Cultural Anthropology Lecture Migration

1. Migration

2. Migration: What Is It?
• Migration is
–The movement of a person or people
from one place to another
• Multiple causes
• Multiple consequences

3. Anthropological Study of Migration
• A challenge to traditional anthropological
work
• Multi-sited research often necessary
• Macro-micro factors
– Local versus global issues
• Categories of migration
– Based on geography
– Based on reason(s) for moving

4. Categories of Migration Based on
Spatial Boundaries
• Internal migration
• International migration
• Transnational migration

5. Internal Migration
• Rural-to-urban is the dominant form
• Push-pull theory:
– little opportunity at home in rural sector
– perceived quality-of-life factors, “rational
choice” that more options exist in the city
– concepts of where a better life can be achieved

6. International Migration
• Growing since 1945
• Work-related reasons important for
voluntary migrants
• Increasing involuntary international
migrants
– E.g. refugees from political violence, trafficked
persons
• Major political issue among nations
receiving refugees

7. Transnational Migration
• Where a person regularly moves back and
forth between two or more countries
• Often motivated by economic factors
• Importance of remittances: money sent
back to home country

8. Categories of Migration Based on
Reason for Moving
• Labor migrants
• Displaced persons
• Institutional migrants

9. Labor Migrants
• Wage labor migration
– Work period brief, no permanent residence
• Entrepreneurial migration
– Migrants moving to set up businesses and trade
– Has been occurring for centuries
• Professional migration
– Highly trained immigrants seeking jobs in more
developed countries
– “Brain drains” in less developed countries

10. Displaced Persons or
Involuntary Migrants
• Refugees: largest group of migrants
worldwide
• Internally displaced persons (IDPs)

11. Refugees
• A large/growing category of displaced
persons
• International displacement
• Roughly one of every 500 people in the
world
• Majority are women/children
• Causes: war, conflict, climate change
• Major political issue

12. Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)
• Fastest-growing category of displaced
people
• Over 20 million people today
• Africa has the most IDPs
• Causes:
– Political violence
– Development projects (Development Induced
Displacement or DIDs) such as dams, roads,
other public works

13. Institutional Migrants
• People who move into a social institution
– Voluntary: e.g. going away to school, joining
the military
– Involuntary: e.g. going to jail, moving into a
retirement home
– Both have issues of adjustment to the new
cultural system

14. Environment and Migration
• Global environmental issues:
– Climate change
• Politically contested, scientifically accepted
– Indigenous, small-scale, marginalized societies
often the first to suffer consequences
• Rising sea levels in Kiribati, Island in Pacific; island
nation literally disappearing
• Glacier melt in Bolivia: source of water for indigenous
communities disappearing
– Migration is the cost of climate change in many
places worldwide, will only grow