Migration and the peopling of the world
Humans have always moved, and migration has shaped every society on Earth.
Early movements
After leaving Africa, modern humans reached Asia, Australia, Europe, and eventually the Americas, crossing land bridges and seas. Later movements spread farming, languages, and technologies across continents. Long-distance trade networks such as the Silk Road and Indian Ocean routes carried goods, ideas, religions, and diseases.
Why people migrate
Push factors drive people away from a place: war, persecution, poverty, or climate disasters. Pull factors draw them toward a place: jobs, safety, education, or family. Chain migration occurs when earlier migrants help relatives and neighbours follow. Internal migration, such as moving from countryside to city, is even more common than international migration.
Migrants, refugees, and asylum
A migrant is anyone who moves to live somewhere else. Refugees flee persecution or conflict, and asylum is legal protection a country grants to people who cannot safely return home. Anthropologists study how migrants build communities, keep ties to home, and face both welcome and discrimination.
Flashcard
Forces driving people away from or toward a place
Check your understanding
A family moves to another country because a relative already living there has found them housing and work. This is: