remittances

Money migrants send back to family and friends in their home countries, often in cash, forming an important part of the economy in many poorer countries.

cyclic movements

Movement--for example, nomadic migration--that has a closed route and is repeated annually or seasonally.

activity spaces

The space within which daily activity occurs.

nomadism

Movement among a definite set of places--often cyclic movement.

periodic movements

Movement--for example, college attendance or military service--that involves temporary, recurrent relocation.

migrant labor

A common type of periodic movement involving millions of workers in the United States and tens of millions of workers worldwide who cross international borders in search of employment and become immigrants in many instances.

transhumance

A seasonal periodic movement of pastoralists and their livestock between highland and lowland pastures.

military service

Another common form of periodic movementinvolving as many as 10 million United States citizens in a given year, including military personnel and their families, who are moved to new locations where they will spend tours of duty lasting up to several years.

migration

A change in residence intended to be permanent.

international migration

Human movement involving movementacross international borders.

internal migration

Human movement within a nation-state, such as ongoing westward and southward movements in the United States.

forced migration

Human migration flows in which the movers have no choice but to relocate.

voluntary migration

Movement in which people relocate in response to percieved opportunity, not because they are forced to move.

laws of migration

Developed by British demographer Ernst Ravenstein, five laws thatpredict the flow of migrant.

gravity model

A mathematical prediction of the interaction of places, the interaction being a function of population size of the respective places and the distance between them.

push factors

Negative conditions and perceptions that induce peopleto leave their abode and migrate to a new locale.

pull factors

Positive conditions and perceptions that effectively attract people to new locales from other areas.

distance decay

The effects of distance on interaction, generally the greater the distance the less interaction.

step migration

Migration to a distant destination that occurs in stages, for example, from farm to nearby village and later to town and city.

intervening opportunity

The presence of a nearer opportunity that greatly diminishes the attractiveness of sites farther away.

kinship links

Types of push factors or pull factors that influence a migrant's decision to go where family or friend have already found success.

chain migration

Pattern of migration that develops when migrants move along and through kinship links (i.e. one migrant settles in a place and then writes, calls, or communicates through others to describe this place to family and friends who in turn then migrate there).

immigration wave

Phenomenon whereby different patterns of chain migration build upon one another to create a swell in migration from one origin to the same destination.

explorer

A person examining a region that is unknown to them.

colonization

Rule by an autonomous power over a subordinate and alien people and place. Although often established and maintained through political structures, colonialism also creates unequal cultural and economic relations. Because of the magnitude and impact of the European colonial project of the last few centuries, the term is generally understood to refer to that particular colonial endeavor.

island of development

Place built up by a government or corporation to attract foreign investment and which has relatively high concentrations of paying jobs and infrastructure.

guest workers

Legal immigrant who has a work visa, usually short term.

refugees

People who have fled their country because of political persecution and seek asylum in another country.

internal refugees

People who have been displaced within their own countries and do not cross international borders as they flee.

international refugees

Refugees who have crossed one or more international boundaries during their dislocation, searching for asylum in a different country.

asylum

Shelter and protection in one state for refugees from another state.

immigration laws

Laws and regulations of a state designed specifically to control immigration into that state.

quotas

Established limits by governments on the number of immigrants who can enter a country each year.

selective immigration

Process to control immigration in which individuals with certain backgrounds (i.e. criminal records, poor health, or subversive activities) are barred from immigrating.