Rachelle Chew "Migrations within a county's borders have greater negative impacts at their origin than their destination.

' Discuss this statement. [15 Marks] Migration is the movement of people from one place to another. International migration is when its across a border whereas internal migration stays in the country itself. Internal migration usually happens from a rural area in the country to the urbanized area such as the countrys capital. These migrants are often looking for better standards of living or employment opportunities. This irregular shift of people from the one place to another results in a lot of consequences. Often times these consequences are more harmful than beneficial. Migration within a countrys borders can positively contribute to the destinations overall economy and development more so than the origin but the negative impacts in society and environment in the destination effectively outweigh the negatives at the origin and as such there is a greater negative impact at the destination then the origin. Internal migrations main cause is for economic purposes. Many people from the countryside move to their countrys cities hoping to earn more and bring their family up to a higher standard of living. This leaves the origin with a lack of working population, bringing the dependency ratio up and creating an unbalanced pyramid. Much strain is put onto the females to take care of the household now, as the males are the ones who typically migrate for work. In addition the children can face psychological and mental problems as their family is now split up. For example in China, women both have to tend to agriculture and their children in addition to the obligation of taking care of her husbands parents due to Chinese culture. And especially in China, women are predominantly seen as second class in comparison to males. As a result, suicide rates for women are high in rural areas, with women committing suicide about once every four minutes. Suicide is the leading cause for young women in China with suicide rates being three times higher in rural areas and Chinas suicide rates account for about a quarter of the worlds population. Even though this problem seems quite significant, it pales in comparison to the problems that the destination of migration faces. Problems that happen in the destination of internal migration are far greater than those in the origin. There is a vast majority of problems in places of destination such as overpopulation, ghettoization, displacement of local labor, destruction of the natural environment and less circulation of money. A few problems in the origin cannot compare to the range of significant problems that occur in the destination. Overpopulation causes things such as poor living conditions, the expensive rearrangement of infrastructure that the government now has to do to cater for the masses and the degradation of the locals. Migrants that come in often displace the society in the city that has been carved out. They take up a lot of housing and jobs, leaving the locals to be displaced. Both migrants and locals can be left homeless. The government also now has to spend its income on the unnecessary restructuring of their infrastructure because of sudden influx of migrants. The income should have been spent on developing and upgrading the country instead. Also the money made by the migrants, a huge percentage of the time is not circulated in the place where it was made but instead is remitted back to their families in the origin. As a result of all of these things happening together, the destination loses out far more than the origin does. In addition, there are high levels of pollution and the destruction of the environment that comes from extra waste and energy consumption.

Beijing, a megacity with a population of 20.2 million and a booming economy has a large population that is homeless and under poverty. Many migrant workers that come from Chinas countryside such as Henan come to Beijing to look for jobs but are unable to get housing because of the skyrocketing property prices. They are left to live in tents on the streets. These workers occupy or replace the locals place in society, which leaves the locals to be unhappy and as such causes cultural and ethnic tension. People from rural areas speak different dialects than those in Beijing and their general personality is much different too. The clashing of these differences often result in public fights, unrest and disturbances. Moreover, more people means a slowdown in services such as public transport, food and energy services. This means that the entire city lags down until the government does something to keep up with the growing population. When the government is not efficient, ghettos begin to pop up and this is one of the causes of higher crime rates. The Beijing government was forced by the public in 2010 to lockdown migrant ghettos and had to send back migrants who didnt have any official documents. The negative impacts in the origin in internal migration may seem more or maybe similar in comparison to the destination, but in reality the destination suffers a lot more than the origin. This is because there are a number of factors that are able to impact the destination, whereas the origin only has a few problems. Also because the destination of internal migration is cities and urbanized areas, the forced change in lifestyle happens and that causes negative environmental impacts. There are no negative environmental impacts in the origin, in some cases it may be a positive thing as there are less people, therefore they have a smaller carbon footprint. Because there are so many people at the destination, there are more social problems as well. Social unrest may be rampant. Overall migration within a countrys borders has greater impacts at their destination than their origin.