Immigration

Immigration or international migration is one of the most significant and contested forms of spatial mobility of population in the 21st century. Its most basic definition is migration of a person or group of persons across a national boundary with the intent to stay. Migrations from culture regions of origin to regions of residence and control by members of other ethnic groups have occurred for millennia, but immigration as it is understood today is a relatively recent spatial phenomenon. Immigration, as defined above, assumes two requisite conditions: first, that political states have internationally recognized boundaries, and second, that political states have the sovereign right to determine who can cross those boundaries, particularly with the intent to stay. From the late 19th through the mid 20th ...