
6. Third Wave -- 1895-1915 -- Southern & Eastern Europe
PUSH FACTORS 
a. Industrial revolution moves south and east in Europe, demographic transition follows -- while Northern and Western Europe moves into stage 3 (look at UK data in Chapter 2)
 
PULL FACTORS
a. Agricultural frontier generally closed by 1890, opportunities primarily in Urban areas
b. Industry quickly recovers from earlier recession and has voracious appetite for cheap foreign labor
1) Lowell MA factory owners prefer to create work gangs from multiple ethnic backgrounds on the hope that they will be unable to communicate and organize
 
7. End of Great Immigration Era -- WW I & Political Obstacles
a. Although immigration recovers after WW I, Quota Laws passed in 1920 & 1924 effectively bar Eastern & Southern Europeans
b. Following this the Great Depression of the 1930's and WW II until 1940 reduce any PULL FACTORS
 
8. Period of Internal Migration -- African-Americans from the south
a. The south never experienced the industrial expansion of the pre-WW II north in the US and the south never offered much of a pull to immigrants after 1840
1) The cheap agricultural labor of the south was African-American (see chapter 7)
b. Wartime production and post-WW II expansion opened up industrial jobs to Blacks in large numbers
 
PUSH FACTORS -- Economic
a. Economic servitude continued on southern tenant & sharecrop farms
b. Urban industrial opportunities were minimal
 
PULL FACTORS -- Economic
a. Northern industry was desperate for cheap labor, but the European flow had dried-up
b. Southern blacks could double or triple their incomes by moving into jobs in the inner cities of the north
9. Present conditions -- 1965 - present
a. Quota system abandoned in 1965, family reunification and highly skilled immigrants favored (especially foreign grad students at American Universities)
b. Vietnam war & Cuba brings large numbers of refugees requiring comprehensive look at legislation on refugees -- many of these people, especially from Laos, represent very low skill labor (like most of our ancestors)
 
PUSH FACTORS -- Asia, Africa, Latin America (3rd World)
a. The industrial revolution and demographic transition arrived after WW II with the end of colonialism and the beginning of the Cold War.
b. Many of these nations have great resources but not enough capital
c. The artificial boundaries of the colonial era & current political instability has resulted in large scale displacements
d. Larger populations have overwhelmed the traditional carrying capacity in many third world nations leading to things like desertification
 
PULL FACTORS -- Economic, Demographic
a. The US is in the latter part of stage 3, we lack sufficient young workers -- especially low skilled ones
b. Americans on average get to use 16 times the resources that people in the third world get (i.e. for a nation that traces our heritage to the poor of Europe and enslaved of Africa we're mighty wealthy)
  
FINAL NOTE
This set of notes emphasizes the first and second key sections of chapter 3, however DO NOT limit your studies only to those parts of the chapter, be sure that you have read and understand everything.

 

If you have questions before the first exam my office hours are at 1 PM MTWF, or you may be able to find me around at other times to schedule an appointment. Look both in my office -- AH222 -- and AH10.