History of human Essay

The whole history of humankind is inseparably linked to the changes in the dynamics of the population growth that consequently pushed the start of the process of migration. Since ancient times, humankind started to spread from its cradle across the world in quest for a better life. Just recall the Bible stories about the 40 year trip of the Sons of Israel headed by Moses across the desert in search for the land of promise. It might be a fairy tale, but nevertheless it could be the real prove that mass migrations of population have already occurred in those times. Due to absence of reliable information, it’s very hard to estimate the dynamics of people migration throughout the world up to the beginning of the XIX century. At that time European counties started to conduct population census relatively precocious to modern standards. But lets’ get back to the very term â€Å"migration†. Here’s the definitions given by the hyperdictionary. Migration: 1. [n] the movement of persons from one country or locality to another; 2. [n] the periodic passage of groups of animals (especially birds or fishes) from one region to another for feeding or breeding; 3. [n] (chemistry) the nonrandom movement of an atom or radical from one place to another within a molecule; 4. [n] a group of people migrating together (especially in some given time period). However, the definitions relating to the â€Å"people migration† is very brief and I would give the following definition to the term. Migration- is the movement of a person or a group of persons from one locality to other caused by different socioeconomic or other factors. We should differentiate between 2 main types of migration- internal- domestic (people move from one region to another within the borders of one country) and external-interstate migration (from one country to another); we also should discriminate between emigrants (leaving their homeland for a permanent settlement in oversees) and refugees-(those who seek escape from war and disasters, and those people fleeing from persecution based on political or religious beliefs). In last decades the number of people looking for a better life has drastically increased. Nowadays, at the beginning of the XXI century nearly 1 of 35 tellurians is a migrant. If all these people would live in one common state, then it would be the fifth biggest by its population country on the planet with approximately 175 millions of inhabitants. It testifies, that migration is one of the most substantial global sociological phenomenon of our times having a deep impact on the economies and societies ways of life. The last statement is completely proved by the history of the USA, the country that was founded by colonists or in other words migrants. Since the October 12th of 1492 when Columbus have discovered a New World, it became a tasty piece of pie for the European monarchies to bite- a perfect place to develop all the treasuries of new lands and spread the influence. But to conquer the New World, Old Europe needed to build settlements and it led to increase of migrants flow that went to America in hope to get richer, some to escape from never ending wars in Europe, from persecutions based on religious beliefs (Pilligrims), some to propagate Roman-Catholic Christianity. So, the conquest began, but it led to horrible results- many local ethnic groups were wiped out (South America, conquistadors). The whole territory of the New World was divided between the European powers; however the rivalry between them existed, as England was in a constant war with France and its allies. There were one more source for this tension not in Europe but in the New World- it was the population growth of the British continental colonies from 250 thousands people in 1700 up to 1. 75 million in the 1760s. Step by step England forced out France and Spain over the most territories of North America, so London had a vast territories with the population greatly spread over them to guard. With time, the colony was becoming more and more detached from the British Empire. Trying to stop this process, England tried to grab the control over the colony, but with every year the confrontation between colonists and English Parliament grew more and more, until in 1775 American revolution revolved. After gaining independence in 1783, the American society was a ethnic diversity –British (not English as migrants were arriving from all the regions of British isles), French, Spanish colonists, Africans (taken to the continent as slaves), and aborigines- Indian tribes (gradually driven out from their homeland by the colonists). So came the 19th century, the times, when all the circumstances favored the economic growth of the former colony, as there still were undeveloped and wealthy in natural resources lands. The unification of the States and abolishment of slavery favored the arrival of new migrants, so grow the labor force, and it must be added it was a cheap labor force. As a vivid example, is an American railroad system, in building of which Chinese immigrants took a great part (in fact it was build on the bones of the letter, ‘cause of the harsh conditions, absence of health security system and low pay). At those times, a domestic migration rates grew, caused by the well known discovery of gold in Alaska and California (Gold Fever). Poor people from all over the country rushed to those places in hope to find gold and get rich. By the end of 19 century the American nation still was not completely formed. It was rather a â€Å"pot mix† of nations than an ultimately formed nation. The flow of immigrants have not stopped, but received a new push after the beginning of WWI and with subsequent fall of European Empires (Austrian -Hungarian and Russian empire). In those and succeeding years, the number of emigrants from Europe, especially from former Russian Empire has drastically grown. Those emigrants helped to build the economy of the US, as many of them were not just simple unskilled workers, but in many cases intelligent persons. For example, Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky, a famous Russian-American aircraft designer, who was born in Kiev (Ukraine, state within the Russian Empire) and after the revolution immigrated to the USA. Altogether, with his friends and companion-who were also emigrants from Russia, he founded his company â€Å"Sikorsky Aviaengeneering† that some time later became a part of â€Å"United Aircraft† company. In 1972 he passed away being a honorable member of different scientific societies and having a lot of different awards. The man is gone long time ago, but still the design bureau bearing his name produce aircrafts. However, not always the migrants were warmly received. In last decades, many countries have made their policy line much tougher concerning reception and help given to refugees and immigrants. According to the UN statistics, such measures have shown themselves in increased number of refugee status accordance denial. The emigrants and refugees experienced and experience lots of problems beside the migration rules and regulations, but also the confront a much more serious problem, such as – xenophobia, a highly negative attitude of native population toward the comers There’re many reasons for such attitude (just recall Martin Scorsese’s â€Å"Gangs Of New York â€Å"). As usually migrants are coming from the poorer states and ready to work for less money then the native population. In most cases here, the natives are afraid that comers would take their job places. Moreover, illegal migrants may easily beef up the criminal lines, as in most cases they unqualified and unable to find job. There’s also a collision of cultures and mentalities. In such rugged conditions, the migrants start to consolidate and create detached groups, living on own principles, preserving their original way of life. It’s some kind of a protective mechanism against new socium. For example, in many American cities, there’re many culturally â€Å"detached† areas such as China Town and Briton Beach (Russian quarters in Big Apple) etc. In those places, the migrants preserving their native culture and customs, it’s a place where the migrants attempt to reproduce the things they had at homeland. Nevertheless, these days, immigrants constitute an important part of a labor –market in industrially developed countries. According to the statistics of OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development), in many Western states, the interest for the labor potential of foreigners is on the rise. Here we could divide the demand for labor force into two categories- demand for unskilled and demand for qualified laborers. The developed countries are in a constant need for a cheap work force to work in some industries, where the local don’t want to work, for example building industry. So here help the migrant workers. These laborers in most cases work temporarily until their visa expire, then in some time they return back home otherwise become illegal immigrants. The qualified workers in most cases go to the developed countries for a permanent residence, called by the companies interested in their services. In most cases, these companies are working in the Hi-Tech sphere of business, and the latter is booming today, so there’s a lack of well qualified staff to fit the demand. As one of the examples was a problem of â€Å"Y2K†, when most of IT companies in the USA and other countries felt the need to increase the number of qualified personnel to fix the bug in computers before the upcoming of the year 2000. There’s another very interesting fact about the immigrants. It’s the money they send back home to families, they are of a great importance for developing countries economies. In values, such money transfers are taking the second place after the foreign investments as a source of oversees inpayments into the economy of developing countries. In 2002 the total amount of individual foreign transfers to developing countries constituted 72,3 billions dollars. The other important issue of that global community facing toady is illegal human trafficking. It’s not just illegal border crossing, but a very profitable business for the international crime syndicates, that proliferates prostitution, slave labor etc. This problem is or highest importance for the international community and today there’s an urgent need to consolidate all efforts of international bodies and of all the counties to stop this dirty business sucking huge profits from the eternal human strive to find a better life†¦ References 1. www. hyperdictionary. com 2. http://www. geocities. com/davidbofinger/vinland_h. htm 3. http://historicaltextarchive. com/sections. php? op=viewarticle&artid=651 4. http://historicaltextarchive. com/sections. php? op=viewarticle&artid=597 5. http://www. sikorskyarchives. com/indexlnk. html 6. http://www. un. org/popin/data. html 7. www. oecd. org 8. www. oecdobserver. org/