Migration Terms
This type of migration occurs when people leave their home country due to war, persecution, or natural disaster.
What is forced migration?
The movement of African Americans from the South to Northern cities between 1910 and 1970.
What is the Great Migration?
This form of migration involves the movement of people to another location, often to settle permanently.
What is immigration?
A neighborhood where a high concentration of one ethnic group lives, often to preserve their culture.
What is an ethnic enclave?
Violence, war, and lack of jobs in a home country are examples of these types of factors.
What are push factors?
When family members follow earlier migrants to a new country, it is called this.
What is chain migration?
This cultural movement, tied to the Great Migration, saw a flourishing of Black art, music, and literature.
What is the Harlem Renaissance?
In the early 20th century, immigrants arriving at Ellis Island had to pass tests and inspections before being allowed into the U.S. What do you think this process tells us about how immigration was controlled at the time?
Answers may vary.
These reasons can explain why new immigrants might choose to form and live in ethnic enclaves.
What are shared languages, job opportunities, cultural connections, and/or protection from discrimination?
Answers may vary.
Better economic opportunities, safety, and freedom are examples of these types of factors.
What are pull factors?
These people seek protection in another country due to persecution in their homeland.
Who are asylum seekers?
This U.S. policy forced Indigenous peoples off their land and into designated areas.
What is the Indian Removal Act?
Also acceptable: Native American relocation.
How did the Bracero Program reflect a need for immigrant and migrant labor, despite reluctance to offer long-term residency to workers?
What is reliance on guest workers for labor, while also limiting their legal rights, residency, and economic opportunity?
Accepted answers may vary.
These reasons can assist in explaining why some ethnic enclaves disappear over time, while others remain strong for generations.
What are factors like assimilation, economic mobility, urban development, and immigration patterns?
A government may create policies that limit and/or restrict immigration, even when there are strong pull factors attracting people to a country for these reasons.
What are economic concerns, job competition, political ideology, and national security?
Answers may vary.
The government-run program that allowed Mexican laborers to work in the U.S. temporarily during the 1940s-1950s.
What is the Bracero Program?
Many refugees from Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia resettled in the U.S. after this war.
What is the Vietnam War?
During World War II, the U.S. accepted some European refugees, but turned others away. What do you think influenced who was allowed in and who was not?
What are racial biases, economic concerns, and national security fears?
Accepted answers may vary.
Ethnic enclaves are meant to help preserve immigrant cultures. However, that does not mean that immigrants living in ethnic enclaves are completely isolated from the dominant culture. How do you think ethnic enclaves support or hinder assimilation for immigrant communities?
Answers may vary.
In today's world, climate change can become a major push factor for migration. What are some examples?
What are rising sea levels, extreme weather, drought, and food scarcity?
Answers may vary.
A term for workers who migrate temporarily to another country for labor, often in agriculture or construction.
What are guest workers?
This term describes people fleeing their home country due to war, such as those from Afghanistan after U.S. military involvement.
Who are wartime refugees?
Also acceptable: refugees, asylum seekers, displaced peoples.
The U.S. has historically had different responses to refugee groups, such as Cubans in the Cold War vs. Haitian refugees. What factors do you think influenced these different responses?
What are political alliances, racial perceptions, and economic considerations?
Accepted answers may vary.
How might living in an ethnic enclave both help and limit new immigrants' ability to integrate into a larger society?
What is access to cultural support and job networks but also potential isolation from mainstream society?
Answers may vary.
How do economic push and pull factors affect different types of migrants differently? For example, how might they affect refugees versus guest workers?
What are different levels of choice, legal barriers, and levels of stability?
Answers may vary.