Globalization Exercise (Prof. Dan)

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The Clavijo and Polania Families Migration

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Population Geography – Migration

Migration is the movement of people from one area to another due to a range of certain

reasons. These reasons are defined as the push and pull factors that bring about migration. These

factors can be environmental, social, political or economic reasons. These are the sole factors for

migration. There are however types of migration. They are temporary, permanent, forced or

voluntary migration. Therefore migration can be either internal, that is within one’s major

locality or international. In better terms, internal migration can be described as moving from one

town to another whereas international migration involves the crossing of borders.

To touch on the types of migration, temporary migration is contained by the element of

time, where one moves to another location only for a limited period of time and when the time

expires, they move back to their initial locations. Most of these temporary migrations are as a

result of seasonal employment. Permanent migration on the other hand, involves moving to

another place and having no plans whatsoever to go back to the original home. Permanent

migration may be due to negative factors that occurred back in the homeland and therefore

caused a shift in location. Some permanent migrations may be due to better opportunities outside

and therefore one chooses to move to seek out greener pastures.

Forced migrations are purely as a result of negative factors. Many forced migrations are

made by refugees in foreign countries. Such forced migrations may be due to political instability

in their home countries. This undeniably results in civil wars. Civil wars are a major setback to

countries and many people flee from them. These people are rendered as refugees in foreign

countries. Illegal immigration also occurs as a result of civil wars. Many of these illegal

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immigrants risk their lives out there trying to remain safe. Other countries have harsh customs

and are not friendly these fleeing people. Therefore many of them are often treated badly behind

the scenes. Voluntary migration is therefore the opposite of the forced one. It involves the

person’s free choice and will to move due to their own reasons.

What is the reason behind the migration of people? Well, as mentioned before, the

reasons are environmental, political, social and economic. The environment is the surrounding

and therefore one’s surrounding is associated with their comfort. Many phenomena occur in our

day to day lives, and these influence our decisions. Natural disasters have been the major cause

of the migration of people due to the environment. Tsunamis, drought, famine, earthquakes, just

to mention a few are some of the natural disasters associated to migration.

Politically, the stability of a country determines the migration patterns of its citizens. In

the cases of countries with civil wars, people tend to migrate to seek refuge in other countries.

There are also cases of political persecutions that cause people to move out of their countries

since they are not wanted alive there. This has resulted in many people seeking dual citizenship

just to be safe.

Economic migration is solely for the purposes of business. Many people who migrate due

to economic reasons are mostly gone for seeking greener pastures. Job opportunities with better

benefits out there are what pull people towards migration. For students, it is a global belief that

seeking education overseas is the best decision one can make. There is a tendency of seeking

quality in education and therefore many campuses have foreign students who come to study.

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These students over their years of study tend to remain comfortable in these countries they have

gone to study and therefore they remain there, hence migration.

The paternal side of my family is believed to originally come from Spain. My maternal

side of the name Polania is originally from South America particularly Colombia. My paternal

side of the name Clavijo traces its origins back to Spain in a province called Logrono. It is

however correct to acknowledge that Africa is the cradle of mankind and as a result of

globalization, people have moved to different parts of the world. After tens of thousands of years

of adaptation to constantly changing environments, we followed our ancestor hominids out of

Africa in fateful migrations that were to change the world (De Blij and Muller). Globalization,

defined as a proliferation of cross-border flows and transnational networks, has changed the

context for migration (UK essays).

My father’s family moved out of Spain way back due to a pull factor. My great great

grandfather moved to the US for a job opportunity that had very good benefits. He came, he saw

and he decided there and then that he was going to stay. My maternal side were immigrants

looking for greener pastures in the US. They believed that they had come to pursue the

‘American dream’. After the first great wave of globalization, modern humans went north

towards Europe, and others towards North America, making South America the last place they

reached.

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Bibliography

Essays, UK. (November 2018). Effects of Globalization on Migration. Retrieved from https:// www.ukessays.com/essays/cultural-studies/migration-in-the-era-of-globalization-cultural- studies-essay.php?vref=1

De Blij, Harm J. and Peter O. Muller. 2010. Geography: Realms, Regions, and Concepts. 14th Edition. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.