This glossary contains brief definitions of some basic terms used when talking about migration.
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Emigration: Leaving one country to move to another.
Immigration: Moving into a new country.
Seasonal Migration: When people move with each season (e.g. farm workers...)
Immigrate: To enter and settle in a country or region to which one is not native.
Emigrate: To leave one's country or region to settle in another
Immigrant: The person who is entering a country or region from another to make a new home.
Emigrant: A person who is leaving a country or region to live in another.
Naturalization: Giving an alien the rights and privileges of a native or citizen.
Refugee: Someone who leaves their country in search of refuge, as in times of war, political oppression, or religious persecution.
Green Card: Official document issued to aliens, allowing them to work legally in the USA.
Passport: An official government document that certifies one's identity and citizenship and permits a citizen to travel abroad.
Citizenship:The condition or status of a citizen, with its rights and duties.
Ethnic Groups: Large groups of people classed according to common racial, cultural,national origins.
Ethnocentrism: The belief in the inherent superiority of one's own ethnic group or culture.
Pull factors: They are the reasons why people want to go to one place rather than another.
Push Factors: They are the reasons why people want to leave a place.
Unemployment: The state of being unemployed, without work.
Poverty: The state or condition of having little or no money, goods, or means of support, condition of being poor, indigence.
Famine/Food shortage: Extreme and general scarcity of food, as in a country or a large geographical area.
Discrimination: Treatment or consideration of, or making a distinction in favour or against, a person or thing based on the group, class, or category to which that person or thing belongs rather than on individual merit; racial and religious intolerance and discrimination.
Assimilation: The merging of cultural traits from previously distinct cultural groups, not involving biological amalgamation.
To settle: To migrate to and organize an area, territory, etc. Colonize
The Great American Melting Pot: An expression emphasizing the integration and assimilation of immigrants in the US culture.
A Salad Pot: An expression that emphasizes pluralism and multiculturalism.
Kaleidoscope: An expression that emphasizes that both immigrants and society adapt and change.