With the current globalization process, people are moving more and more to the most different places in the world. In this way, it is possible to see that these displacements follow certain characteristics, since they occur for previously established reasons.
Thus, we can classify these migrations – that is, the displacements carried out by people – into several different types.
When people are leaving a certain place, they are emigratingand when they are coming, they are immigrating. Furthermore, when this migration takes place between different countries, it is called external migration, and when it occurs in the same country, it is called inward migration.
Now let's get to know the main types of migration that exist:
pendular migration: it's what people do every day, when they go from home to work or school. Works like a pendulum, which goes back and forth to where it came from.
Seasonal migration or transhumance: it is when the migration takes a certain period of the year or a few months. It's a temporary migration. For example: a person who moves to another region of the country to study and returns six months later.
permanent migration: it is when there is displacement and it lasts several years or an indefinite period of time.
Rural exodus or rural-city migration: it is the mass migration of workers from the countryside to the cities.
city-city migration: it is when there is a flow of people migrating between different cities in the same territory.
Nomadism: it is when people move between different points, not having a fixed place of residence.
Understanding migrations is important, as they obey some economic, social and natural reasons, showing the existence of countless other phenomena.
By Rodolfo Alves Pena
Graduated in Geography
