Push and Pull Factors - Sociology

Push and Pull Factors - Sociology

1. Reasons for migration

   • Push
     • Economic recession
     • Unemployment
     • Escaping famine or poverty
     • Religious, political or racial persecution
   • Pull
     • Higher wages
     • Opportunities abroad
     • Political or religious freedom

2. Assisted Passage Scheme

   • Receiving countries government paid part or all of the costs of migration
   • Encourages emigration to Old Commonwealth countries such as Australia

3. 2013 - Push and Pull in the UK

   • Pull to the UK= work related reasons and education followed by family reasons
   • 5% Asylum seekers
   • Push from the UK = better career opportunities and higher earnings or better lifestyle

4. The effects of globalisation in the UK

   • More undocumented workers - 500,000-800,000 undocumented workers in the UK. Been exploited by UK employers and are exploited by people traffickers. Pulled by prospects of better standards and are pushed by poverty or lack of opportunity.
   • More asylum seekers - 24,000 people seeking asylum to escape persecution and torture/death. Make up 5% of migrants. Held in immigration detention centres and are treated poorly and are dehumanised.
   • Greater cultural diversity - Different cultures and lifestyles can mix with others. More hybrid families
   • Changing families - Migrants from Eastern European have larger families which has contributed to a baby boom in the 2000s. Beck talks of growth of "world families" and "distant love"
   • Chambers
     • More global family networks
     • Increased trade in surrogate motherhood and mail order brides
       • "Purchase of intimacy"
   • Increased international criminal trade in the trafficking of women for prostitiution
   • Direct impact on family life e.g. Foreign wards including those waged by the British government in countries like Iraq