Introduction
Who’s going where?
On the move: 232 million migrants in the world
The number of international migrants has soared since 1990 as more and more people are leaving their country of origin. So who’s migrating and where are they going?
Task 1) Once you have looked at the resources above. Read pages 42-46 in Patterns and Change and answer questions 1-4 on page 46.
The Causes of Migration:
International Voluntary Migration and Forced Migration:
Using a range of articles and links from this page you are going to build up a case study of the movement of people from North Africa to Italy.
Use Lees’s Model of Migration as a guide to structuring your case studies. This looks at the complexity of a migrants decision. There are push and pull factors at both the point of origin and the final destination. There are also many intervening obstacles and often be a number of stages in the journey to the migrants final destination. It is common for migrants to never make it to their original destination.
Introduction:
Migrants crossing the Mediterranean: key numbers
Thousands of migrants have crossed the Mediterranean in the past few days, with European authorities warning that thousands more are waiting in Libya to make the journey. Find the key numbers
War, poverty, repression: Why so many Africans risk their lives to migrate
Case Study: Eritrea to Europe
1) Where is Eritrea?
Task: Describe the geographical location of Eritrea and its climate.
What went wrong in Eritrea….
Perhaps evidence of that can be found in the food crisis in the Horn of Africa. Is the drought affecting Eritrea? There are neither independent observers nor international organisations in the country. NGOs are banned from operating.
A friend of mine who lives in the capital, Asmara, tells me he can’t afford to go to the market because prices are too high. The government tells a different story, praising the country for stabilising food prices and for its efforts to ensure food security.
The only people who can afford to shop at the market are those who benefit from the country’s largest safety net – remittances from family members living abroad.
One can only surmise what is really happening in this small country of 4.5 million, whose young people are fleeing to neighbouring countries, where rationing is widespread, independent media do not exist, and all accurate data is government property. I suspect there is a drought in Eritrea, although its effect may not be as severe as in Somalia or other neighbouring countries. But Eritreans are used to going hungry.
Extracts from Dawit Mesfin, an Eritrean, is principal director of//Justice Africa, UK//
Published in the guardian newspaper.
2) The most dangerous journey in the world.
Task: Use the interactive map above to describe the journey taken by Mehari Solomon from Eritrea to the UK. Make note of the geographical locations and the hazards he encounters. You may do this in note form or using bullet points.
Thousands of Eritreans risk their lives each year trying to reach the United Kingdom and one man’s successful journey meant suffering privations for three years
3) Why are so many Eritreans undertaking such a dangerous journey?
Task: Use the articles below to make a list of the push factors influencing Eritreans decision to leave home. There are also pull factors that make the decision to leave more difficult. Note down any you come across whilst reading the articles.
The most serious human rights violations are being committed in Eritrea, Keetharuth said, including extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, extended incommunicado detention, torture, indefinite national service, and lack of freedom of expression, assembly, religious belief and movement.
Olympic athlete and middle-distance runner is one of four from country seeking escape from repressive regime
Senior military officers kidnap and hold to ransom youngsters, and many are sold on to human traffickers, according to report
Eritrean youths are being kidnapped by senior military officers, smuggled into Sudan and held to ransom, according to a report by Dutch and Swedish researchers. The captives are threatened with being sold to people traffickers if they do not raise tens of thousands of dollars. Some are freed if they raise the ransoms. Others are sold on to Bedouin traffickers in Sinai, even after money has changed hands, only to be tortured to extract further cash from their relatives.
4) What happens to those that make it to Europe? The impact of international migration
Task: Read through the following information and note down the positive and negative impacts that international migration has on both the country of origin and the country of destination.
Eritreans in Switzerland:
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| Click on the image to read the full article and learn more about Eritrean Asylum seekers in Switzerland. |
Click on the banner and watch an excellent series about the life of Africans living in Europe
Recent immigrants to UK ‘make net contribution’
Immigrants to the UK since 2000 have made a “substantial” contribution to public finances, a report says.
Take my migrants, please
An influx of north Africans causes a headache for the government
Italy’s Immigration Quandary: Racial Hate Intensifies Against African-Born Government Minister
Immigration in Western Europe
Immigration of less educated, younger Eastern Europeans and North Africans to Western Europe would economically benefit its educated and older population. Western Europe should make its labour markets more competitive and accessible to outsiders (immigrants) and its welfare state more selective.
Brain drain ‘damaging’ African HE
About 30% of Africa’s university-trained professionals and up to 50,000 Africans with PhDs now live and work outside the continent. The problem is particularly acute in sub-Saharan Africa.
Remittances
Africans’ remittances outweigh Western aid
Africans are helping themselves more than aid workers are, according to new research.
Task: Answer these questions
1) What is meant by the phrase,’Brain Drain?’
2) What is a remittance?
3) Use examples to explain why remittances are so important to the developing world.
Case Study Summary:
Use this sheet to summarise the case study of people migrating from Eritrea and other North African countries, into Europe.
Brain Drain in Bulgaria:
New border controls: Does Bulgaria face a ‘brain drain’?
EU migration: Bulgaria’s departing doctors
Refugees: Forced international migration.
Task 3: Answer the following questions.
1) Using the information from the links above. Summarise the Syrian Refugee Crisis. Why? When? Who? How many? etc.
2) What impact are the refugees having on the countries they enter?
3) What assistance is being given to the refugees by the international community?
4) Use the stories of actual refugees to look in more detail at the reason behind their decision to leave and become refugees? How did they chose their destination? Is Lee’s model relevant in the case of refugees?
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| Interactive BBC guide to the Syrian refugee crisis. |
5) Read pages 47 and 48 in Patterns and Change. Answer questions 1-3 on page 48
Case Study Summary:
Use this sheet to summarise the case study of people migrating from Syria to neighbouring countries.
Internal Migration: China
Task 4:
Work through the exercise from geographyalltheway.com. Click on the banner to go to the page.
Remittances represent an enormous cash flow worldwide. In many countries with substantial internal mobility, remittances are also abundant at the national level. For instance, estimates for China show that nearly US$30 billion were transferred from urban to rural areas in 2005 (Gong et al., 2008)
The term ‘remittances,’ refers to the money that migrant workers send back to their communities of origin.
Case Study Summary:
Use this sheet to summarise the case study of internal migration in China.
Does migration change life for the better for people from poor countries?
A new report calls for a stronger focus on how migration affects human development