such as Syria. Between 2011 and 2016, roughly nine million Syrians had fled their homes, migrating to nearby Jordan, Iraq, Turkey, Lebanon, and various European countries as well as to other locations within Syria (figures 3.16 and 3.18).
As people are pushed away from violence, be it crime or war, people are pulled to places with relative peace and security, be it nearby Costa Rica in Central America, Jordan in the Middle East, or further away in the United States and Europe.
Figure 3.16.War and migration. A destroyed tank in Azaz and war damage in Serekaniye, Syria. Civil war in Syria has led to massive destruction and the death of hundreds of thousands of people, pushing millions to emigrate to safer places. Azaz photo by Christiaan Triebert. Stock photo ID: 161912165. Shutterstock. Syria photo by fpolat69. Stock photo ID: 138083423. Shutterstock.
People are also pushed away from places where there is political persecution and pulled to places where human rights and the rule of law apply equally to all. Political push factors can be distinguished from social and cultural push factors by the fact that persecution involves punitive sanctions by a government. Thus, people often flee repressive and authoritarian regimes for fear of arbitrary seizures of financial assets, detention, or arrest and move to stable democracies.
North Korea is probably the most extreme case of political persecution and violation of human rights. Each year, around 2,000 North Koreans flee the country, often migrating to China with hopes of getting to democratic South Korea. Legal emigration is prohibited, so emigration typically involves illegally crossing the border, individually or with the help of human smugglers. In North Korea, no political opposition is allowed, cell phones and other technology that can communicate with the outside world are illegal, and criticism of the leadership is prohibited. Punishments include torture, execution, and lifetime imprisonment with hard labor. In some cases, entire extended families are sent to prison camps for the actions of one family member. An estimated 80,000 to 120,000 people are in these camps, which are plagued with high death rates from poor nutrition, lack of medical care, mistreatment by guards, executions, and backbreaking work (figure 3.17).
Figure 3.17.Kwanliso 16 prison camp, North Korea. This image shows a small section of the camp, the largest in North Korea. Explore this map at http://arcg.is/2dDroii. Map based on Amnesty International, 2013.
As another example, Russian emigres have cited anti-LGBT laws and political persecution as reasons for being pushed away from their country. A 2013 law banned “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations” toward minors, which many interpreted as a means of persecuting Russia’s LGBT community. In other cases, members of opposition political parties have faced what they see as trumped-up criminal charges and harassment by the police in response to their criticism of government policies. In some cases, opposition figures have been found shot dead.
In recent years, journalists’ and opposition political activists’ fear of detention has also spurred emigration from other authoritarian-leaning countries, such as Venezuela, Turkey, and Cuba. Typically, people who are pushed away from countries because of political conditions choose to migrate to countries with strong pull forces of democracy, protection of individual rights, and the rule of law, such as Western Europe, Canada, and the United States.
Refugees are a specific type of social or political migrant. The United Nations 1951 Refugee Convention defines a refugee as a person who, “owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to, or owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country.” Per international law, the legal rights of refugees are different from the rights of those who are migrating for economic or other reasons. Therefore, most countries have systems for evaluating refugee claims and admitting those deemed to fit the definition.
In the United States, for instance, refugee status has been given to Cubans facing political persecution under the communist Castro regime, Christians and Jews fleeing the Islamic Republic of Iran, and Iraqis and Afghans who assisted the US military.
Around 2014 to 2016, Europe faced one of the largest refugee migration flows since World War II. Because of conflict in Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan, large numbers of people started migrating in search of asylum (figure 3.18). Over one million immigrants crossed the Mediterranean Sea, with the majority arriving in Greece, followed by Italy. The journey proved fatal for thousands, as smugglers sent them in overcrowded boats of questionable quality. In one single incident, over 800 people drowned when a boat sank while crossing from Libya on its way to Italy. Hundreds of thousands more have attempted to take land routes through Turkey and Eastern Europe in attempts to reach countries such as Germany and Sweden. While the majority of the refugees were from Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq, people from other parts of Southwest Asia and Africa also immigrated. Syrians were given priority for refugee status because of a brutal civil war, while most others faced rejection as economic migrants.
Figure 3.18.Refugee flows to Europe. Refugees on an overcrowded raft arriving at Lesvos, Greece; refugees in Hungary making their way to Germany. Greece photo by Anjo Kan. Stock photo ID: 390513937. Shutterstock. Hungary photo by Istvan Csak. Stock photo ID: 385009378. Shutterstock.
But while news reports in the West often focus on refugees immigrating to Europe and North America, the vast majority of refugees, 86 percent, reside in developing countries (figure 3.19), largely due to the concept of distance decay discussed in chapter 1. Given that there is more spatial interaction between two places that are close together, it is most likely that refugees facing push forces in developing countries will migrate to another developing country nearby. Life for refugees in developing countries can be difficult. Developing countries do not have large sources of revenue to assist those in need and strong economies to absorb many immigrants. Sometimes, the United Nations assists with funding refugee camps, but often there are many more refugees than space in the camps. Too often, adults lack jobs and children lack schools. In 2016, one estimate showed that 80 percent of Syrian children in Turkey did not attend school. Often, children must work to support their families, with some working twelve-hour days for US $60 in weekly wages. Unable to fully integrate into host countries and unable to return to their home countries, many refugees remain in precarious positions for years, leaving children with limited education and limited opportunities for the future.
Figure 3.19.Number of refugees per country in 2015. Despite news reports in the United States and Europe that show resistance to accepting refugees, the vast majority are found in developing countries. Data source: UNHCR.
Environmental push and pull
In addition to the economic, social and cultural, and political push and pull forces directly caused by humans, environmental conditions drive migration. In the most benign form of environmental push and pull, people can be pushed away from areas with uncomfortable climates and pulled to places with pleasant climates. For instance, since the 1970s, population growth in the US southern and western Sun Belt states has increased at a faster rate than in the Snow Belt states of New England and the Midwest.
But the environment can also cause migration for more serious reasons. Natural disasters can drive people away, as in the case of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 (figure 3.20). Because of that natural disaster, over 200,000 people moved out of New Orleans after 80 percent of the city was flooded. Many
