Migration
By Marjorie Henry, Contributor

Spanish Town High School students watched and cheered on the artistes who were a part of The STAR's No Violence in School tour at the school in St. Catherine, on Thursday, December 7, 2006. - Ricardo Makyn/Staff Photographer

The focus in the last lesson was on the factors affecting population growth, namely, births, deaths and migration. Births and deaths were already discussed. We continue today with migration. I should mention here that information on population growth for any one country is usually obtained through a population census. This is done periodically, for example, every ten years.

At the end of the last lesson, I asked two questions. Let me repeat them today.

1. What are the different forms of migration?

2. Why do people move?

Discussion:

Migration takes different forms. It can be internal or external. Internal migration refers to population movement (immigration) to an area/a region or country, whereas external migration is the movement (emigration) from a region or a country. External migration, unlike internal, affects the total population of a country. The migration balance is the difference between the number of emigrants (people who leave the country) and immigrants (people arriving in the country).

Countries with a net migration loss lose more through emigration than they gain by immigration and, depending upon the balance between birth and death rates, may have a declining population. Countries with a net migration gain receive more by immigration than they lose through emigration and so are likely to have an overall population increase.

Migration can also be temporary or permanent. Permanent migration has been more popular in the Caribbean than temporary migration. There is external migration to developed countries such as Britain, Canada and The United States of America.

Within the Caribbean, there is also intra-island migration, in which people move from one island to another. This is greatly encouraged in recent time, with the coming on-stream of the first phase of the CARICOM Single Market (CSM). Skilled workers, technical people, media personnel, university graduates and musicians are some of the persons targeted to move within the region as a result of the CSM.

Internal migration takes different forms, namely, rural to urban, urban to rural, urban to suburban, urban to urban, rural to rural. The most dominant is rural to urban. This type greatly influences the process of urbanisation. This topic of urbanisation will be discussed at a later date. We now go on to the next question, that is, why do people move?

There are push factors that influence people to migrate from their country or area within their country and pull factors in the country or area of destination. People move from the Caribbean to developed countries for several reasons. These include:

• Overcrowding especially in small-island territories that have a high population density.
  
  
• Employment opportunities in the home territory. A chronic state of unemployment may exist there.
  
  
• Politics, where people are uncomfortable with the political climate in their home country.
  
  
• Educational facilities may be insufficient or inadequate.

These could all be seen as push factors. Countries where favourable conditions exist and such that can address these problems, people will move there. These provide the pull factors. The factors mentioned for external migration can also be applied to intra-island and internal migration. The list is by no means exhausted. Can you think of other reasons why people migrate?

The geography syllabus requires that you be aware of the factors affecting population growth in one Caribbean country and one developed country. See what information you can find for yourself on this. The topic continues next week.

The references for today's lesson are:

1. Modern Caribbean Geography by John Niles

2. Geography - An Integrated Approach by David Waugh

Marjorie Henry is a vice-principal at Glenmuir High School and is head of the Geography Department. She teaches the subject at the CSEC Level.