MOI UNIVERSITY

NAIROBI CAMPUS

SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES

GROUP ASSIGNMENT

LANGAT NANCY CHEROTICH BA/2008/19

NKAATE EMILY SATION BA/2013/19

KONYOKIE VICTOR SAITOTI BA/2012/19

DORIS SERINA SORDO CD/2006/19

BRIAN OLOMUNYAK SADERA CD/2001/19

UNIT :DEMOGRAPHY

UNIT CODE: SOC 327

LECTURER : DR. ABUYA

 1. Discuss Ravienstein style law of migration.

Migration is a pattern conceptualized in 1885 by Ernst Georg Ravenstein who observed

migration as occurring stage by stage as rural inhabitants move closer to urban areas of
growth. It is a migration pattern regarded by some scholars to be a widely popular form
of international migration in the twenty-first century globalized world. There is a large
breadth of study proving the existence of step migration in many international migration
patterns, although there is lack of consensus over its exact specification and
measurement. Step migration scholars deem it to be an important international trend that
has the power to aid in the design of policy development efforts in both rural and urban
areas worldwide.
Most migrants move only a short distance. There is a process of absorption, whereby
people immediately surrounding a rapidly growing town move into it and the gaps they
leave are filled by migrants from more distant areas, and so on until the attractive
force

Ernst Georg Ravienstein was a German-English geographer cartographer who was born in 30th
December 1834, Frankfurt, Germany. He was the son of the German cartographer and publisher
Friedrich August Ravenstein (1809-1881), founder of Ravenstein's Geographische Verlagsanstalt
.He immigrated to England in 1851.Upon arrival, he immediately became a pupil of Dr August
Heinrich Peterman, also a German exile in England. He subsequently became a naturalized
British Subject and worked in the topographical statistical office of the British war office from
1855-1875.He was a member of the Royal statistical society and the Royal Geographical society,
and held the position of professor of Geography at Bedford college from 1882-1883.In 1902, the
Royal Geographical society awarded him the first Victoria Gold Medal. Ravenstein wrote a
book, “The laws of migration" in the year 1885.He made the first attempt to make laws on
migration. Ravenstein returned to Germany, where he died on March 13, 1913 in Hofheim, just
outside his native Frankfurt.

The following are the laws as proposed by Ravenstein;

1. There is an inverse relation between distance and volume of migration. Majority of migrants
moves to short distance only. Migrants going long distances generally go by preference to the
large centers of commerce and industry.
2. Migration proceeds step by step .There is a process of absorption whereby people immediately
surrounding a rapidly growing town into it and the gaps they leave are filled by migrants from
more distant areas. The inhabitants of countryside flock into the nearby rapidly growing town.
The gap created by this out-migration in the countryside is filled up by in-migration from still
remoter countryside. The inhabitants of the town then move to the nearby urban center up in the
hierarchy.

3. Migrants going long distances generally go by preference to one of the great centers of
commerce.

4. Each current migration stream produces a compensating counter-stream.

5. The natives of the rural areas are more mobile than their counterpart in the urban areas and the
major direction of migration is from agricultural areas to the centers of industry and commerce.

6. Females are more migratory than males within the areas of their country of birth, but males
frequently venture beyond. He attributed to women seeking work outside of their homes for
domestic service as well as jobs in the industrial centers.

7. Most migrants are young adults therefore families rarely migrate out of their country of birth.
Migration is basically high age selective where adults in the working age groups display a
greater way to migrate.

8. Large towns grow more by migration than by natural therefore migrants helps the city to grow
larger.

9. Volume of migration increases with the process of diversification of the economy and
improvement in transport facilities.

10. The major direction of migration is from the agricultural areas to the centers of industry.
People are more likely to from the agricultural lifestyle into urban areas therefore more
individuals moving into the city and less people living on farm.

11. The major causes of migration are economics. In this case if people have jobs then chances
of migrating are very minimal.
In conclusion, Ravenstein's law still has some significance in the modern world. For example,
most migrations are for economic reasons e.g. job seeking, short distance migration are still
common Africa to Europe, Zimbabwe to South Africa.
Q2. Obtain Kenya’s 2019 cencus and draw its population pyramid.

With a population of more than 47.6 million people in 2019 census, Kenya is the 29 th most
populous country. The demography of Kenya is monitored by the Kenyan National Bureau of
Statistics. Kenya is a multi-ethnic state in the Great lakes region of East Africa.
REFERENCES

Castles.,and Miller ,M,1993,The Age of Migration, Guilford,New York.

Https://quizlet.com

"The laws of Migration". Journal of the statistical society of London (June,1885)