avenstein’s law of migration was developed by a German-English geographer and cartographer named Ernst Georg Ravenstein (1834-1913). Ravenstein wrote papers on internal and international migration, both domestic and foreign in Britain, Europe, and North America in 1876, 1885, and 1889 respectively. The purpose of the study was to draw comparisons between Ravenstein’s method and more recent migration research.
For the counties in the British Isles, Ravenstein used lifetime migrant tables from the 1871 and 1881 censuses. He used migration rates and net balances to map and characterize lifetime migration patterns at the county level, utilizing the ideas of “absorption” and “dispersion.” Anticipating the emergence of “gravity” models of migration, he noted that the majority of migrants traveled short distances. This is one of the important concepts of spatial analysis.
Laws of Migration by Ravinstein
Ravenstein developed eight laws of migration have been described below.
1. Distance Decay
Ravenstein has developed eight laws of migration, which have been described below.
The number of migrants sharply decreases with increasing distance from the origin. It is not the linear trend of the relationship between distance and the number of migrants, which is known as distance decay. Thus, distance decay is the first of Ravinstein’s Law of Migration’. The histogram shows that the number of migrants sharply decreased with increasing distance from the origin of migrants, and the red line is the distance decay curve of migrants and distance from origin to destination.
2. Step by Step
The second law of migration is step-by-step migration. People do not migrate directly from villages to big cities (megalopolis). At first, migrants go to the small towns nearby villages. Then, they migrate to cities and then large cities (metropolises). The figure shows the step-by-step migration process.
3. Stream and Counter Stream
All people who migrated outside of their origin return to their first origin. Some migrated people from village to town, town to city, city to metropolis, and return from where they were migrated. For example, some people migrated from the third world and returned to their countries. Blue lines are the direction of migration flow and purple color lines are the returning of migrated people to their origin. The line of purple color is highly thinner compared to its stream flow of migration, which indicates only some of the migrated people return to their origin.
4. Rural and Urban Differences
More people migrate from rural areas than urban people because of the facilities available in the city. For example, services like health, education, communication, and transport facilities become available in the city. All people who migrate from the village to town do not migrate to other city areas. Only a few portions of the population migrated from villages to other cities.
5. Short Distance Migrants are More Female than Male
During the Industrial Revolution, females migrated to work in nearby towns for a short time. Male migration was less than female. The figure shows the flow of female migrants (blue color lines) from villages to nearby towns is far higher than male migrants (pink color lines).
6. Technological development
The development of technology attracts people from less developed villages. The development of education, health, communication, and transportation facilities in cities attracts people from villages.
7. Economic Motive
Village people migrate to the city to earn money. They can earn more money in the city than in the village. Thus, the economy is the major factor of migration.
8. The number of immigrants depends on the size of the city
The number of migrants depends on the size of the city. The center of gravity increases with the size of the city. The larger the city size, the higher the number of people migrating to that city.
Strength and Weakness
Strengths
Ravenstein’s Law of Migration has several strengths. This law provides a simple and logical explanation and direction of migration. It can be tested empirically. For example, migration from the birthplace to the destination place (towns and cities) can be analyzed together with the distance from the origin to the destination together with the volume of migration.
Step-by-step migration is the general trend, rather than direct migration from a village to a large city. Similarly, service facilities and technological development attract people to immigrate to less developed villages. A higher number of females migrate to short distances than males.
Weakness
The main weakness of Ravenstein’s Law of Migration is the ignorance of the ground reality of the presence of mountains and rivers. Mountains and rivers are the major barriers to travel because of friction in space.
Although economic factors are important for migration, freedom and identity of people are also important. People do not migrate only to earn money.
More female migrants than males within a short distance is not always real.
Technological development is not only the center of gravity. Technology can also discourage migration because of easy communication and transportation facilities. Efficient transport facilities discourage people from migrating to the city rather than traveling daily from village to town for work. Efficient internet facilities help people work from home rather than migrating to the city.
