Interrogating Push & Pull Factors

Task 1: Introductory activity

15 min

Concept Sort

Don’t tell the students how they should sort the following statements or let them know that the lesson is about push/pull factors before this.

• Show students the following list. In partners, they need to divide the statements into groups. They can have as many groups as they would like. As they sort, they should come up with a general rule for how they are sorting them and write that rule down. Once they have sorted all of the statements, they should come up with at least 2 additional statements (from their life or the news) and add them to the appropriate group (according to their rule).

List:

• War, family connections, famine, political unrest, economic opportunities, poverty, job opportunities, poor economic situation, persecution, ecological deterioration, educational opportunities, natural disaster, safety, unemployment, fear, political stability, drought, insecurity, religious freedom, better living conditions.

Discussion:

• Have students explain their rule and include their additional statements.

5 min

Relabel

Explain that there is a way that theorists would divide them – push and pull factors. ‘Push’ & ‘pull’ factors are terms used to describe why people decide to migrate. Push factors are events or conditions that compel a person to leave a particular place. Pull factors are events or conditions that attract a person to move to a particular place.

As a group – relabel all of the statements as push or pull factors

• Push: war, famine, political unrest, poverty, poor economic situation, persecution, ecological degradation, natural disaster, unemployment, fear, drought, insecurity.

• Pull: family connections, economic opportunities, job opportunities, education opportunities, political stability, religious freedom, better living conditions, safety.

Task 2: Engaging Oral History

15 min

Listen

Before playing the clip, instruct students to jot down push factors that are expressed in the recording. Though he doesn’t talk about pull factors, have students anticipate what some pull factors might be for Canada or the United States. They should be prepared to share after the clip.

At age 14, Santiago travelled through Central America in hopes of making it to the United States. The civil war in El Salvador meant that his safety was in jeopardy. During this time, his mother was seeking resettlement for their family in Canada.

Listen to the excerpt from Santiago’s interview - 8:59 - 14:30

Discuss

• What were some of the push factors expressed in this clip? (civil war in 1989, running out of food, couldn’t go out because of bullets, challenge of getting to the market, dead people on the streets, militia and guerrilla confrontations, dangerous crossfire)

• What might you anticipate would be a pull factor? (perception that US/Canada would be safer, availability of food)

5 min

Explore

Push and pull factors are a way of simplifying how we think about why people migrate, but what might be a problem with this simplification? (some answers might include – it doesn’t include reasons why a person might not want to leave, it assumes that the country they are moving to only has positive attributes, in reality the decisions people make are difficult to simplify this much because personal choice is much more complicated).

Task 3: Concluding activity

10 min

Depending on class makeup – either discuss or have students write down a response to the following prompt.

• Are push and pull factors a helpful way of thinking about migration? Why or why not? Use examples from today’s class.

Instructor Note: See attached PDF for student handout.