Chapter 2 - METHODS:
I have been to the Migration Photo exhibition by Sebastiao Salgado (in ICS) to find graphic evidences to prove or disprove the hypotheses I’ve set before.
To find different kinds of Migration, I had to thoroughly study each of the photographs and read their captions rather carefully, while recorded all the data which I considered important, such as the date the photographs are taken, the origin country, the destination country, the causes of migration, the outcome of migration…etc.
Using the data collected, I indicated the different routes of migration on a World map, and using some enlarged and more detailed maps of Rwanda, Shanghai, and Yugoslavia found on internet for those very short distances.
I have used the student atlas to find the location of some of the countries such as Rwanda, Burundi and Kosovo.
Chapter 3 - RESULTS & ANALYSIS:
Here, I’ll show some results from my investigation, and try to explain them. These results are also shown on the map next page, with lines and arrows linking origin countries with the destination ones.
Type I Cases
- Ecuador (small towns and valleys) to Urbanized areas
The villagers tend to emigrate from their valleys (Chimborazo, Cañas. Azuay) to more urbanized areas of Ecuador, larger cities to find jobs because of the poor quality/fertility of their lands.
- Morocco (and other African countries) to Spain (Ceuta & Melilla)
Obviously, living standards in Spain are relatively better than those of Morocco. Because of this fact, and the closeness of these two countries, many Moroccans to make a trip by boat in the night, so guards are not likely to see them. But there are still risks on the trip its own, as they could die in the sea because of the cold and other dangers.
- Sao Paulo’s surrounding shanty towns to Sao Paolo (city)
Majority of the people who work in Sao Paulo city do not live there, but in the shanty towns surrounding the city because most of them are unable to afford the housing expenses in the centre. This means that vast amounts of people commute everyday from surroundings to the city to work, and commute back home in the evenings.
These 3 migrations are distinct to each other in some ways, since the one of Ecuador happens within the country, the one of Morocco to Spain is, in fact international migration, while the one of Sao Paulo consist of relatively short distance commuting.
However they share an obvious similarity, which is the cause of these migrations. All three are caused by the desire of better living standards and more job opportunities. Many of those migrants migrate illegally, risking their lives and future. But they still prefer this form of migration, rather than staying in their own countries as life conditions “force” them to take the risk.
Another important factor that these have in common is that, they are all voluntary migrations.
Type II Cases
- Kabul to rural areas
The civil war in the 80s forced many people in exodus to the areas surrounding the virtually destroyed city in order to survive such harsh situations.
- Rwanda to Burundi
Rwanda is a relatively small country in Africa and since 1994 many people migrated to Burundi, Tanzania and other neighboring countries because of the war between two different ethnic tribes: Hutu and Tutsis. Many people lived in shelters and survived with ONU’s help.
-Kosovo to Albania
Because of the frequent wars in this area, thousands of people are forced to leave their country and seek asylum in the neighboring nations such as Albania until war is over.
-Vietnam to Hong Kong to USA/Australia
After the fall of Saigon more than 195000 Vietnamese arrived in Hong Kong on boat for temporary asylum, from which later on, 70,000 entered USA and 10,000 were accepted by Australia.
These three cases are all international migrations caused by war or difficult political situations which force the people to fear for their lives and leave their homeland in seek for asylum in Neighboring countries, as Rwanda to Zaire, Kosovo to Albania and Vietnam to Hong Kong, although many Vietnamese have later on chosen to migrate further away.
Type III Cases
-Shanghai downtown to Surrounding areas
Shanghai, as being one of the fastest growing Asian Mega cities, has undergone spectacular modernizations, during which process, has left many residents of Shanghai’s old neighborhood homeless. For this the government had provided good quality housing on the suburbs, but deliberately separated them from the centre of city they used to live in.
This is a obviously a type of forced urban to rural migration, within the same city.
Chapter 4 - CONCLUSION:
These are the four hypotheses that I’ve mentioned in the Introduction.
- Most migrants travel only short distances and with increasing distance their number decrease. (distance decay)
From the results, I’ve noticed that the first part of this hypothesis is basically right, and agrees with my previous explanation before seeing the exhibition. Most migrations are not based on a very long distance, but neighboring countries or just from countryside to cities, or even within the same city (Sao Paulo and Shanghai).
Although, I have also based my predictions on Commuting, while this exhibition mostly focuses on forced migration caused by wars, modernization and economical interests.
Some developing countries are relatively close to developed countries, so there’s no need for them to go to a further one.
People in those Countries that are in war, wish to go back to their home after the war ended, so they chose to escape to a relatively close neighboring country, so it will be easier for them to go back later.
However from this investigation I see no proof of the second part of this hypothesis, where it states the theory of “distance decay”, since, e.g. in the case of Vietnam vast amount of the asylum seekers focus their interest in long distance destination countries such as USA and Australia.
- Long distance migration is more likely to be to large centers of industry and commerce.
According to my results, there are few long distance migrations. In fact I have only noticed one that is relatively obvious, and it is the migration of Vietnamese asylum seekers from Hong Kong to USA and Australia. The specific areas to where they have gone to is unclear, but, if they want to maintain themselves, it is relatively likely that they would have gone to large centers of industry and commerce since it is often easier to earn a living in these areas. However, this is only my assumption, as they might have gone working in farms. These results therefore mostly agree with my previous predictions where I stated the reason to be “seek of better life”.
- The major direction of migration is from rural to urban areas/Urban dwellers are less likely to move than those in rural areas.
These two hypotheses are basically the same. By studying my results I have realized that the flows of rural to urban migrations and vice-versa are not very contrastive. Here goes a list:
From the list above, I can see that, according to my data, there are slightly more of Urban to rural than vice-versa. This is because, under voluntary conditions, people tend to move from rural to urban in seek of better job opportunities or higher living standards, while if the first two migrations listed above of urban to rural are forced, the situation changes dramatically. The last row consist of commuting, which means that it is always parallel; one in each direction.
- Migration tends to occur in stages and with a wave like motion.
There are two clear examples within my investigation which highly supports this hypothesis. They are:
Illegal migration from Morocco or other African countries to Spain occur much more often during summer (warm weather) than winter (cold) because the illegal migrants travel by boat across the ocean and warm weather favors the journey, and risks of dying of cold is smaller. Also, in case the boat broke, it is relatively easier to swim in summer than in winter.
Secondly there is the migration of villagers of Ecuador to larger cities seeking for jobs. The time they go away might depend on the harvest season, and other seasons of different jobs available in cities.
Chapter 5 - EVALUATION:
I think that this project has generally been fine since I’ve tried to find as much information as I could, to complete it.
But I would like to make some improvements if I could do it again.
Firstly, I would like to go through all parts of the Photo exhibition more thoroughly, because I had some difficulties finding out some destinations of migration flows.
A defect about the exhibition itself is that although there are several types of migration present, I think that more examples of each type could be studied so comparisons can be made.
I would suggest the following hypotheses for a further study of migration patterns:
- All migrations from Rural to Urban areas are based on poverty and hunger.
- Frequent international migrations will lead to a fast spread out of diseases.
- Most migrations produce a compensatory counter-movement.
- Females tend to migrate more than males within their country of birth, while males are much more likely to be involved in international migration.
Bibliography
Student Atlas
Photo Exhibition of Sebastiao Salgado
Map of Rwanda
CIA Fact book – Map of Yugoslavia (Kosovo)
Word Count: 1834
By: Qing Ying Sun