Migration

Migration

 

Modern International Migration Tendencies: Migration Dynamics



 

 

 

International migration became a constant feature of human history. People have always moved in order to search for better living standards or to escape poverty, economic instability, political repression, human rights abuses or environmental degradations (Martin, 2001).
The purpose of that short overview of international migration is not simply to show that migration is not a new phenomenon. It is to analyze immigration statistics and present conclusions confirming or negating the hypothesis on the acceleration of migration.

The number of people movement has been changing for the last four centuries. Among events which had crucial influence on migration’s dynamics following should be mentioned: European expansion in the 16th century, the forced transportations of slaves in the 18th century, mass migration from Europe to the United States of America at the beginning of the 19th century and the II World War outbreak (Castles, 2009; Koser 2007). Some authors claim that international migration before 1945, especially mass migration to United States in the 19th century was as big as migration nowadays. It is true, but we have to bear in mind that international migration to the United States was of a transnational character, while the migrants’ flows after 1945 have become more diverse and complex and what is the most important, the flows are to affect every country on Earth (Klein Solomon, 2005).
It is important to explain where the above-mentioned diversity and complexity of migration come from. Migrant’s flows before 1945 divided the world into the traditional countries of immigration and the countries of emigration. Since the second half of the 20th century that dichotomy started to erode. European workers left countries in the southern part of the continent such as Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece and migrated to countries located in the north and west of Europe, to Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Sweden (Martin and Miller, 1980). Importing migrant workers from Middle East and North Africa was the answer to lack of labor force in Italy, Spain and Portugal(Massey, 2005). That process had profound consequences for migration phenomenon – for the first time traditional countries of emigration became also transit countries and countries of immigration. Migrant workers were brought to a new land as so called guestworkers - workers who would return to their country of origin when their contracts expired (Martin, 1991). However, when the economic conditions that forced the migrants’ requirement disappeared, gastarbeiterer refused to return home. Most of them not only preferred to stay in the receiving country, they also began to demand entry of their family members. (Martin and Miller, 1980).
Alike the countries in Southern Europe, also states located in the Middle East and so called ¨Asian Tigers¨ (Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia) wrestled with lack of labor force, imported work migrants and as a consequence experienced the same transformation in migratory patterns ( Birks and Sinclaire, 1980; Hugo, 1995).

The newest research on international migration number shows that the number of people living their country of origin to live abroad has grown sharply in the last three decades.
According to United Nations definition of migrant, it is a person who stays outside their country of origin for at least one year. The result of United Nations Population Division (UNPD) research shows that in 2010 over than 200 million people, or 3 per cent of the world’s population, lived outside the country of their birth for more than 365 days.

 

 

 

Source: UNDESA 2004, *UNDESA 2009

The analysis of numbers included in a table above shows that it is 15 million migrants more than five years ago, 39 millions of them more than ten years ago, 59 million more than twenty years ago and over 100 million more than thirty years ago. Today, approximately one out of 35 persons in the world is a migrant (Klein Solomon, 2005). It means that the number of people who stay outside their usual country of residence for at least one year more than doubled in just 30 years. It is import ant to bear in mind, however, that the numbers presented above also includes people who never moved, e.g. through the break-down of the Soviet Union, where inhabitants of former Soviet states became independent and counted independently .



Currently the largest number of migrants are migrating to the United States (9.2 million between 2000 and 2009), to Europe (7.5 million between 2000 and 2009) and Asia (7.5 million between 2000 and 2009) (UNDESA, 2009).

 

Source: UNDESA, 2009

Nevertheless, taking under consideration past 29 years from 1980 till 2009, the majority of migrants chose Europe as their country of destination.


Source: UNDESA, 2009

About 20% of world’s international migrants live in United States. The countries with the largest number of migrants are also Russian Federation, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Canada, United Kingdom, Spain, India and Ukraine (International Migration 2009, United Nations Population Devision).


Source: UNDESA, 2009

There are many reasons to expect that the number of migrants is certain to increase in the foreseeable future. It can happen as a result of political and cultural changes. We should have in mind strong economic conditions in developed countries, widening income gap between developed and still developing countries, creation of new free trade areas as well as economical and political instability in many countries located in the Middle East, Central and Eastern Europe, Asia (Page and Plaza, 2005; Juss S.S., 2006). A big role of communication and transportation revolution should be emphasized. The revolution in transport refers to increasing numbers of options in international travel and the fact the passengers costs are still decreasing (Koser K., 2007).The revolution in electronic communication (e.g. internet, electronic bulletin boards, satellite television, cell phones), in turn, facilitates getting information on work and accommodation opportunities in other countries and is used in creating a migratory network linking a country of origin with a country of destination bringing about changes in both.

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                   

 

 

 

The table shows the 10 states which receive the highest total remittances.

Rank	State	Remittances ($ millions), 2005
1	Michoacán	2,595
2	Guanajuato	1,715
3	Jalisco	1,693
4	State of México	1,675
5	Puebla	1,174
6	Veracruz	1,155
7	Federal District	1,452
8	Oaxaca	1,002
9	Guerrero	957
10	Hidalgo	718

 

The data show very clearly that all the states receiving high total amounts of remittances are in the southern half of Mexico.

 

Cultural Diversity in The World and Mexico

Cultural diversity is the quality of diverse or different cultures, as opposed to monoculture, as in the global monoculture, or a homogenization of cultures, akin to cultural decay. For example, before Hawaii was conquered, the culturally diverse Hawaiian culture existed in the world, and contributed to the world's cultural diversity. Now Hawaii has been westernized; the vast majority of its culture has been replaced with Western or American culture. The phrase cultural diversity can also refer to having different cultures respect each other's differences. The phrase cultural diversity is also sometimes used to mean the variety of human societies or cultures in a specific region, or in the world as a whole. The culturally destructive action of globalization is often said to have a negative effect on the world's cultural diversity.

With the onset of globalization, traditional nation-states have been placed under enormous pressures. Today, with the development of technology, information and capital are transcending geographical boundaries and reshaping the relationships between the marketplace, states and citizens. In particular, the growth of the mass media industry has largely impacted on individuals and societies across the globe. Although beneficial in some ways, this increased accessibility has the capacity to negatively affect a society's individuality. With information being so easily distributed throughout the world, cultural meanings, values and tastes run the risk of becoming homogenized. As a result, the strength of identity of individuals and societies may begin to weaken.[1] [2]

Some individuals, particularly those with strong religious beliefs, maintain that it is in the best interests of individuals and of humanity as a whole that all people adhere to a specific model for society or specific aspects of such a model. For example, evangelical missionary organisations such as the New Tribes Mission actively work to support social changes that some observers would consider detrimental to cultural diversity by seeking out remote tribal societies to convert them to Christianity;^[4]

Nowadays, communication between different countries becomes more and more frequent. And more and more students choose to study overseas for experiencing culture diversity. Their goal is to broaden their horizons and develop themselves from learning overseas.

The Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity adopted by UNESCO in 2001 is a legal instrument that recognizes cultural diversity as "common heritage of humanity" and considers its safeguarding to be a concrete and ethical imperative inseparable from respect for human dignity.

Beyond the Declaration of Principles adopted in 2003 at the Geneva Phase of the World Summit on the information Society (WSIS), the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, adopted in October 2005, is also regarded as a legally binding instrument that recognizes

There are several international organizations that work towards protecting threatened societies and cultures, including Survival International and UNESCO. The UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity, adopted by 185 Member States in 2001, represents the first international standard-setting instrument aimed at preserving and promoting cultural diversity and intercultural dialogue.^[2] Indeed, the notion of "cultural diversity" has been echoed by more neutral organizations, particularly within the UNESCO.

 

World population has physical and cultural characteristics that make them different from others. According to UNO  culture is the group of characteristics that distinguish a society  in  material, spiritual, intelectual  and emotional aspects and are shown in art , beliefs and traditions.

These group of  cultural characteristics are what make one population different from other and are called CULTURAL DIVERSITY. Even within a same country, there could be cultural diversity: in food, music, clothes, craftwork, celebrations, festivals etc. that in group are called folklore.

Cultural contributions of different groups of people transform the geographical space, originating cultural regions in the world that are distinguished by their language, religion, economic and political organisation that give them identity.

Globalization has effects in the cultural diversity  in one hand it makes it richer for being in contact with other cultures but in the other it imposses  life styles from other nations that tend to uniform us. Mass media  now a days allows us to know more about cultural diversity which is good to maintain peace around the world.

An ethnic group is conformed by people that shares  a historical, cultural  linguistic and religious identity, as well as life styles which are reflected in  their festivities, ways of talking, dressing, their music an.d the way they live. Today there are more than 2000 ethnic groups in the world.

Asia: Chinese, Tibetan, Japanese, Vietnamese, Korean, Hindu, Iranian, Arab  and Malaysian.

Europe : Slavs, German, Celts, Basques and Latin.

North America: great variety of ethnic groups because of migration. Most people are Europeans that colonized the continent but there are also indigenous groups like the Algonquin, Inuit (Eskimos), Sioux-Hokan , and others.

Africa: Great diversity of ethic groups: Berebere, Tuareg, Zulu, Hausa, Xhosa, Bantu and Somali.

Latin America: Mestizos are predominant because of colonization from Spain and Portugal. There are numerous ethnic groups with well defined cultural characteristics for example Tarahumara, Mayan, Mixtec, Yaqui, Quechua, Araucan, Aimara and Guarani.

Oceania: Maori, Polynesian, Melanesyan, Papua, etc.

Australia: Population is from European orgigin but there is a native minority.

More Used languages around the World

Language	Native speakers (in millions)[1]	% of world population	Mainly spoken in	Notes
Mandarin	935 (955)	14.1%	China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore	Part of Chinese
Spanish	387 (407)	5.85%	Hispanic America, Spain, United States, Equatorial Guinea	It has some degree of mutual intelligiblility with Portuguese, see: Comparison of Spanish and Portuguese
English	365 (359)	5.52%	Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, United Kingdom, United States, South Africa
Hindi	295 (311)	4.46%	India	Includes approx. 100 million speakers of other Hindi languages. Mutually intelligible with Urdu
Arabic	280 (293)	4.23%	North Africa, Western Asia (Middle East)	The Arabic language contains many different dialects. Most are mutually intelligible. See Varieties of Arabic
Portuguese	204 (216)	3.08%	Angola, Brazil, Mozambique, Portugal	It has some degree of mutual inteligibility with Spanish, see: Comparison of Spanish and Portuguese
Bengali	202 (206)	3.05%	Bangladesh, West Bengal (India), Tripura (India), Assam (India)
Russian	160 (154)	2.42%	Russia, former Republics of the Soviet Union, Mongolia, Israel	Mutually intelligible with Ukrainian and Belarusian
Japanese	127 (126)	1.92%	Japan
Punjabi	96 (102)	1.44%	Punjab region (Pakistan, India)
German	92 (89)	1.39%	Austria, Belgium (Eupen-Malmedy), Germany, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, South Tirol (in Italy)
Javanese	82	1.25%	Java (Indonesia)
Wu	80	1.20%	Shanghai (China)	Part of Chinese
Malay/Indonesian	77	1.16%	Indonesia, Malaysia
Telugu	76	1.15%	Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu, Karnataka, Pondicherry (India)
Vietnamese	76	1.14%	Vietnam
Korean	76	1.14%	North Korea, South Korea
French	74	1.12%	Belgium (Wallonia, Brussels), Canada (particularly Quebec, New Brunswick and Eastern parts of Ontario), France, Switzerland, Francophone Africa
Marathi	73	1.10%	Maharashtra (India)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A global culture is emerging in this world, one that seems to be connecting us all under one major order. I believe that the causes are as follows: the dramatic increase in technological advances, great leaps in communications; which have lead to a commercialized culture, and dominating Imperial governments that have taken over land under there power and political structure. These causes have all lead to a unifying and homogenizing of a global culture in our world today.

Extreme advances have been scene in human history and have followed in a micro scoping like effect from agricultural man 10,000yrs ago, to anthropological man 700yrs ago, to scientific revolutions 300yrs ago, on into extreme achievements in modern technologies, 100yrs on into our present day. This micro scoping of human development has also given birth to abilities, on our part, of mass communication. In 1452 Gutenberg invents the printing press, allowing one person to share his/her ideas with a great multitude of people, there by allowing major cultural changes to occur. Some events that followed were the Lutheran reformation, a major social change in itself, and also the gathering of vast libraries of human recording at a very major scale seen throughout the ages. In 1876 the telephone was invented and an even higher level of communication was born, now allowing people at very far distances to carry on a conversation like they were face to face. The invention that took our civilization to a new level of communication, however, was the television in 1923. Now people all over the globe could share, in the intake of an idea or set of ideas produced by a show, there by influencing the way viewers thought and acted. This broadcasting of ideas is highly commercialized and consumer driven, unifying the thoughts and actions of viewers everywhere. It is easy to see in this Mtv influenced McDonalds eating generation how a set of stars or corporations can easily persuade viewers to act and think the way they want them to. It seems to me that television all shares this underlying code, driving our popular culture to all act and think the same. I hate when I go to a friend’s house for a visit and walk into a group of people watching TV. The entire conversation is motivated and influenced by the spectacles and activities we are watching. I often wish I was alive before TV was invented to see how different social interaction was at a house hold. I believe our culture then, had a much different flavor then ours today. Now days it is so easy to for a parent or friend to turn on the tube in order to dodge or get out of a social interaction between parent and child or friend and neighbor. But now an even greater form of communication has been born. Our  generation has seen the birth of the internet installed in 1973; a vast field of information has now been laid at our fingertips. This service allows millions of users to share and use information simultaneously, unifying the world even more. In minutes I can get on the net and log on to a website, while, simultaneously someone in Russia could be on the same site, indulging in the same information that I am taking in. This mass form of communication is one of the greatest contributors to this global melting of cultures. Mass communication has delivered us into a unified structure of thought, that will inevitability give birth to a single global culture, but who will be the premise looked at for a template of growth for everyone to follow?

Multiculturalism (or ethnic diversity) relates to communities containing multiple cultures. The term is used in two broad ways, either descriptively or normatively.^[1] As a descriptive term, it usually refers to the simple fact of cultural diversity: it is generally applied to the demographic make-up of a specific place, sometime at the organizational level, e.g. schools, businesses, neighbourhoods, cities, or nations. As a normative term, it refers to ideologies or policies that promote this diversity or its institutionalisation; in this sense, multiculturalism is a society “at ease with the rich tapestry of human life and the desire amongst people to express their own identity in the manner they see fit.” Such ideologies or policies vary widely, including country to country,ranging from the advocacy of equal respect to the various cultures in a society, to a policy of promoting the maintenance of cultural diversity, to policies in which people of various ethnic and religious groups are addressed by the authorities as defined by the group they belong to. However, two main different and seemingly inconsistent strategies have developed through different Government policies and strategies:The first focuses on interaction and communication between different cultures. Interactions of cultures provide opportunities for the cultural differences to communicate and interact to create multiculturalism. (Such approaches are also often known as interculturalism.) The second centers on diversity and cultural uniqueness. Cultural isolation can protect the uniqueness of the local culture of a nation or area and also contribute to global cultural diversity. A common aspect of many policies following the second approach is that they avoid presenting any specific ethnic, religious, or cultural community values as central.

Multiculturalism is often contrasted with the concepts of assimilationism and has been described as a "salad bowl" or "cultural mosaic" rather than a "melting pot".^]

Most people realize that the national language of Mexico is Spanish and that Mexico is the world’s largest Spanish speaking country. In fact, its population, now numbering 105 million, represents about one-third of all the 330 million or so Spanish speakers in the world. Spanish is the majority language in nineteen other countries besides Mexico, and is the world’s third most spoken language, after English and Chinese.

Far fewer people realize that, in addition to Spanish, another 62 indigenous languages are also spoken in Mexico. This makes Mexico one of the most linguistically diverse countries in the world, in terms of the number of languages spoken, behind Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and India, but well ahead of China, Brazil and just about anywhere else.

The major indigenous groups in Mexico

Some estimates put the number of different Indian languages in use at the time of the Spanish Conquest in the 16th century as high as 170. This number had dwindled to about 100 by 1900, and has continued to decline to the present day. The latest estimates are that at least 62 distinct languages (and 100 dialects) are still spoken somewhere in the country.

The largest indigenous groups are those speaking Nahuatl (2,563,000; dispersed locations, and therefore not shown on the map), Maya (1,490,000), Zapotec (785,000) and Mixtec (764,000), followed by those using Otomí (566,000), Tzeltal (547,000) and Tzotzil (514,000). Other well known groups include the 204,000 having Purépecha (or Tarasco) as their first language and the 122,000 speaking Tarahumara.

At the other end of the spectrum, only about 130 people still speak Lacandón and only 80 use Kiliwa. Only 60 people still use Aguacateco in Mexico and only 50 speak Techtiteco (or simply Teco), though both languages are spoken by several thousand Indians in neighboring Guatemala.

Of course, we shouldn’t forget that many Mexicans not only speak Spanish and/or an indigenous language, but also manage pretty well in English, French, Japanese and many others!

This is an edited version of an article originally published on MexConnect – click here for the original article

Indigenous languages and cultures are analyzed in chapters 10 of Geo-Mexico: the geography and dynamics of modern Mexico.

 

LINK INFO INDIGENOUS GROUPS PROJECTS

http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Indigenous-peoples-of-Mexico

 

Larger states (in area and/or population) would surely be more likely to have more Magic Town candidates. However, it is clear from comparing the maps of Magic Towns and population density (above) that the number of Magic Towns does not appear to be related to either the area of states, or to their population density. 

The major indigenous groups in Mexico

Indigenous groups are relevant because they tend to live in relatively remote areas of great natural beauty, such as the Copper Canyon region or the Huasteca, and they also exhibit many distinctive cultural traits, giving them a head-start in the race to demonstrate their attractiveness for tourism. Again, though, there is little common ground between the map of indigenous groups and the map of Magic Towns. In particular, the states of Guerrero, Oaxaca and Campeche all seem to have fewer Magic Towns than might be expected.

Indigenous Groups by state in Mexico

State	Indigenous Groups
Baja California	Cochimí, cucapá, kiliwa, kumiai y paipai
Campeche	Maya
Coahuila	Kikapú
Chiapas	Cakchiquel, chol, jacalteco, kanjobal, lacandón, mame, mochó, tojolabal, tzeltal (tseltal) , tzotzil (tsotsil) y zoque
Chihuahua	Guarijío, pima, tarahumara y tepehuán
Distrito Federal*	Maya, mazahua, mazateco, mixe, mixteco, náhuatl, otomí, purépecha, tlapaneco, totonaco y zapoteco
Durango	Tepehuán
Guanajuato	Chichimeca jonaz
Guerrero	Amuzgo, mixteco, náhuatl y tlapaneco
Hidalgo	Náhuatl y otomí
Jalisco	Huichol
México	Mazahua, náhuatl y otomí
Michoacán	Mazahua, otomí y purépecha
Morelos	Náhuatl
Nayarit	Cora y huichol
Oaxaca	Amuzgo, chatino, chinanteco, chocho, chontal, cuicateco, huave, ixcateco, mazateco, mixe, mixteco, triqui y zapoteco
Puebla	Chocho, mixteco, náhuatl y totonaca
Querétaro	Otomí y pame
Quintana Roo	Maya
San Luis Potosí	Huasteco, náhuatl y pame
Sinaloa	Mayo
Sonora	Mayo, pápago, pima, seri y yaqui
Tabasco	Chontal y chol
Veracruz	Náhuatl, tepehua, popoluca y totonaca
Yucatán	Maya

These are the main indigenous groups established in each state. --- Note: Aguascalientes, Baja California Sur, Colima, Nuevo Leon, Tamaulipas, Tlaxcala and Zacatecas do not have significant indigenous population. It should also be noted that in various states are several indigenous groups.

 

 

 

 

 

Sate for each Indigenous Group in Mexico

Indigenous Group	State
Amuzgo	Guerrero y Oaxaca
Chatino	Oaxaca
Cakchiquel	Chiapas
Chichimeca jonaz	Guanajuato
Chinanteco	Oaxaca
Chocho	Oaxaca y Puebla
Chol	Chiapas y Tabasco
Chontal	Oaxaca y Tabasco
Cochimí	Baja California
Cora	Nayarit
Cucapá	Baja California
Cuicateco	Oaxaca
Guarijío	Chihuahua
Huasteco	San Luis Potosí
Huave	Oaxaca
Huichol	Jalisco y Nayarit
Ixcateco	Oaxaca
Jacalteco	Chiapas
Kanjobal	Chiapas
Kikapú	Coahuila
Kiliwa	Baja California
Kumiai	Baja California
Lacandón	Chiapas
Mame	Chiapas
Matlatzinca	México
Maya	Campeche, Quintana Roo y Yucatán
Mayo	Sinaloa y Sonora
Mazahua	México y Michoacán
Mazateco	Oaxaca
Mixe	Oaxaca
Mixteco	Guerrero, Oaxaca y Puebla
Mochó	Chiapas
Motozintleco	Chiapas
Náhuatl*	Distrito Federal, Guerrero, Hidalgo, México, Morelos, San Luis Potosí, Puebla y Veracruz
Otomí	México y Michoacán
Paipai	Baja California
Pame	San Luis Potosí y Querétaro
Pima	Sonora
Pápago	Sonora
Popoluca	Veracruz
Purépecha	Michoacán
Seri	Sonora
Tarahumara	Chihuahua
Tepehua	Veracruz
Tepehuán	Chihuahua y Durango
Tlapaneco	Guerrero
Tojolabal	Chiapas
Totonaca	Puebla y Veracruz
Triqui	Oaxaca
Tzelta l (tseltal)	Chiapas
Tzotzil (tsotsil)	Chiapas
Yaqui	Sonora
Zapoteco	Oaxaca
Zoque	Chiapas

* It is the indigenous language with more speakers in the country.