Migration — types, causes and impacts

Migration is the movement of people from one place to another with the intention of settling, temporarily or permanently. CCEA examiners expect you to classify migration types, explain push and pull factors, and evaluate the impacts on both the country of origin and the destination country.

Types of migration

By distance:

• Internal migration: within a country (e.g. rural-to-urban migration within Nigeria).
• International migration: between countries (e.g. Syria to Germany; Poland to UK).

By time:

• Permanent migration: the migrant settles indefinitely.
• Temporary / seasonal migration: the migrant returns home (e.g. harvest workers, student visas).
• Circular migration: regular movement between two places (e.g. daily commuters or seasonal workers who return home each year).

By reason:

• Economic migration: seeking better-paid work or economic opportunity.
• Refugee / forced migration: fleeing war, persecution, or natural disaster.
• Environmental migration (climate refugees): displaced by sea level rise, drought, desertification.
• Family reunification: joining family already settled in a new place.

Push and pull factors

Lee's Push-Pull model explains migration decisions in terms of factors that push people away from their origin and pull them towards a destination.

Push factors (negative conditions at origin):

• Unemployment / low wages
• War, conflict, persecution
• Natural disasters (floods, drought, volcanic eruption)
• Poverty, poor healthcare, poor education
• Environmental degradation

Pull factors (positive conditions at destination):

• Employment and higher wages
• Political stability and safety
• Better healthcare and education
• Family/community networks already established
• Better quality of life

Obstacles (intervening factors):

• Distance and cost of travel
• Immigration laws and visa restrictions
• Language and cultural barriers

Impacts on origin country

Positive:

• Remittances: money sent home by migrants. For the Philippines and Mexico, remittances equal 10%+ of GDP — a major source of foreign exchange.
• Population pressure relieved — fewer mouths to feed.
• Migrants return with new skills, languages and business ideas (return migration benefit).

Negative:

• Brain drain: highly educated and skilled people leave (doctors, engineers, teachers) — depriving the country of investment in human capital. Many sub-Saharan African countries lose significant proportions of university graduates to HICs.
• Young, working-age adults leave → ageing population, fewer workers.
• Family breakdown — children raised without parents.

Impacts on destination country

Positive:

• Fills labour shortages (NHS nurses from Philippines and West Africa; construction workers; seasonal agricultural workers).
• Cultural diversity — food, arts, language enrichment.
• Migrants often start businesses and pay taxes.
• Young migrants counteract ageing population effects.

Negative:

• Pressure on housing, schools, hospitals in areas of rapid immigration.
• Social tensions if integration is poorly managed.
• Wage depression in some low-skill sectors if labour supply increases.

NI case study context

Since the 2004 EU enlargement (Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and others joining the EU), NI has received significant immigration — particularly from Poland and Lithuania. The Polish community in NI (estimated 60,000+) works predominantly in food processing, agriculture, and hospitality. Benefits: labour for agri-food sector. Challenges: language barrier, social integration.