Settlements-migrations

The way in which people organize themselves and their living spaces in a place is called settlement – that is geographical space people live and work. There are different kinds of settlement such as educational, religious, commercial, etc. Settlements started in early days when humans hunted and gathered the food. When the practice of agriculture started settlements expanded widely to other parts of the region.

Early humans hunted and gathered their food. Because of this, they were called as hunters and gatherers. They didn't have any place as settlement, and they kept moving place to place. This movement was in search of food from plants and animals for hunting. They started using stones and tools which was made from the stones. They did not practice any agriculture. Changes in the obtaining of food took to the production of food, this made changes in the pattern of hunting and gathering - agriculture.This was only 10,000years ago. It brought concerning many changes in human lifestyles.

People did not have to travel to different places to gather food. They increasingly stayed in one place. Agriculturalist stayed in one place and practiced agriculture. This bought major changes in human lifestyle.

The Census of India organizes settlements in India using certain criteria. The census defines various types of settlements with different meanings. The table shows the various kinds of places according to the size and level of settlement. In the table, the topmost part shows the highest level of settlement and bottom most level shows the lowest level of settlement.

Indian settlement according to size and other characteristics

It is a new kind of settlement that is occurring in many countries, including India. These kinds of settlements are mainly centered in and around large airports. Therefore the name aerotropolis or airport city. In aerotropolis, the airport functions as a city in its own right. Many amenities such as hotels, shopping, entertainment, food, business conferencing, etc. are provided in aerotropolis. People can afford the facility to fly in to conduct their business with their counterparts’ right there and fly out – with all the comfort of a city, without the traffic and other problems.

Some form of aerotropolisesis rising in these places in India: Bengaluru International Airport, Indira Gandhi International Airport (Delhi), and Rajiv Gandhi International Airport(Hyderabad).

The reason why coastal cities such as Mumbai and Chennai is far more developed in terms of infrastructure facilities is that of the influence of British rule. The British rulers mainly developed infrastructure in many port cities for the effective delivery of raw materials and to ensure their transportation through the sea and oceans. Also, better railway connectivity was provided throughout the region for the ease of exploiting and transfer of raw materials and finished products.

The combat for the control of Vishakhapatnam was also for the control over sea routes in the coast. Vishakhapatnam offered the best sea route connectivity with the rest of the world. It is the oldest shipyard in the country. The city was ruled by different dynasties for control over its sea routes. Its control fluctuated between the Chola dynasty, Vijayanagara Empire, Mughals and in the later periods by the French and the British. The boundaries were drawn and again re-drawn by them for better access to resources. Thus, the city includes many regions that were not part of the original city, and it omits many places that were earlier a part of the city.

The urban migration is the common situation in which people from rural areas will move to urban migration due to attraction towards employment, education, health, and some other factors. The migration mainly happens from rural to urban due to many reasons. The main reasons for the migration are:

• Employment

Lack of employment in rural areas is the main reason for the migration from rural to urban occurs. In urban areas, there are more employment opportunities due to the factories and industries.

• Better education

Another reason for the migration from the rural to urban is for the attraction towards the better education facility in urban. Schooling in rural lack quality.

• Better health care

Urban areas provide better health care and infrastructure facility which attract the migrants from the rural to urban. Health facility in the interior areas worse than the facility in urban areas.

Migration from urban to rural is a situation in which people move from urban areas to rural areas. These may not be due to the better standard of living, but it is due to environmental factors.

• Pollution

Urban areas are most affected by high pollution and diseases. For the betterment of their lives, the people migrate from urban to rural.

• Lack of affordability

The cost of living in urban areas is costlier than the rural areas. This cost is higher because there is a lack of houses and free space for the migrants. This less supply of houses makes the price of the houses and accommodation costlier.

The urban migration happens due to the attraction towards the infrastructure, health care, education and better standard of living whereas the rural migration happens mostly due environmental and economic factors; such as pollution and cost of living.

The migration is the most common process in any country. The U.S is an example for the country of migrants from different nations. It cannot be said that migrants from rural areas are troublemakers in their destination. Most of the migrants migrate from place to place in search of employment opportunities, education, and many such indicators. Reasons for which they cannot be troublemakers:

• They migrate for their growth and bright future. In this journey, they do not make trouble to anyone which may affect them in their life.

• In some permanent migrations, the migrated people sacrifice for the socio, economic,cultural and scientific development of their migrated countries. Example: the U.S is the number one country with most of the migrated people in the world.

• Some of the most intelligent and ambitions individuals who are unhappy with their own countries bring their skills to new destinations.

But there can be rare cases in which people migrate to rob from the rich people. But these minute facts cannot state that all the migrants are troublemakers.

Purchasing power is the purchasing capacity of the people which means their income. The people’s main motivation to migrate to an urban area is in search of employment opportunity or higher wages. The wages in urban areas will be higher compared to rural areas. When the wages of the urban area is higher than the wages of rural areas, then their income rises which will result in better purchasing power than before.

Technically and professionally qualified people migrate to the developed countries. They mostly include people like doctors, engineers, and IT professionals. The developed countries saw the migration of semi-skilled and unskilled workers during 1950s and 1960s when they were achieving the peak of development. Today, most professional workers are required by the developed nations as they have already attained development in the other sectors of the economy. They were characterized by industrial development as early as at the beginning of the 19th century. They require professionally qualified staff to maintain the economy and take strategic decisions. Because of the higher standard of living, better salary and other factors, professionals migrate to developed countries.

Similarities:

• Both the type of migration takes place in search of a better standard of living indicators such as employment, education, etc.

• In both, the condition the overall economic condition is being improved and social status is enhanced.

• Migration changes the lifestyle of the migrants. A cultural exchange takes place in both the type of migration.

Dissimilarities

• In international migration, there are lots of checkpoints for the migration and people need visa and passport for the migration whereas in internal migration there is no such process.

• No restrictions to work in any part of the domestic territory whereas in international trade need special permission from government servants to work in outside countries.

Difference