A Study on The Effect and Impact of Relocation in The Life of Humans

Introduction

Human migration is an essential part of survival. Human beings have always migrated to different parts of the world due to varying reasons. The main factors have always been wars, economy, and diseases. Migration of humans not only affects the area from which they migrate but also affects the country or region to which they are migrating. The politics, economy, and social life of the host country suffer from the effects of migration. Depending on various factors, these effects can be positive or negative. Southern Europe, India, Western Asia, Pre-Columbian America, and China have been targets of human migration due to their resources and strategic positions. These countries thrived economically and politically due to human migration because they were able to integrate immigrants into their society. However, human migration can cause serious problems for the host country when society is unable to integrate immigrants into the social circle, leading to extreme racial problems between natives and immigrants.

The Effects of Migration

Migration can have both negative and positive effects on both the host (beneficiary) nation and the original nation. The beneficiary nation is typically an industrialized nation in Western Europe or the United States. For these nations, foreigners offer various advantages. Immigrants will often perform tasks that people in the host nation will not or cannot do. Transient workers often work longer hours and for lower wages, which, while sometimes controversial and exploitative, benefits the host nation. When made to feel welcome, immigrants can contribute to the diversity of the host society, fostering tolerance and understanding. For the host nation's economy, migrants offer an expanded skill pool, particularly if they have been well-educated in their original country. However, there are also numerous downsides. Immigrants can be exploited for their cheap labor. Developing nations may suffer from a "brain drain" as the limited resources they spend on educating their citizens amount to little if that talent is enticed to another country (Massey et al., 1993). Migration can also attract criminal elements, from trafficking in drugs and people to other forms of crime and corruption. Migration can become a social or political issue, where racism can be used to exploit sentiments or as an excuse for current difficulties faced by the local population. When there is a perception that migrants and refugees receive more benefits than local impoverished people, tensions and hostilities can rise. Concerns about illegal migration can spill over into negative feelings towards all immigrants, even those who are law-abiding and contributing to the economy (Borjas, 1999).

Historical Context of Migration

Despite seemingly large population movements, researchers noted some time ago that people are still not able to move as freely as goods. In several places around the world, there are additional restrictions being placed on people's movements. An ancient civilization is defined to be in the Bronze Age by either refining its own copper and alloying it with tin, arsenic, or other metals, or by trading for bronze from production areas elsewhere. Copper-tin ores are rare, as reflected in the fact that there were no tin bronzes in Western Asia before trading in bronze began in the third millennium BC. Globally, the Bronze Age largely followed the Neolithic period, though in some parts of the world, the Copper Age served as a transition from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age. Although the Iron Age generally followed the Bronze Age, in some areas, the Iron Age encroached directly on the Neolithic from outside the region (Childe, 1950).

The Development of States

The development of states—large-scale, populous, politically centralized, and socially stratified nations or societies governed by powerful rulers—marks one of the significant turning points in the evolution of human societies. Archaeologists often distinguish between primary (or pristine) states and secondary states. Primary states evolved independently through relatively internal developmental processes rather than through the influence of any other prior state. The earliest known primary states appeared in Mesopotamia around 3800 B.C., in Egypt around 3400 B.C., in the Indus Valley around 2600 B.C., India around 1800 B.C., and in China around 1700 B.C. As they interacted with their less developed neighbors through trade, warfare, migration, and more generalized ideological influences, the primary states directly or indirectly facilitated the growth of secondary states in surrounding areas, for example, the Hittites in Anatolia, the Minoan and Mycenaean states of the Aegean, or the Nubian kingdoms in the Sudan (Stein, 1998). According to Professor Gil Stein at the University of Chicago Oriental Institute, "The excavations and archaeological surveys of the last few decades have vastly increased both the quantity and quality of what we know about ancient states and urbanism. Archaeologists have expanded the scope of their research beyond the traditional focus on rulers and urban elites. Current research now aims to understand the role of urban commoners, craft specialists, and village-based farmers in the overall organization of ancient states and societies."

The Evolution of Iron Production

The art of iron production from ore arose concerning the practices of copper and lead technologies in Anatolia, in northern Syria, and possibly also in some part of Iran. Iron ores were added as fluxes for treating sulfide copper ores. Iron nuggets, which the local producers identified as early as 3100 years BC, comparing these with meteoritic iron, already hinted at the possibility of producing iron, but this only happened significantly 16 centuries later. Since that time, it is important to note that only small amounts of this, at that time, rare metal dedicated to the highest strata of the population or to the sovereigns and their courts could escape this area, probably as gifts only. Ancient Egyptians recorded extensive contact in their Western desert with people that seem to have been Berber or proto-Berber, and Nubians from the south. As the rock art findings in the Sahara have shown, the Sahara also hosted various populations before its rapid desertification in 3600 B.C. and even today continues to host small populations of nomadic trans-Saharan peoples (Smith, 1992).

References

Borjas, G. J. (1999). Heaven's Door: Immigration Policy and the American Economy. Princeton University Press.

Childe, V. G. (1950). The Urban Revolution. Town Planning Review, 21(1), 3-17.

Massey, D. S., Arango, J., Hugo, G., Kouaouci, A., Pellegrino, A., & Taylor, J. E. (1993). Theories of International Migration: A Review and Appraisal. Population and Development Review, 19(3), 431-466.

Smith, P. E. L. (1992). The Archaeology of Afghanistan: From Earliest Times to the Timurid Period. Academic Press.

Stein, G. J. (1998). From Passive Periphery to Active Agents: Emerging Perspectives in the Archaeology of Interregional Interaction. American Anthropologist, 100(2), 318-335.