Social Problems Activity 1

Activity 1: Making Sense of Migration and Immigration 

Confronting Social Problems 7.3 Push-Pull Profile

How can social problems influence whether or not someone will migrate?

In this activity, you’ll use the push–pull theory to analyze a sender and receiver country relationship.

This assignment requires you to apply the push–pull framework to a real-life immigrant population, focusing on the social problems pushing people to migrate. Choose an active sender country and receiving country relationship (e.g., El Salvador and the United States, Turkey and Germany, India and the United Kingdom, Syria and Turkey) that will be the focus of your project.

1. Research the history of this relationship, paying particular attention to the social problems pushing people out of the origin country. Look for details that are unique to your chosen case.
2. Create an outline that you could use in a PowerPoint presentation that describes this immigration relationship using a push–pull perspective. Include discussion of the history of the relationship between the two countries (how, why, and when did it begin?), important statistics, and the “push” (social problems) and “pull” factors that characterize the relationship.
3. In your outline, include an argument for whether the receiving country should accept more or fewer immigrants from the sender nation—and explain why, keeping a focus on social problems.

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