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A New Look At Human Migration

Early forms of human migration trace its roots to the Africans and the nomads. With themodernization of transportation and a globalized economy, why and how does humanmigration occur now?

Lets take a look a 12 interesting human migration patterns today.

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China: The Greatest Human Migration

Every lunar new year about 230 million people, or a gross passenger volume of over 2.17billion, take part in the worlds largest annual human migration in China.

This travel phenomenon, comprising primarily migrant labourers, began in 1984 when theChinese government relaxed migration laws allowing rural peasants to move to urban citiesfor work and employment. Urban centers are now home to 150 million peasant migrants,many of whom queue for days to purchase train tickets.For many, its the only chance they

get to visit home all year.

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Arab Uprising: Revolution and Migration

On December 17, 2010, 26 year old street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire in asmall town in Tunisia and consequently triggered a revolution that ultimately overthrew a 24year long dictatorship. Within weeks of this incident, revolts flared up across the Arab world,gripping countries from the Gulf to the Atlantic.

In the first three months of 2011, Tunisia experienced a surge of emigration with 25,000migrants landing on the southern Italian island of Lampedusa. When conflict broke out inLibya in early 2011, the country was host to more than 1 million migrants from Egypt,Tunisia and sub-Saharan Africa. As of May 5, 2011, 720,609 migrants were recorded to havefled Libya towards Europe.

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Russia: Migration Pattern Reversal

For most of the Soviet period, there was out-migration from Russia but this pattern has sincebeen reversed. Russia has become a popular destination for both legal and undocumentedimmigrants.

Some see Russia as a destination while others see it as a transit point for reaching WesternEurope. As most illegal immigrants are denied refugee status, they are denied the right towork and access to social services. Estimates suggest that there are up to 6 million illegal

migrants in Russia, hailing mainly from China, Vietnam, Korea, Africa and the Middle East.

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Mexico: Migrant Child Workers

Every harvest season, an estimated 300,000 children between the ages of 6 and 14 migrate tonorthern Mexico. At about age 10, half of these children begin working in fields. Of thesechild workers, only 10% get to attend schools and even fewer complete a primary education.

With a different education curriculum compared to local children, migrant child labourerslive as an excluded minority within Mexico.

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Korean Immigrants in the US

The Korean immigrant population in the United States grew rapidly during the 1970s and1980s. Like other immigrant groups, the 1.6 million foreign-born Koreans, which makes up0.5% of the United States population, are settled in traditional gateway states like California

and New York.

The first wave of Korean immigration began in 1903, where a total of 7,333 Korean came toHawaii as laborers for the Hawaiian Suger Planters Association. The second wave beganduring the Korean War where war brides, orphans, skilled professionals and students wereallowed to resettle in America. With the Immigration Act of 1965, the largest wave ofKoreans arrived in US and as they unable to speak English fluently, majority chose to opentheir own small businesses.

Compared to other immigrants in the US, the Korean population is more likely to benaturalized and are much better educated -- over half of Korean-born adults have a bachelors

degree or higher.

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Ethiopia: Forced Migration

In 1985, a great famine swept across the Sahelian region of Africa. One of the worse affectedcountries, Ethiopia suffered three prolonged years of drought and civil war, resulting in thedeaths of an estimated one million people and the out-migration of more than 600,000refugees to Sudan.

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New Zealand

Until 1986, New Zealands isolation and restrictive immigration policies meant that onlyabout 10 people per year sought asylum and refugee status. In 1991, a more openimmigration policy was adopted and with the wars in Ethiopia (1991-93) and Somalia (1992-94), and genocide in Rwanda (1994), an annual average of 290 refugees arrived in NewZealand.

Although South Africans made up the majority (82%) of all African arrivals until 2003,

others came from Somalia (7%), Egypt (4%), Zimbabwe (4%), and Ethiopia (2%). In 1993African immigrants came from 23 countries; by 2003 this number had increased to 44.

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France

The immigration situation in France has been strongly influenced to the present day by thelegacy of colonialism of earlier centuries as well as the long tradition of recruiting foreignworkers. Although immigration has been regarded as a success story in economic terms, inthe past three decades it has increasingly been perceived as the root of social problems. The

success of extreme right-wing parties in elections makes this as readily apparent as the unrestthat flares up time and again in the suburbs. As a result, integration policy in recent years hasmoved towards the centre of public attention.

In 2005 there were 4.93 million immigrants living in France, corresponding to 8.1% of thetotal population.8 Of this total, 1.97 million or 40% have assumed French citizenship.There are 3.51 million foreigners living in France, which corresponds in percentage terms to5.7% of the total population.

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Philippines: A Culture of Migration

Since the 1970s, the Philippines has supplied all kinds of skilled and low-skilled labour to theworlds more developed regions. As of 2005, an estimated 8.1 million Filipinos, nearly 10%of the countries 85 million people, were working and living in close to 200 countries around

the world.

The development of the culture of migration in the Philippines is also supported by thegovernment through the regulation of recruitment agencies and the provision of rights of itsmigrant workers. Aside from easing local unemployment, overseas Filipinos are a pillar ofthe countrys economy where remittance income through formal channels amount to US$13

billion annually.

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Jewish Diaspora

In history, the pogroms in Eastern Europe in 1880s, the rise of modern antisemitism, theHolocaust and the rise of Arab nationalism have all fueled the movement and migrations ofJews.

During the 19th and early 20th century, a mass migration of Jews westwards to Eastern andCentral Europe and the Ottoman Empire. From 1880 to 1924, some 2.5 million Jewsmigrated to the US, which is now home to the largest population of Jews at 5.3 million.

Smaller numbers settled in Palestine, under the influence of Zionism. During the SecondWorld War, the Jews faced persecution and violence at an unprecedented level, wherethousands were driven into exile and more than 6 million Jews were systematically murdered

by Nazis.

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Mexico: Outward Migration to US

Mexico represents the largest source of immigration to the US, and account for 4.9 million or3.5% of the total labour force. Of the 4.4 million employed Mexican immigrants, 21% workin manufacturing, 15% in construction, 13% in services, 9.1% as professionals, 7.8% in retail

trade and 7.4% in education, health and social services.

Mexico is also the single largest source of undocumented immigrants into the US. About 5.3million undocumented immigrants from Mexico are living in the US, according to estimatesfrom the Current Population Survey.

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China: New Destination for Economic Immigration

The driving force behind the recent trend of immigration to China has been the countrysrapid economic growth. In the last few decades, China has undergone enormous political andeconomic changes that have transformed the realities of migration to and from the country. Inaddition to large flows of emigrants leaving in search of opportunities elsewhere, a new trendof immigration to China is emerging.

Official figures reveal that 2.85 million foreigners entered China for employment purposes.Of these, more than half a million were skilled workers in joint ventures or foreign-ownedfirms, coming from the developed nations, including overseas Chinese from Europe, NorthAmerica and Australasia.