Migration

A very spoken topic that affects several countries and because its magnitude has obligated to create a lot of policies around its development and growth. According to the team that proposed this subject, migration is the movement of people from one place in the world to another for the purpose of taking up permanent or semi permanent residence, usually across a political boundary.

Those movements are classified in 10 types of migration, and they are:

1. Internal: this means to move from one city to other in the same country
2. External:to move from one city to other or even between countries or continents
   
3. Emigration: Occurs when people leave one country to live in other one
4. Immigration: The one that arrives to the new country
   
5. Population transfer: When the government forces a grou go out of a region, known as involuntary or forced migration
   
6. Impelled migration: When is imposed because of unfavorable situations. An example are the group of displaced rural persons that of cause of the guerrilla have to run away leaving their land, animals and proprieties.
   
7. Step Migration: Shorter distance migration, for example when people move to their farms, other cities, villages, among others.
   
8. Chain: Very related to families, that starts when one member goes out the country and start sending money so the others can come with him.
9. Return or circular migration, when immigrants come back to their home place
   
10. Seasonal movement: Only for a period of time for work, or climate conditions

Into those types of migrations exists the people who characterizes those movements, and they are classified as emigrant, immigrant, internally displaced person, migration stream and finally refugee. Is important to clear the difference between expatriate vs. immigrant, and that is that the immigrant doesn't know what will have, nothing certain while expatriates have more certainty related to some work guaranty, outside their home country in a non permanent basis.
Though they have more certainty, is common that this persons do not reach an acculturation or acceptance of the culture they are at, they become unable to perform in that other country being recalled or sent back home; or another case noun as culture shock, happens when exists a different social environment, anxiety toward an unknown culture.
Between some theories about migration that Ernest Revenstein and Oded Stark proposed, the lecturer team made emphasis on which are the main factors that generates the migration, and they are the pull and the push factors. In what do they consist?
First of all we have the Push factors, the ones that push you to get out or your home land, economic, political, cultural, and environmentally based, not secure, less freedom, less posibilities to go further, among a lot of others. An example of this, was that great amount of people that decided to leave Colombia in the more difficult moments when the violence, insecurity and no enough economic possibilities where available. The follow are the data of the amount of Colombians that decided to live in US assigned by city:



For 2000, the foreign born from Colombia accounted for 0.2 percent of the total population, this appeard in the MIP Data Hub that distinguish migration information by country.
A critical time for Colombia because was loosing all the young people in search of the American dream, causing a brain drain.

Well, the other factor is the pull one, is equal based as the above one, economic, political, cultural, and environmentally based. Supported by job opportunities, better life condition, security, education, etc. those privileges are offered by the host country as the way it function, and as been seen as the dreamed place.

The remittances is the money received from the emigrants usually for their family or relatives, this cash turn into a very important capital for the country that receive it, because is money that will be spent in different sectors of the national's industry, moving the consumption and increasing the performance of the companies, equilibrating the balance of payments. El Salvador is a country that its main resource comes from the remittances.

Finally I want to incorporate that migration is a very complicated subject to be treated, that demands very structured policies and a lot of comprehension but a lot of rational too. That's the reason US had had a lot of problems with immigrants and their guaranties, but at the same time a think, how would we feel if start to arrive a lot of people from different countries and start to change the dynamic of our country, it will be discrimination?, ethnocentrism? Cause that's what happen in US, and the have a lot of conception of the Latin culture as a whole thing, most of the time recognized as Mexican! not Colombians, or Peruvians, or Argentinians, etc. (What has to be with ignorance too). And how they discriminate Afro American's immigrants and even theirs...
Well, that's why I wanted to share the next cartoon comic I found of the Invisible life of poet.

(Click it to zoom)

Bibliography

• Penagos, A. M. & Sierra, D. & Peñaranda, S. & Piedrahíta, M.A. 2009. Presentation "Migration and expatriates, An insight outlook" Organization and Cultures Subject, Universidad EAFIT.
  

• MPI Data Hub, Migrations facts, stats and maps. The foreign born from Colombia in California. http://www.migrationinformation.org/datahub/whosresults.cfm. Accessed on March 13th, 2009.
• The invisible life of poet, African American Dream Simulator. http://www.lifeofpoet.com/archives/78. Accessed on March 13, 2009.