Migration is the movement of individuals within a geographical space, either temporarily or permanently. These migratory flows can be triggered by various reasons: economic, cultural, religious, political and natural (droughts, earthquakes, floods, etc.).
Economic migration exerts the greatest influence on the population. It is understood as the displacement of human contingents to areas where the production system concentrates a greater or better job opportunity.
Types of migrations
international migrations – those that occur from one country to another:
- Immigration – is characterized by the entry of individuals or groups in another country. The immigrant is seen from the point of view of the host country The term applies only to people who intend to establish permanent residence in the adopted country, participating in its social life.
- Emigration – is characterized by the departure of individuals or groups, from their country of origin, to settle in another. An emigrant is someone who has moved from their country to live in another, seen from the point of view of their country of origin.
Internal migrations – are those that occur within the country:
- Rural exodus or rural urban – is the displacement of the rural population to the city.
- urban-rural migration – is the displacement of people from the city to the countryside.
- urban-urban migration – is the movement of individuals from one city to another.
- pendular migration – typical of big cities, where hundreds of people leave their city to work in another, returning at the end of the day.
- seasonal migration – linked to the seasons of the year, where migrants leave their city at a certain time of the year, returning later. One example is the workers who leave the dry regions of the Northeast in search of work in other regions.
Internal migrations in Brazil
Migrations through Brazilian territory are, in great majority, associated with economic factors, since the time of colonization. When the sugarcane cycle in the Northeast ended and the gold cycle began in Minas Gerais, there was a huge displacement of people and an intense urbanization process in the new economic center of the parents.
Thanks to the coffee cycle and, later, with the industrialization process, the Southeast region has become a major attraction for migrants who leave their region of origin in search of employment. From the 70s, with the process of decentralization of industrial activity, migration towards the Southeast showed a significant drop.
In recent decades, the North and Center-West regions have attracted large numbers of migrants, who seek the current agricultural frontiers of the country. The Northeast has received a large number of migrants from various regions, looking for work in the large industrial centers formed over the last few decades. According to data from the 2009 National Household Sampling Survey, released by the IBGE, Pernambuco was the northeastern state with the highest rate of return of migrants, followed by Rio Grande do Norte and Paraíba. The labor supplier region started to employ it.
See too
- immigration and emigration
- Immigrant