Migration: Push and Pull — Geography (Grade 10)

Define and explain Migration: Push and Pull in your own words
Use key terms such as migration accurately
Apply what you have learned to new examples and questions
Avoid the common mistakes learners make with this topic

This lesson focuses on Migration: Push and Pull: analyse the forces that push people away and pull them towards new homes.

Definition: Migration: Push and Pull

Analyse the forces that push people away and pull them towards new homes.

Key ideas

Migration is driven by push and pull factors

Push factors drive people away — unemployment, low wages, poor services, conflict or natural disasters. Pull factors attract them — jobs, higher wages, better schools and healthcare, or family already there. Most migration is economic, and most migrants move from rural areas to cities within their own country.

Cities grow in two ways

Urban growth comes from rural–urban migration and from natural increase, when birth rates exceed death rates. In many poorer countries both are happening at once, so cities are expanding rapidly. Urbanisation is different from urban growth: it measures the rising share of people living in urban areas, not just bigger cities.

Key term — migration: The movement of people from one place to another to live, either within a country or between countries.

Worked example: Migration: Push and Pull

Is fleeing a flood a push or a pull factor?

A push factor — it forces people to leave.

Answer: A push factor — it forces people to leave.

Common mistakes

Confusing population density with total population A country can have a huge population but low density if it is vast, like Canada. Density is people per square kilometre, not the total headcount.
Calling every move 'migration' Moving house within the same town is mobility, not migration. Geographers usually mean a longer-distance, longer-term move, and distinguish internal migration from international migration.

Practice

Give one positive and one negative effect of rural–urban migration on the countryside left behind.

Think about who leaves and what they send back.

Positive: fewer people competing for jobs; remittances sent home. Negative: loss of young, able workers — a 'brain drain' from rural areas.

Define population density.

It is an average over an area.

The average number of people per square kilometre.

Name the two main causes of urban growth.

One is movement, the other is births minus deaths.

Rural–urban migration and natural increase.

What is the difference between internal and international migration?

One crosses a border.

Internal migration is within one country; international migration is between countries.

Quick check

Migration: Push and Pull — quick check

Which of these best defines "migration"?

The movement of people from one place to another to live, either within a country or between countries.

Give two physical reasons why an area might be sparsely populated.

Any two: mountainous relief, desert climate, extreme cold, dense forest, poor soils.

Key takeaways

Migration: Push and Pull: analyse the forces that push people away and pull them towards new homes.
Migration is driven by push and pull factors: Push factors drive people away — unemployment, low wages, poor services, conflict or natural disasters.
population density: The average number of people per square kilometre — high density means crowded, low density means sparse.
Watch out for: confusing population density with total population

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