Republic of the Philippines

PARTIDO STATE UNIVERSITY

Camarines Sur
PSY-SYL-___-___

Module 10
GLOBAL MIGRATION

Course Code & Title: GE3 – The Contemporary World Week number(s): 13
Name of Faculty: Salvador V. Briones II

I. OBJECTIVES
 Analyze the political, economic cultural and social factors underlying the global
movements of people.
 Display firsthand knowledge of the experiences of OFW.

II. LESSON

What is Migration?

Since the earliest times, humanity has been on the move. Some people move in search
of work or economic opportunities, to join family, or to study. Others move to escape conflict,
persecution, terrorism, or human rights violations. Still others move in response to the adverse
effects of climate change, natural disasters, or other environmental factors.

Today, more people than ever live in a country other than the one in which they were
born. In 2019, the number of migrants globally reached an estimated 272 million, 51 million
more than in 2010. International migrants comprise 3.5 per cent of the global population.
Compared to 2.8 per cent in 2000 and 2.3 per cent in 1980, the proportion of international
migrants in the world population has also risen.

While many individuals migrate out of choice, many others migrate out of necessity. The
number of globally forcibly displaced people topped 70 million for the first time in UNHCR's
almost 70 year history at the end of 2018. This number includes almost 26 million refugees, 3.5
million asylum seekers, and over 41 million internally displaced persons.

Figure 1. Global Migration

 Republic of the Philippines
PARTIDO STATE UNIVERSITY
Camarines Sur
PSY-SYL-___-___

Migration denotes any movement by human beings from one locality or region to

another, often over long distances or in large groups, for the purpose of settlement. Humans
are known to have migrated extensively throughout prehistory and human history. The
movement of populations in modern times has continued under the form of both voluntary
migration within one's region, country, or beyond, and involuntary migration (which
includes trafficking in human beings and ethnic cleansing). The people who migrate are called
migrants, or, more specifically, emigrants, immigrants, or settlers, depending on historical
setting, circumstance, and perspective.

In 2019, the number of international migrants worldwide – people residing in a country

other than their country of birth – reached 272 million (from 258 million in 2017). Female
migrants constituted 48 per cent of this international migrant stock. There are an estimated 38
million migrant children, three out of four international migrants are of working age, meaning
between 20 and 64 years old. 164 million are migrant workers. Approximately 31% of the
international migrants worldwide reside in Asia, 30% in Europe, 26% in the Americas, 10% in
Africa and 3% in Oceania

Model of Migration
1. Classic Model: Immigration is encouraged by the countries of destination like USA,
Canada and Australia. The only restriction is annual quotas.
2. Colonial Model: Countries are more tolerant to immigration coming from their ex-
colonies than other countries of origin. (i.e. immigration to England from the
former British colonies)
3. Worker Model: Immigrants are accepted temporarily as guests workers to fulfil the
demand within the labour market without citizenship.
4. Illegal Model: Entering an industrialized country secretly and work without legal
permission.

Forces Behind Migration

1. Push Factors: Are the dynamics within the country of origin which force people to
emigrate such as war, famine, political oppression or population pressures.
2. Pull Factors: Are characteristics of destination countries that attract immigrant
wish to get better living and working conditions.
3. Macro Level Processes: Overcharging issues such as political situations, laws and
regulations between the countries to control migration. Changes in global economy
can be counted as a macro factor for example.
4. Micro Level Processes: Resources knowledge and understandings that migrant
population has and activate.

More to say, Piesse, M. (2014), identify the key point why people migrates. His key
points includes:

1. Socio-political, economic and ecological factors are the main forces driving
migration.
2. Rising communal violence world-wide, often as a result of ethnic or religious
intolerance, has led to increased levels of migration.
 Republic of the Philippines
PARTIDO STATE UNIVERSITY
Camarines Sur
PSY-SYL-___-___

3.  Economic disparity between developing and developed economies encourages the

movement of skilled labor from the former to the latter. Temporary migration visas
allow for an increase in the rate of circular migration.
4. Changes in the ecological environment have the potential to worsen food and water
insecurity in various parts of the globe. Limited access to food and water resources
may push people to migrate to countries where these resources are more readily
available.

Reasons for Migrating

Geography has no comprehensive theory of migration, although a nineteenth-century

outline of 11 migration “laws” written by E. G. Ravenstein is the basis for contemporary
geographic migration studies. To understand where and why migration occurs, Ravenstein’s
“laws” can be organized into three groups: the reasons why migrants move, the distance they
typically move, and their characteristics. Each of these elements is addressed in this section of
the chapter

Most people migrate for economic reasons. Cultural and environmental factors also
induce migration, although not as frequently as economic factors. People decide to migrate
because of push factors and pull factors. A push factor induces people to move out of their
present location, whereas a pull factor induces people to move into a new location. As
migration for most people is a major step not taken lightly, both push and pull factors typically
play a role.

To migrate, people view their current place of residence so negatively that they feel
pushed away, and they view another place so attractively that they feel pulled toward it.

Major kinds of push and pull factors

1. Economic
2. Cultural
3. Environmental

Economic Push and Pull Factors

Most people migrate for economic reasons. People think about emigrating from places that have
few job opportunities, and they immigrate to places where jobs seem to be available. Because of
economic restructuring, job prospects often vary from one country to another and within regions of the
same country.
The United States and Canada have been especially prominent destinations for economic
migrants. Many European immigrants to North America in the nineteenth century truly expected to find
streets paved with gold. While not literally so gilded, the United States and Canada did offer Europeans
prospects for economic advancement. This same perception of economic plenty now lures people to the
United States and Canada from Latin America and Asia.
In 1906-1934 Filipinos moved to a new life and employment opportunities on the plantations of
Hawaii and in west coast. And in 1930’s, the Philippines featured high unemployment, Filipino
immigrants took the opportunity to build a new life and gain new employment in America.

Cultural Push and Pull Factors

Cultural factors can be especially compelling push factors, forcing people to emigrate from a
country. Forced international migration has historically occurred for two main cultural reasons: slavery
and political instability.
 Republic of the Philippines
PARTIDO STATE UNIVERSITY
Camarines Sur
PSY-SYL-___-___

Millions of people were shipped to other countries as slaves or as prisoners, especially from Africa
to the Western Hemisphere, during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Large groups of
people are no longer forced to migrate as slaves, but forced international migration persists because of
political instability resulting from cultural diversity.
According to the United Nations, refugees are people who have been forced to migrate from their
homes and cannot return for fear of persecution because of their race, religion, nationality, membership
in a social group, or political opinion.
Political conditions can also operate as pull factors. People may be attracted to democratic
countries that encourage individual choice in education, career, and place of residence. After
Communists gained control of Eastern Europe in the late 1940s, many people in that region were pulled
toward the democracies in Western Europe and North America. Communist governments in Eastern
Europe clamped down on emigration for fear of losing their most able workers. The most dramatic
symbol of restricted emigration was the Berlin Wall, which the Communists built to prevent emigration
from Communist-controlled East Berlin into democratic West Berlin.
In the Philippines, the "Manila Men" were the first Filipino immigrants who made their homes in
the bayous of Louisiana to seek a new life and freedom from the Spanish rule.

Environmental Push and Pull Factors

People also migrate for environmental reasons, pulled toward physically attractive regions and
pushed from hazardous ones. In an age of improved communications and transportation systems,
people can live in environmentally attractive areas that are relatively remote and still not feel too
isolated from employment, shopping, and entertainment opportunities.
Attractive environments for migrants include mountains, seasides, and warm climates. Proximity
to the Rocky Mountains lures Americans to the state of Colorado, and the Alps pull French people to
eastern France. Some migrants are shocked to find polluted air and congestion in these areas. The
southern coast of England, the Mediterranean coast of France, and the coasts of Florida attract
migrants, especially retirees, who enjoy swimming and lying on the beach. Of all elderly people who
migrate from one U.S. state to another, one-third select Florida as their destination. Regions with warm
winters, such as southern Spain and the southwestern United States, attract migrants from harsher
climates. Migrants are also pushed from their homes by adverse physical conditions. Water—either too
much or too little—poses the most common environmental threat (Figure 3-3). Many people are forced
to move by water-related disasters because they live in a vulnerable area, such as a floodplain. The
floodplain of a river is the area subject to flooding during a specific number of years, based on historical
trends. People living in the “100-year floodplain,” for example, can expect flooding on average once
every century. Many people are unaware that they live in a floodplain, and even people who do know
often choose to live there anyway.
A lack of water pushes others from their land (Figure 3-4). Hundreds of thousands have been
forced to move from the Sahel region of northern Africa because of drought conditions. The people of
the Sahel have traditionally been pastoral nomads, a form of agriculture adapted to dry lands but
effective only at low population densities (see Chapter 10)

Distance of Migration
Ravenstein’s theories made two main points about the distance that migrants travel to their new
homes:
• Most migrants relocate a short distance and remain within the same country.
• Long-distance migrants to other countries head for major centers of economic activity.

Internal Migration
International migration is permanent movement from one country to another, whereas internal
migration is permanent movement within the same country. Consistent with the distance-decay
principle presented in Chapter 1, the farther away a place is located, the less likely that people will
migrate to it. Thus, international migrants are much less numerous than internal migrants. Most people
find migration within a country less traumatic than international migration because they find familiar
 Republic of the Philippines
PARTIDO STATE UNIVERSITY
Camarines Sur
PSY-SYL-___-___

language, foods, broadcasts, literature, music, and other social customs after they move. Moves within a
country also generally involve much shorter distances than those in international migration. However,
internal migration can involve long-distance moves in large countries, such as in the United States and
Russia. Internal migration can be divided into two types: Interregional migration is movement from one
region of a country to another; intraregional migration is movement within one region. Historically, the
main type of interregional migration has been from rural to urban areas in search of jobs. In recent
years, some developed countries have seen migration from urban to environmentally attractive rural
areas. The main type of intraregional migration has been within urban areas, from older cities to newer
suburbs.

International Migration
International migration is further divided into two types: forced and voluntary. Voluntary
migration implies that the migrant has chosen to move for economic improvement, whereas forced
migration means that the migrant has been compelled to move by cultural factors. Economic push and
pull factors usually induce voluntary migration, and cultural factors normally compel forced migration. In
one sense, migrants may also feel compelled by pressure inside themselves to migrate for economic
reasons, such as to search for food or jobs, but they have not been explicitly compelled to migrate by
the violent actions of other people. Geographer Wilbur Zelinsky identified a migration transition, which
consists of changes in a society comparable to those in the demographic transition. The migration
transition is a change in the migration pattern in a society that results from the social and economic
changes that also produce the demographic transition. According to the migration transition,
international migration is primarily a phenomenon of countries in stage 2 of the demographic transition,
whereas internal migration is more important in stages 3 and 4.
• A country in stage 1 of the demographic transition (high CBR and CDR and low NIR) is
characterized by high daily

Global Migration Patterns

At a global scale, Asia, Latin America, and Africa have net out-migration, and North America,
Europe, and Oceania have net in-migration. The three largest flows of migrants are to Europe from Asia
and to North America from Asia and from Latin America. The global pattern reflects the importance of
migration from LDCs to MDCs. Migrants from countries with relatively low incomes and high natural
increase rates head for relatively wealthy countries, where job prospects are brighter. The United States
has more foreignborn residents than any other country, approximately 40 million as of 2010, and
growing annually by around 1 million. Other MDCs have higher rates of net in-migration, including
Australia and Canada, which are much less populous than the United States (Figure 3-7). The highest
rates can be found in petroleumexporting countries of the Middle East, which attract immigrants
primarily from poorer Middle Eastern countries and from Asia to perform many of the dirty and
dangerous functions in the oil fields.

III. ASSESSMENT

1.      Interview an OFW and identify his/her reason/s why he/she chooses to settle or work in
foreign land/abroad.

2.      Below is the story of an OFW. Please read and understand her experience and give your
opinion on her story and as a migrant/worker in another country.

My Story as an Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW)

 Republic of the Philippines
PARTIDO STATE UNIVERSITY
Camarines Sur
PSY-SYL-___-___

by Niena Sevilla

Posted on January 29, 2015,

Retrieved from: http://www.universalflag.com/2015/01/29/my-story-as-an-overseas-filipino-worker-ofw-by-niena-
sevilla/

This is not just my story. Every Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) has his/her own story to tell.
Mine is unlike any other OFW, yet we all have the same dreams and aspirations and our
struggles are nearly similar. Our primary purpose is to provide better lives for our families back
home.

It was on May 2006 when I first left my homeland, the Philippines, for Saudi Arabia. I was filled
with mixed emotion for I didn’t know what my future had in store for me and my heart was so
broken from leaving my family behind. In the hours that I traveled, the scene with my mother,
who was wailing like a child, just kept replaying through my mind. My now teenage sons were
very young back then, ages 9 and 5. I would ask myself, "How could I leave them like that?" and
the only answers I'd get were tears in my eyes. All I could think about were the words my mother
spoke while she was crying, "I don't want you to go, but I cannot stop you because if I did, I
could not stand to see you struggle financially." So I realized I have a responsibility as a mother;
it is my job to raise my kids as a single parent. I had to be strong and think about the positive
outcome.

Aware of what I was going into, I prepared myself to work as a domestic helper – an agreement I
had made through a relative. She told me that it I wouldn't offer any payment and it was just a
stepping stone, and she would see what else she could do later. When I first set foot at my
employer's doorstep, I was completely shocked because the house was too big for me to clean up
alone. Yes, I was told that I would serve my employer's mother, but it turned out that I would be
serving her, her children and grandson. Later on, another Filipina joined me and it worked out
for a couple months despite the verbal abuse from my employer's mother. I had no problem with
her children because they treated me fairly – but they were not always around to defend me.

Abuse has many faces. It doesn't come out in just one form. I believe we should not say unkind
words to others. I tried to overcome my disappointments in a very constructive way. Many times,
I envisioned myself working freely in one of the companies in Jeddah.

I asked my relative to pull me out from this employer and provide me a new one but she refused.
In fact, she even made the matter worse by demanding me to repay her for the fees paid for my
employment. She convinced me to wait for three more months but I ran out of time and patience.
I felt like I had the right to fight back. I feared for myself because I thought their abusive words
would soon turn into actions. The workload and the verbal aggression were just too exhausting.
Besides, my co-worker's plan to resign worried me and I did not want to be left alone again. So, I
decided it was time to run away.

Yes, I ran away assertively! I did not go back to work after my day off. I knew that I put myself
in danger and was in hiding for two weeks. I sought help from Filipino friends and I eventually
found a very respectful employer who believed in my office skills.

It was then that the word, "Oneness" began to have meaning for me. We are all connected
regardless of nationality, status in life and relationship. The people who helped me out were not
related to me by blood. The employer who opened new opportunities for me was not a Filipino.
There is so much kindness in this world if we try reach out to others.

I know that my situation was not as bad as other oppressed OFWs. I know that the decision I
made was not even the best solution. I know that the right move should have been to seek for
assistance from the Philippine Embassy. I put the risk in my own hands and do not encourage
 Republic of the Philippines
PARTIDO STATE UNIVERSITY
Camarines Sur
PSY-SYL-___-___

others to do the same. However, I've also learned that it pays off when we speak out, when we
fight for our rights, when we pay-it-forward, when we show more kindness and compassion
towards others and when we avoid hatred and bitterness as much as possible.

REFERENCES

Causes and Effects of Human Migration (n.d.). Khan Academy. Retrieved from
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/world-history/medieval-times/
migration/a/migration-focus-block
Human Migration (n.d.). New World Encyclopedia. Retrieved from
https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Human_migration
Migration (n.d.). United Nation. Retrieved from https://www.un.org/en/sections/issues-
depth/migration/
Piesse, M. (2014). Factors Influencing Migration and Population Movements. Future
Directions International. Retrieved from
https://www.futuredirections.org.au/publication/factors-influencing-migration-and-
population-movements/