Historical & Modern Effects of Migration [AP Human Geography Unit 2 Topic 12] (2.12)

Geographers, you've finally done it! You're at the end of unit 2. Now, this is the last topic review video. Today, we're going to be looking at unit 2, topic 12, effects of migration. And if you haven't checked out my other topic review videos, make sure to check those out. They go into each of the different topics throughout this whole unit, and it'll make sure you understand the main concepts. Also, don't forget too, when you're done with this video, well, there's a whole unit summary video that's going to highlight all the main themes you have to know from unit 2. Now, the last couple topic videos, we've been talking about push factors, pull factors, forced migration, voluntary migration, a lot of stuff with migration. But we haven't really talked about the effects of migration. Some of those effects are really positive, and unfortunately, some of them are negative. For example, we could look at political events, historical causes, like World War II and the Holocaust, or the Trail of Tears, all which led to forced migration. Emigration occurred because people were fleeing for their lives, or were physically forced to by governments. This not only ended up costing people their lives, but we lost history, we lost culture in the process. We can also still see the impact today, as after World War II and the Holocaust, many Jews resettled in Israel. Or with the Trail of Tears, forcing Native Americans to live in certain parts of the United States. We could also talk about the current day, where we could see political effects happening all around us. Today, governments have been debating, should we let asylum seekers in? Should we let refugees in? Chain migration? Is that better for the country, or worse for the country? This can lead to stereotypes being formed on populations. It can lead to people becoming isolated. Or, if we also start to see governments crack down on immigration, it could lead to more illegal immigration, which could cost people their lives, as they have to take more dangerous approaches to trying to get into the country. Or, if they're just trying to flee their own country for their own safety, where are they going to go? That could lead to a displacement problem. All of this is impacts of government decisions, and how they handle their borders, and how they handle people migrating. These political effects can have an impact on the social fabric of societies as well, as now citizens get involved in debates over immigration policies, or quota policies. How should we handle illegal immigrants? How should we handle legal immigrants? Refugees in general. This can lead to people also actually alienating or isolating people who might have come into the country, or might have migrated from just a different part of the country. And since we're talking about now social effects, we also have to recognize how governments can actually influence the very social breakdown of a country. Governments now put quotas or limitations on certain countries and regions around the world. This hinders some areas from being able to migrate into the country. And other areas, they will loosen the restrictions, allowing for more migrants coming from that country or that region, which can change and influence and shape the social breakdown of the country. Oftentimes this is done because countries are trying to attract certain groups of people or certain talent to try and help the country achieve its goals. And they want to attract people that they think will assimilate well into society. Economically, we could actually look at if societies reject immigrants or they resist actually having migrants, they actually might be more disadvantaged. They'll lose valuable talent and they'll lose diversity in the workforce, which prevents new ideas from coming in. And if we go back to our demographic transition model that we learned about earlier in this unit, we know too that as countries advance from stage 3 to 4 to 5, their population starts to age more and they stop having as many kids. And so we start to see their workforces decrease. And immigration and migrants are a great way to counter that and are able to make it so you have enough workers to support your population. So societies that are going to resist migrants are going to see they're going to be economically disadvantaged. And they might run into issues where they actually can't fulfill the jobs that are needed for society to be able to operate. All of this too puts more of a burden on society as the dependency ratio goes up. If societies aren't able to fix that dependency ratio and provide opportunities and a reason for people to live there, they might experience brain drain. This is when our skilled labor, our talent actually leaves the geographic area. They're leaving because they're looking for more opportunities in other regions or other places. And that can be detrimental for a society. If all of a sudden now my skilled and my talented people are leaving, I have less people to work. I have less people providing tax revenue. And there we can see another burden on society as now we can't afford some of the services. And those geographic places that are offering opportunities and are allowing migration, they are going to be the ones who reap the benefits of all of this new labor. Now you have a couple different examples for political, social, and economic effects of migration. And there's a bunch of other effects that could happen. Depending on what scale we're talking about and what cultures we're looking at, different things will occur. Always just look at how the society acted, how they reacted, and what's changed after migration occurred. Hopefully this video helps you better understand some of the effects. And again, this isn't the end of Unit 2. Make sure you check out my summary video. That's going to cover all the main concepts from Unit 2. And it's part of my Ultimate Review Packet, a great resource for you to be able to study for this class. And to make sure you get an A in the class and a 5 on your national exam. All right, I'll stop talking now. Make sure you've answered the quiz questions that have been on the screen. Check your answers in the comments below. And until next time, geographers, I'm Mr. Sin. And I'll see you next time for our Unit 2 Summary Review.