6.6 Causes of Migration in an Interconnected World

Industrialization drove migration

As industrialization spread, new transportation like steamships and railroads made long-distance migration faster and cheaper. Workers moved to industrial hubs seeking jobs in factories, mines, and plantations. Migration flowed both internally (rural to urban) and internationally, connecting labor markets across the globe in a new global economy.

Push and pull factors

Push factors — like famine, land scarcity, religious/political persecution, and overpopulation — forced people to leave home. Pull factors — like job opportunities, higher wages, and available land — attracted migrants to industrializing regions such as the Americas, Southeast Asia, and Oceania. Both operated together in shaping migration patterns.

New patterns of labor migration

With the decline of the slave trade, employers turned to indentured servitude, recruiting workers from China, India, and Japan to labor on plantations and railroads in the Americas, Caribbean, and Pacific. Migrants often formed ethnic enclaves in host societies, leading to cultural diffusion but also discrimination and exclusionary laws like the Chinese Exclusion Act.

Key terms

Push factors

Conditions like famine, persecution, or overpopulation that force people to leave their home country.

Pull factors

Attractive conditions like jobs, wages, or land that draw migrants to a new location.

Indentured servitude

A labor system where migrants (often from China, India, Japan) worked under contract for a set period, replacing enslaved labor after its decline.

Ethnic enclave

A community where migrants settle together, preserving their culture and traditions in a new society.

Role of steamships/railroads

Made long-distance migration faster and more affordable, enabling mass movement of labor globally.

Try an AP-style question

Indentured servitude after slavery's abolition moved many workers from…

1. the Americas to Asian port cities
2. Australia to factories in Europe
3. India and China to plantations abroad
4. Europe to farms in West Africa