Step migration
[1] Step migration scholars deem it to be an important international trend that has the power to aid in the design of policy development efforts in both rural and urban areas worldwide.
[10] Scholars emphasize the economic value that step migration can bring to local economies, and how it creates a reliance on skilled migrants.
[2] Skilled migrants, which include international student graduates, participate in the labour force at higher rates than permanent residents of Australia.
[11] According to scholars, international students have become a highly demanded human capital resource as they are both an education export as well as a skilled contributor to the economy.
[2] Countries are now said to compete for international students through promoting their step and study migration pathways in order to be economically competitive.
[2] Step migration was found by Paul to be used by domestic Filipino workers in the Philippines, Hong Kong and Singapore to gain migrant capital and work their way up a destination hierarchy of countries to gain legal entry into their ultimate preferred destinations, usually in the West.
[5] According to Paul, it is a necessary pattern as many of these migrants have low-capital and face high cost barriers and immigration policy restrictions which prevent them from migrating to their preferred destinations.
[5] Through this process, they increase their savings, gain work experience and educational qualifications which allow them to qualify for jobs in their preferred destination countries.
[14] After working for the required number of years in Western countries, migrants can apply for permanent residency and the process of step migration is complete.
[16] Ravenstein's step migration hypothesis was found to exist among the Inupiat peoples in Arctic Alaska according to scholars evaluating census data models.
[9] Berman, Huskey and Howe discovered that step migration occurred both upward and downward in an urban and rural hierarchy.
[4] According to Berman, Huskey and Howe, step migration is more likely to occur if family and friends are concentrated in an area, and the quality of information about a place declines with distance.
[17] After the former slaves became free following the Emancipation Proclamation many ventured up towards the Lower Midwest from the South in search of opportunity.
One reason for this serge in step migration was the lack of Northern newspapers and common illiteracy in the black communities, leading to a reliance on verbal communication to have awareness of prospective destinations.
During the American Civil War many railway systems were destroyed, which left many rebuilding projects to take place.
[18] Even with cheaper prices, many had to work in shipping docks for extended periods of time to accumulate more money to continue on the rest of their journey.
Step migration was also more commonplace pre-1890 because of the mass amounts of African Americans heading towards the Lower Midwest compared to later time periods.
