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Causes of Migration
in an Interconnected World

Explore why people move across borders and continents: the push and pull factors, environmental forces, and political upheavals that have shaped human migration from 1200 CE to the present.

AP World History

What Is Migration?

Migration is the movement of people from one place to another with the intent of settling temporarily or permanently in a new location. It can occur within a country (internal migration) or across national borders (international migration).

Key Vocabulary

Push Factors
Conditions that drive people away from their homeland: war, famine, persecution, natural disaster
Pull Factors
Conditions that attract people to a new destination: jobs, safety, freedom, family reunification
Diaspora
A scattered population whose origin lies in a separate geographic locale, often displaced by force

Why Migration Matters in World History

Migration has been one of the most powerful engines of cultural exchange, economic transformation, and political change throughout history. Understanding its causes helps explain how societies formed, empires expanded, and the modern world took shape.

1
Cultural diffusion: Migrants carry languages, religions, technologies, and customs to new regions.
2
Labor systems: Forced and voluntary migration have powered plantation economies, industrial cities, and modern service sectors.
3
State formation: Waves of migration reshaped borders, demographics, and political power across every continent.

The Push-Pull Framework

ORIGIN War / Famine Persecution DESTINATION Jobs / Safety Freedom PUSH PULL ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS Climate change, drought, natural disasters Push-Pull Model of Migration People migrate when push forces exceed the costs of moving

Four Categories of Migration Causes

Economic
Poverty, unemployment, search for better wages, trade routes, labor demand
Political
War, persecution, ethnic cleansing, colonialism, state collapse
Environmental
Drought, famine, flooding, desertification, natural disasters
Social
Family reunification, religious freedom, educational opportunity, cultural ties

Voluntary vs. Forced Migration

Voluntary Forced
Definition Migrant chooses to move Migrant is compelled to move
Motivation Economic opportunity, family War, slavery, persecution
Agency High: decides when and where Low: little or no choice
Examples European settlers to the Americas Atlantic slave trade, Trail of Tears
AP Tip Often driven by pull factors Primarily driven by push factors

Major Migration Waves in World History

1200s
Mongol Conquests
Displaced millions across Eurasia; forced artisans and scholars to relocate
1500s-1800s
Atlantic Slave Trade
12+ million Africans forcibly transported to the Americas
1840s-1920s
Great European Migration
55+ million Europeans emigrated to the Americas, Australia, and South Africa
1830s-1920s
Indian and Chinese Labor Diaspora
Indentured servants sent to plantations across the British and Dutch empires
1940s-Present
Refugee Crises
WWII, partition of India, Cold War, Syrian Civil War: millions displaced

How to Analyze Migration on the AP Exam

1
Identify the cause: Is the migration driven by economic, political, environmental, or social factors?
2
Classify as voluntary or forced: Did the migrants have agency, or were they coerced?
3
Identify push and pull factors: What drove them away? What attracted them to the destination?
4
Analyze consequences: How did the migration affect both the origin and destination societies?
5
Make comparisons: Connect this migration to similar or contrasting movements in other times or places.

Example 1: The Atlantic Slave Trade

Africa Capture by warfare Internal slave trade European demand PUSH (forced) Americas Plantation labor Sugar, tobacco, cotton Mining operations PULL (economic) Middle Passage 12+ million people Classification: FORCED migration

Example 2: Irish Emigration (1845-1855)

Ireland Potato blight (1845) Mass starvation British landlord evictions Political oppression PUSH: Environmental + Political United States Factory jobs Available farmland Religious freedom Established Irish networks PULL: Economic + Social ~1.5 million emigrated Voluntary, but driven by desperation

Example 3: Indentured Servitude After Abolition

After the abolition of slavery (1833 in the British Empire), plantation owners turned to a new labor system: indentured servitude. Millions of workers from India, China, and Southeast Asia were contracted to work on sugar, rubber, and tea plantations across the Caribbean, East Africa, and the Pacific.

Push
Poverty, landlessness, and famine in rural India and southern China drove workers to accept contracts
Pull
Promised wages, passage, and eventual return home (though conditions were often exploitative)

Environmental Causes of Migration

Environmental Forces Drought Dust Bowl (1930s) Famine Bengal (1943) Disaster Earthquakes, floods Desertification Sahel region, ongoing

Political and Conflict-Driven Migration

1
Warfare: The Mongol invasions (1200s) displaced entire populations. WWII created 60+ million refugees in Europe alone.
2
Persecution: The Spanish Inquisition expelled Jews and Muslims (1492). The Holocaust drove the largest refugee crisis of the 20th century.
3
Colonialism: European empires forcibly relocated indigenous peoples and imported labor to new territories across Africa, Asia, and the Americas.
4
Partition and state collapse: The 1947 Partition of India displaced 15 million people. The collapse of Yugoslavia created millions of refugees in the 1990s.

Common Mistakes on Migration Questions

✕ Treating all migration as voluntary
The Atlantic Slave Trade, Trail of Tears, and forced relocations under colonialism are forced migrations. Always distinguish between the two.
✕ Ignoring environmental causes
Students often focus only on political and economic causes. Environmental factors like drought, famine, and natural disasters are equally important.
✕ Only listing causes without analysis
The AP exam rewards causal reasoning: explain how and why a factor caused migration, not just that it existed.

Summary: Comparing Migration Events

Event Push Factors Pull Factors Type
Atlantic Slave Trade Capture, European demand Plantation labor needs Forced
Irish Famine Migration Famine, eviction Jobs, farmland in US Semi-voluntary
Indian Indentured Labor Poverty, landlessness Wages, contract terms Coerced
Mongol Displacement Conquest, destruction Safety in distant regions Forced
European to Americas Poverty, persecution Land, freedom, gold Voluntary

Question 1 of 5

Which of the following is the best example of a pull factor in migration?

Question 2 of 5

The Atlantic Slave Trade is best classified as which type of migration?

Question 3 of 5

Which statement best describes the point at issue between the two historians?

Question 4 of 5

The Irish Famine migration of the 1840s was primarily caused by a combination of which two types of push factors?

Question 5 of 5

A student writes: "People migrated because of bad conditions at home." Why would this statement receive a low score on an AP World History essay?