Thursday, October 22, 2015

Legal Voluntary Migration, Christina Veraza's Story, Chapter 3: Migration

Scenario- Voluntary Migration

Outline- Christina Veraza was born in Mexico City, her family moved to Spain when she was  in second grade for one year so her father could get her degree. Then she returned to Mexico until 6th grade. Then in 6th grade she moved to the U.S at a bilingual school to learn English. She would then go back to Mexico to finish her high school career. After attending college in Mexico, and working a few internships, she would marry Carlos Veraza. They moved to Guatemala for a year to work before returning to Mexico and having Jorge and Sophia. When Sophia was only a few months old, Mr. Veraza took his family to Dallas in search of a better job, pay, and opportunity. They would stay in Dallas for seven years, before moving to Omaha, and then from Omaha to where they reside now in Lafayette Colorado. She enjoys living here because of the safety, the opportunity for Carlos, and the environment that is best for raising kids. 

Essential Details- She was only in Spain for one year so her father could finish his studies. After they moved back to Mexico her father sent her and her sister to the Oceanside public school in California to learn English. She then moved back to Mexico and finished high school and college and then met Carlos Veraza. The major push factors for Christina was the safety of her family was in jeopardy in Mexico. The major pull factor for Christina was diversity and new job opportunities.

Terms used- Voluntary migration, push factors, pull factors, international migration 

Script-
She was born in Mexico City, Mexico

She lived there until 2nd grade

Her family moved to Spain for a year so her father could finish his studies. This is an example of international migration.

She returned to Mexico and lived there till 6th grade

The following year Her father then sent her to a bilingual school called ocean side public school in America to learn English

After a year she returned to Mexico to finish her high school career at the American school in Guadalajara

She attended college in Mexico and worked a few internships before meeting her husband, Carlos Veraza

Her and Carlos moved to Guatemala to work for a year

They moved back to Mexico for 3 years and had their first son Charlie. Then they voluntarily migrated to Atalanta, Georgia for a job at Coca Cola

After 2 years in Atlanta they moved back to Mexico with  Charlie so Carlos could work for Frito-lay

In these three years in Mexico Jorge and Sophia were born

Christina and her family then moved Dallas for a new job opportunity for Carlos

While this was a voluntary migration a push factor for them to leave Mexico was that it was not the safest place for Christina and her family beciase they were a wealthier family

They lived in Dallas for 7 years before moving to Omaha, Nebraska for a new job opportunity for Carlos

They did not like Omaha because the people were so closed minded

They spent 3 and a half years in Omaha before moving to Lafayette, Colorado where they currently reside

Carlos found a great job in Colorado and Christina loves raising her family here because of the safety Colorado provides

All of Christina's migration was voluntary and most of the time it was international migration as well

The pull factors for Christina and Carlos were always new job opportunities and a safer home for their children

The major push factor for Christina and Carlos was the violence in Mexico which could affect their children's lives. The kids would have needed body guards and a chauffeur to go out and Christian did not want them to have to deal with that

The Veraza family loves living in Colorado and have Just sent their first son, Charlie to college while Jorge and Sophia still attend dawson school


Map- 


This map shows Syria and the countries surrounding it. This is relevant to our chapter because people are migrating out of Syria into the surrounding countries which are colored in this map. 

Sentence- The Syrian people wanted to change the government in Syria but it did not happen and the government stayed in place so they wanted to leave and then they began migrating into the surrounding countries. 



Saturday, October 3, 2015

Thoughts and Ruminations on Chapter 2: Population, ThePopulationFizzle,The Population Surprise , and U.S. Population Drop

Jack Shams
AP Human Geography
10/1/15
The Population Fizzle
The Population Surprise 
U.S. Population Drop
Chapter 2: Population 

                                                      Thoughts and Ruminations

Essay Question- How do the terms population explosion, total fertility rate (TFR), and population distribution used in chapter 2 relate to The Population Fizzle, The Population Surprise, and U.S. Population Drop.

One of the most present topics in today's world is population growth. People have become increasingly worried with the population explosion in the past two centuries. According to Max Singer who states in his article The Population Surprise, "the worlds population has grown from one billion to over six billion in the past two centuries." People believe that the population will continue to grow until our world can't support us any longer, but as one takes a closer look that does not seem to be the case. According to The Population Fizzle by Anne H. Ehrlich, a demographer named Nicholas Eberstadt anticipated the population will stop growing and  immediately start to shrink in the year 2050. Eberstadt states that the population size will just surpass 9.4 billion in the year 2050 and then the population will begin to drop quickly due to higher death rates than total fertility rates. Demographers believe that there is a low chance that this variant will be followed. 


Even thought this variant has a low chance of being followed Eberstadt makes quite an accurate prediction. With TFR's slowly dropping in areas like the United States the population should peak within the next 50 years and then begin to decrease. While we might not see an immediate and drastic drop off it should begin to happen. According to the article U.S. Population Drop by Derek Thompson, "the U.S. government announced that our birthrate fell to 'another record low' in 2012, following a long, steady slide since the Baby Boom after World War II." The reason fertility rate is dropping is because people are just having less babies compared to past centuries when TFR's were much higher due to instances like WWII. 

Even if only the US stays on this path, which it is likely they will not be the only ones,  the overall population of the world will begin to drop after a certain point. The reason that the overall population of the world could drop even if only the U.S. has a significant population drop is because of population distribution. Population Distribution is the arrangement or spread of people living in a given area, and North America has the fourth highest population distribution in the world. Connecting those dots, if the U.S.'s population were to take a hit the entire world would feel it due to the large amount of the world's population that lives here. 

With all of these points in mind there is truly no exact way to predict how the world's population will change in the future completely accurately. This is because there is no way to see what might happen in the future. If another world war to break out there might be another huge increase in TFR's, causing the population to increase rather than decrease. The only true way one would find out what exactly is going to happen to the worlds population would be to sit back and see what the future centuries bring. 

The Indian government wanted to help stop population growth in their country but there were not  many options for women who accidentally got pregnant so they began family planning programs in 1965 and then the total fertility rates were cut in half. 
http://www.mapsofindia.com/my-india/society/family-planning-in-india-its-history-programmes-importance-and-impact


This map shows the fertility rate in India. The average fertility rate is around 2.4-3.2 With the help of family planning programs that were put in place by the Indian Government the fertility rate was cut in half. If the Indian Government continues to use family planning programs the fertility rate should continue to drop.



The Demographic Transition Model (DTM) seeks to explain the transformation of countries from having high birth and death rates to low birth and death rates. In developed countries this transition began in the eighteenth century and continues today. Less developed countries began the transition later and are still in the midst of earlier stages of the model. 

Source of info on the DTM: Rosenberg, Matt. "What Is a Demographic Transition Model?" Web. 3 Oct. 2015.