Population & Migration - AP Human Geography

To undergo a population implosion entails that the population is decreasing, hugely due to a higher death rate than a birth rate. Europe has definitely been going through this for years. The other mentioned others have been more going through populations explosions, with growing populations.

The term “Cotton Belt” is how the South in the United States was often referred to, reflecting the region's centuries long dependence on cotton plantations for much of its wealth; however, in recent years, many Americans have been migrating from the Northeast and the Midwest to the South in search of better weather and new job opportunities. This has caused geographers to rebrand the region as the “Sun Belt.” It stretches across most of the Deep South and includes Texas and California.

The “centroid” refers to the geographic center of the population of a country. So, if more people in a country live in the West than in the East, the “centroid” will be further west. The “centroid” of the United States has moved consistently west and south basically since the country was founded. This is because a larger and larger share of the population is living in the West and the South. This is primarily a consequence of migration from the East to the West and from the North to the South.

A Push factor is a reason to leave a country while a pull factor is a reason to move to a country. If the country which someone is living in is at war, they are pushed to leave for fear of their life and livelihood, especially if their lives were particularly endangered.

While moving to a country that has more job opportunities is what often happens, this is a pull factor to pull someone to a country rather than a push factor which pushes someone out of a country.

Often the country that they are leaving is their native country and the country they are migrating to is foreign to them. If they are not living in their native country, that is not a push factor to leave although it could be a pull factor to return to their homeland.

Natural disasters are surprisingly not often considered in the process of migration. Even if they were taken into account, people would not purposefully migrate to a region that has more natural disasters than the region they are already in.

Someone who is forced to leave their home country is a refugee, regardless of what country to which they migrate.

An illegal immigrant is someone who illegally immigrates into a country that is not their home. If they illegally immigrated due to being forced to leave their country under persecution they claim refugee status and are classified as a refugee and not as an illegal immigrant.

There were many Soviet refugees during the break up of the U.S.S.R. and there still are many refugees who are Soviets. But the definition of a Soviet does not equal someone who is forced to migrate due to persecution. The definition of a Soviet is simply someone from the Soviet region of Eastern Europe and Western Asia.

A prisoner of war is not forced to leave their home country due to persecution. Rather, they are persecuted in a foreign country due to the war that is on-going. They are under captivity in a foreign country.

The “Great Migration” began in the late nineteenth century and continued throughout much of the early twentieth century. It involved the migration of African-Americans from the Deep South to cities like Chicago, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York - the industrial centers of the American northeast and midwest.

Great Britain's North American Colonies saw a wide variety of people take the opportunity to settle America's Atlantic coast. Due to the wide variety of colonies and locations from which people came, the reasons for traveling to the New World ran the gamut from political and religious reasons to simple economic necessity and serving punishment in the colonies. Almost all of the colonists were middle or lower class individuals seeking a better life, rather than individuals trying to get rich quickly.

The Pilgrims who migrated to America in the early seventeenth century did so in order to escape religious persecution in Europe. They were motivated by reasons of political repression and a desire for personal freedom.

The Roma people arrived in Europe some time in the fourteenth or fifteenth centuries. They migrated from some place in the East, probably over several generations, with the most commonly suspected point of origin being somewhere on the Indian subcontinent. Like the Jewish people who were already well dispersed around Europe the Roma did not assimilate smoothly into the countries they emigrated to. They retained their social customs and religious beliefs and were distrusted by large sections of the local population. For much of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries they were officially persecuted and banished by many of the societies of Europe and forced to migrate endlessly around Europe. State persecution of the Roma continues to this day in many countries.

The Boers were settlers who arrived in what is now called South Africa in the seventeenth century. They came, almost exclusively, from the Netherlands - although some were Huguenots from France and other European countries.

The first inhabitants of North America crossed over a land bridge from Asia into North America approximately fifteen thousand years ago. Having arrived in the new continent it took little more than two thousand years before the descendants of these new arrivals had spread across the whole of the Americas.

For several decades of American history Ellis Island served as the point of arrival for immigrants coming to New York City and the United States from Europe and the rest of the world. Due to the vast numbers of Americans whose ancestors arrived via Ellis Island it retains a certain cultural significance even though the vast majority of contemporary immigrants arrive via plane or land borders.

By 1998, the Croats had successfully found independence from their Serb occupiers. What's important here is that 1) Croats are a unique nationality, 2) Serbs are a unique nationality, and 3) the Muslims throughout the region are considered a nationality too. Following the Croatian victory, many ethnic Serbs living in Croatia did not want to be governed by the new Croats' government. So nearly thousands of ethnic Serbs fled Croatia for their “homeland” of Yugoslavia and Bosnia. Remember that Yugoslavia soon after devolved into Serbia-Montenegro, and the dictator Slobodan Milosevic was removed from power by his people.

Islamization, or the establishment of the Islamic faith, began pretty quickly as soon as it was introduced by its founder, Muhammad. It has grown through the ages across various countries, and even continents.

The process of moving around to find work in various seasons is referred to as “cyclical migration.” It is common amongst the rural poor in many parts of the world who have to move around to meet the labor demands of various products that can only be harvested in certain seasons.

A political refugee does not have to be strictly a person whose individual politics are no longer welcome in their native country. Instead, anyone who flees a negative or harmful political situation can be considered a political refugee; however, a student seeking a better education is not likely a political refugee, and is in fact likely to return to his or her native country once he or she has completed his or her education.

In 1970, there were reported to be 2.9 million refugees worldwide. In 2000, that number was reported to have increased to 24 million. Thus, the number of refugees increased by a multiple of about 8.

Refugees are defined as people who are being forced to leave their traditional lands due to persecution or material hardship within their society. Common causes of major refugee movements are natural disasters, warfare (particularly civil war), and political alienation or persecution. All of these countries listed are major sources of refugees because they are engaged in civil and international wars or because their governments' track records on civil rights are suspect.

A “diaspora” is the name given to a community of people who are dispersed throughout the world, but retain their cultural, religious, or ethnic differences. The term is most commonly applied to Jewish people and to African-Americans in the United States.