Types of Immigration

The historical section is beginning with this page for contextual purposes. This page includes definitions, the complications with the phrases “illegal immigrant” and “illegal alien,” and a few of the reasons behind migration. There are several varying types of immigration, but for the sake of this project we will focus on four of them: forced migrant, economic refugee, refugee, and a migrant.

  1. A forced migrant is where someone is forcibly kidnapped from their home and moved to another location. The most common examples of this is the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and sex trafficking.
  2. An economic refugee is someone that leaves their home country in search of better job opportunities and a high standard-of-living. They do not see many opportunities and are desperate to avoid poverty in their home country and are willing to start over in a new country.
  3. A refugee is someone that has had no choice but to flee their home country due to prosecution, war, or violence. They have a well-founded fear of persecution based on race, religion, nationality, political opinions, or the membership of a particular social group.
  4. A migrant in the simplest sense is a person that moves from one locale to another.

All of these people listed above can be detained in the U.S.

Dehumanization of Undocumented Immigrants through Phrases

A common phrase used instead of the name “undocumented person” or “undocumented immigrant” are the terms “illegal alien” and “illegal immigrant.” The phrase, illegal immigrant/alien, is dehumanizing as it takes away from the undocumented people’s struggles as well as further solidifies the racial undertone of an “other” or “outsider.” This term has deep roots in xenophobia. The version that contains the word alien further takes a way an undocumented person’s humanity by implying that these people are not human. These phrases are not just derogatory, they are also factually incorrect. According to Ryan Eller, the executive director of Define American, “Most of the time when we hear [illegal immigrant] used, most of the time the shorter version ‘illegals’ is being used as a noun, which implies that a human being is perpetually illegal. There is no other classification that I’m aware of where the individual is being rendered as illegal as opposed to the actions of that individuals” (FOSTER US and Global Immigration Services).

Explore About the Dehumanizing History of Immigration Terms Here: The Dehumanizing History Of The Words We’ve Used To Describe Immigrants

Travel

It is dangerous to travel to the United States for a lot of immigrants. For example, according to various sources, including PBS, many immigrants travel north from South America to the United States through the Darien Gap, which is located in the Panama Canal. The Darien Gap is one of the world’s wildest jungles and is uninhabitable. Most immigrants that travel this route have no map and no instructions on how to navigate it. It is worse for those that do not have a person to guide them through it.

Learn More: Darien Gap, What migrants face as they journey through the deadly Darien Gap

Push and Pull Factors

“Migration is broadly understood as a permanent or semi-permanent change of residence. In other words, migration may be defined as a form of relocation diffusion (the spread of people, ideas, innovations, behaviours, from one place to another), involving permanent moves to new locations. The reasons that people migrate are determined by push and pull factors, which are forces that either induce people to move to a new location, or oblige them to leave old residences. These could be economic, political, cultural, and environmental.
Push factors are conditions that can force people to leave their homes and are related to the country from which a person migrates. Push factors include non-availability of enough livelihood opportunities, poverty, rapid population growth that surpasses available resources ,”Primitive” or “poor” living conditions, desertification, famines/droughts, fear of political persecution, poor healthcare, loss of wealth, and natural disasters.
Pull factors are exactly the opposite of push factors—they attract people to a certain location. Typical examples of pull factors of a place are more job opportunities and better living conditions; easy availability of land for settling and agriculture, political and/or religious freedom, superior education and welfare systems, better transportation and communication facilities, better healthcare system and stress-free environment attractive, and security.” Excerpt from the article titled Push and Pull Factors and Lee’s Theory of Migration.

Continue Reading: Immigration in the Early 19th Century and Ellis Island

Last edited April 26, 2021.