Figure 3.12.Mexico: Income and fertility. Mexican emigration should decline as incomes rise and fertility rates fall. Data source: World Bank.
Social and cultural push and pull
Social and cultural factors, including social connections, language, and religion, also drive migration. In terms of personal social connections, many people are pulled to places where friends and family already live, while in other cases, people may be pushed away by troublesome friends or abusive family relationships.
Language can also play a role in migration. For instance, the English-speaking population of Quebec, Canada, decreased from the late 1960s through the late 1980s as a number of laws promoting the French language were put into effect (figure 3.13), which pushed to other Canadian provinces some businesses and residents who spoke only English. At the same time, French-speaking migrants from former French colonies in the Caribbean and Africa, while probably migrating primarily for economic reasons, were pulled to Quebec because of a common language.
Especially in the case of migration pull forces, language plays a similar role in many locations. France attracts migrants from former North African colonies such as Algeria and Tunisia, while the United Kingdom and the United States attract more English-speaking Nigerians. Likewise, many emigrants from Latin America have moved to Spain because of their common language, which allows them to more quickly adapt to and integrate with the host country.
Along with language, one of the most powerful facets of identity for some people is religion. For this reason, it can play a significant role in migration. Mass movements of Hindus and Muslims in South Asia came with the region’s independence from Great Britain in the late 1940s and the formation of Hindu-dominated India and Muslim-dominated Pakistan and Bangladesh. Religion was also a major force during the formation of Israel in shaping who lives there and in the Palestinian Territories. In more recent years, the Middle East has seen a dramatic shifting of religious populations. Sunni and Shiite Muslims increasingly live in separate parts of Iraq, Syria, and Saudi Arabia, while small Christian, Jewish, and other minority populations in places such as Egypt and Iraq have been pushed out of the region in large numbers.
Figure 3.13.French language signage in Quebec, Canada. Laws promoting the French language led to emigration of some English-speaking Canadians and immigration from some French speaking countries. Photo by Rob Crandall. Stock photo ID: 248614414. Shutterstock.
The Yazidi people in Iraq constitute a recent example of how religion can be used as an excuse to push people away from their homeland. In 2014, as the Islamic State terrorist organization was gaining territory in Iraq and Syria, the Yazidi people were forced to flee their land (figure 3.14). In the eyes of the Islamic State, the Yazidis, whose religion is one of the most ancient of the Middle East, were seen as devil worshipers who had to be eliminated. At least 5,000 Yazidi men were killed by the Islamic State, and thousands of women and children were taken captive, some for sexual enslavement and forced marriage to the organization’s fighters. Those who were not killed or captured fled their villages to survive. Only the eventual defeat of the Islamic State will allow these people to return to their homes.
Figure 3.14.Religion and migration. A refugee camp in Dohuk, Kurdistan, Iraq, and a Yazidi grandmother with two children in the Kanke refugee camp, Kurdistan, Iraq. Many Yazidis forced to flee persecution by the Islamic State sought safety in refugee camps in Iraqi Kurdistan. Dohuk photo by Paskee. Stock photo ID: 176894732. Shutterstock. Kanke photo by Owen_Holdaway. Stock photo ID: 294848531. Shutterstock.
Political push and pull
Political push and pull forces can also be significant determinants of migration. This includes issues such as conflict and peace or persecution and human rights. Places with high levels of violent crime or war will frequently push people away. Young migrants from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador have been emigrating to escape violence in some of the most crime-ridden places in the world, where youth are often recruited by force into street gangs (figure 3.15). In 2015, El Salvador had the highest homicide rate of any country not at war. Extortion by gangs is rampant in these countries, where bus drivers, small business owners, and residents of poor neighborhoods are forced to pay protection money under threat of violence. For these reasons, emigrants continue to flow out of these Central American countries, many of whom attempt to immigrate to the United States.
Figure 3.15.Crime and migration. Soyapango, El Salvador. Special Forces officers from the Grupo Reacción Policial guard an alley during a gang raid. Disrupting criminal gangs in Central America is essential for reducing violence and resulting pressure to emigrate. Photo by ES James. Royalty-free stock photo ID: 30996073
Likewise, there has been mass migration as people have been pushed away from war-torn countries such as Syria. Between 2011 and 2016, roughly nine million Syrians had fled their homes, migrating to nearby Jordan, Iraq, Turkey, Lebanon, and various European countries as well as to other locations within Syria (figures 3.16 and 3.18).
As people are pushed away from violence, be it crime or war, people are pulled to places with relative peace and security, be it nearby Costa Rica in Central America, Jordan in the Middle East, or further away in the United States and Europe.
Figure 3.16.War and migration. A destroyed tank in Azaz and war damage in Serekaniye, Syria. Civil war in Syria has led to massive destruction and the death of hundreds of thousands of people, pushing millions to emigrate to safer places. Azaz photo by Christiaan Triebert. Stock photo ID: 161912165. Shutterstock. Syria photo by fpolat69. Stock photo ID: 138083423. Shutterstock.
People are also pushed away from places where there is political persecution and pulled to places where human rights and the rule of law apply equally to all. Political push factors can be distinguished from social and cultural push factors by the fact that persecution involves punitive sanctions by a government. Thus, people often flee repressive and authoritarian regimes for fear of arbitrary seizures of financial assets, detention, or arrest and move to stable democracies.
North Korea is probably the most extreme case of political persecution and violation of human rights. Each year, around 2,000 North Koreans flee the country, often migrating to China with hopes of getting to democratic South Korea. Legal emigration is prohibited, so emigration typically involves illegally crossing the border, individually or with the help of human smugglers. In North Korea, no political opposition is allowed, cell phones and other technology that can communicate with the outside world are illegal, and criticism of the leadership is prohibited. Punishments include torture, execution, and lifetime imprisonment with hard labor. In some cases, entire extended families are sent to prison camps for the actions of one family member. An estimated 80,000 to 120,000 people are in these camps, which are plagued with high death rates from poor nutrition, lack of medical care, mistreatment by guards, executions, and backbreaking work (figure 3.17).
Figure 3.17.Kwanliso 16 prison camp, North Korea. This image shows a small section of the camp, the largest in North Korea. Explore this map at http://arcg.is/2dDroii. Map based on Amnesty International, 2013.
As another example, Russian emigres have cited anti-LGBT laws and political persecution as reasons for being pushed away from their country. A 2013 law banned “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations” toward minors, which many interpreted as a means of persecuting Russia’s LGBT community. In other cases, members of opposition political parties have faced what they see as trumped-up criminal charges and harassment by the police in response to their criticism of government policies.