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Investigating the physical, political, and economic obstacles that make migration difficult.
Imagine you decided to move to a new country today. You pack your bags, but then you realize: there is a 20,000-foot mountain in your way, you don't have the right 'golden ticket' from the government, and the plane ticket costs more than your house. What would you do?
The first obstacles to movement are created by the Earth itself. Physical barriers are natural features that make it difficult or dangerous to travel from one place to another. For thousands of years, mountain ranges like the Himalayas acted as giant walls that separated cultures. Deserts, such as the Sahara, are barriers because of their extreme heat and lack of water. Even oceans were massive barriers until humans invented advanced ships and airplanes. While technology makes these easier to cross today, they still make moving goods and people much more expensive and slower than traveling over flat, open land.
1. Look at a map of Asia. 2. Notice the Himalaya Mountains between India and China. 3. Because these peaks reach over feet, people for centuries had to trade by going around them rather than over them, keeping the two cultures very distinct.
Quick Check
Which physical barrier would be the hardest to cross if you did not have access to a boat or a plane?
Answer
An ocean.
Even if the land is perfectly flat, humans create their own obstacles. Political barriers are rules, laws, and boundaries set by governments. A border is an invisible line that marks the edge of a country's territory. To cross a border legally, you often need a passport (an ID from your home) and a visa (special permission from the country you are visiting). Immigration laws are the specific rules that decide who is allowed to move into a country to live and work. If a government decides to close its borders, that becomes a barrier that no mountain can match.
1. A person in Brazil wants to work in the United States. 2. They must apply for a specific work visa. 3. If the U.S. government has a 'cap' or limit of visas per year and they are person number , the law acts as a barrier, and they cannot move.
Quick Check
What is the difference between a border and a visa?
Answer
A border is the physical or legal line between countries, while a visa is the official permission document needed to cross that line.
The final major obstacle is money. Economic barriers refer to the high costs associated with moving. Migration is expensive! A person must pay for transportation (like a plane ticket costing $\$1,000\ a month, a $\$1,000$ ticket is an impossible barrier. Additionally, many migrants face the risk of not finding a job immediately, meaning they need savings to survive the first few months. For many of the world's poorest people, the cost of moving is the biggest barrier of all.
Imagine a family of 4 moving to a new country:
1. Plane tickets: $4 \times \$800 = \
2. Shipping boxes: $\$500\
4. Total cost: $\$4,900\ in savings, they face an economic barrier of $\$2,900$ that prevents them from leaving.
Which of the following is a political barrier?
If a migrant cannot move because they don't have enough money for a bus ticket, what barrier are they facing?
Modern technology like airplanes has completely removed all physical barriers to movement.
Review Tomorrow
Tomorrow morning, try to name one physical, one political, and one economic barrier without looking at your notes.
Practice Activity
Open a world map and pick two distant cities. List at least one mountain range, one ocean, and two different countries (borders) you would have to cross to get from one to the other.