Human migration refers to the movement of people from one particular region to another region. There are a variety of scales at which migrations occur.
These include intra-continental migration, intercontinental migration, and interregional migration. While, intercontinental migration is migration is the migration within countries, intra-continental migration is that which occurs between various countries that are within a continent. Rural- urban migrations have been the most prevalent type of migration for centuries. This is s type of migration in which people move from the countryside to the cities or the towns in search for a better life or more opportunities. Migration can either be internal or external. Internal migration is where individuals relocate one region to another within a country or continent.
External migration, on the other hand, is the process through which persons move to various homes in different continents, countries or states. Even though, there are various definitions of the term migration, generally, the term migration refers to the process through which people move across borders and end up living and working in other places within a country or a particular geographical locations. On the other hand, Immigration refers to the process through which individuals move into a region or a country. Normally, these individuals are not natives of these countries, but opt to settle in different parts of the country. There are various reasons why people immigrate to particular countries including the search for favourable temperatures, desire to breed, political reasons, a desire to reunite families, the occurrence of natural disasters, escape from poverty or the desire by a person to get a changed environment.
In the modern day, immigration occurs mostly from countries that are poor or are war torn as the individuals move in search of a better life and to esape from the harsh conditions in their home country. When individuals immigrate into other countries, their arrival often affects the economies into which they move. This is the reason why developed states have hard to formulate and implement policies that ensure that immigration is regulated and that the developed economies are also protected.Migration and immigration have far reaching political implications and is associated with a number of issues. Concerns have been raised concerning immigration and migration especially with increase in terrorism. Governments are increasingly concerned about national security and the spread of particular religions considered violent.
There are countries that have implemented very strict policies that govern immigration in order to reduce the number of immigrants into their country each year. This is because while immigration has some positive aspects such as additional labour and cultural diversity, it also has some negative effects such as increased population, competition for labour and unemployment in some cases. Those that see immigration as a positive thing are employers because for them it results into cheaper labour. Migration and immigration can either be forced or voluntary. The main difference between forced and voluntary immigration is the reason that causes the migration to occur. There are instances when people are pushed or pulled to migrate.
Sometimes it is not very easy to determine whether a people or a community was forced to migrate or if they migrated out of their own free will. Voluntary Migration is occurs when people move from one place into another without being forced to do so. Normally this happens when the people feel that the new place into which they are migrating has those factors described as “pull” factors. These factors then motivate them to move. Normally this occurs from developing countries into the developed countries or from rural areas into urban centres.
Forced Migration on the other hand refers to the movement of people from one place or region to the next not out of their own desire to do so. Forced migration occurs as a result “push” factors. These “push” factors forces people to move away from their homes. A good example of forced migration occurred during the Triangle Trade when African Americans were forced to move from the places they had called home for ages. These African Americans had no other choice but to move because they were captured and sold as slaves in Europe. Forced migration may also occur as a result of turmoil or war in the immigrant's homeland.
The song by Manu Chao is about illegal immigrants. The video to the song is shot in Arizona. Arizona is a state that has been at the fore front of regulating illegal immigration. This regulation of illegal immigration has been conducted even at the expense of the human rights of the illegal immigrants.
The song focuses particularly on the city of Phoenix which whose sheriff has been known to terrorize city residents especially when conducting crackdowns in search for illegal immigrants. The song was put together by Ana Bijoux who is a famous percussionist and a well-known Chilean rapper and features a few other musicians. In his song “Clandestino”, Manu Chao expresses his anger towards the laws that are formulated to fight immigration not only in Arizona but also in other states. Their message is that the force used to fight illegal immigration is not necessary.
I agree with Manu Chao when he says that these immigrants are still human regardless of their crimes and as such their rights should be respected. The song is a call on immigrants to rise against the excessive force that is used by Sheriff Joe Apria when he attacks families that have immigrated into Arizona illegally.
