Rural-urban migration in the 1990s

Article: Rural-urban migration in the 1990s (PDF)

Objectives

• To understand migration trends and who moves.
• To examine why people move.

Classroom instuctions

1. Survey the class to find out how many have moved in the last five years. How many have moved from one province to another, have moved between cities, have moved from a rural area to a town or city or vice versa? Discuss why distant moves (such as interprovincial moves) are less common than short-distance moves.
2. Discuss why people might move from a rural area to a big city. Why might people move from a city to a rural area? What factors contribute to people not moving?
3. Young, single, highly educated people are more likely to move than older married people with less education. Explore the reasons for this difference in migration rates. Do young people move for different reasons than older people?
4. What impact does moving have on families?

Using other resources

• "Migration to and from rural and small town Canada." Rural and Small Town Canada Analysis Bulletin
• Profile of the Canadian population by mobility status: Canada, a nation on the move
• Check out the Statistics Canada Website to find lesson plans, articles and data for elementary and secondary schools.

Please e-mail comments or examples of how you used this exercise in your class.