The origin and development of push-pull theory

The origin of push-pull theory can be traced back to19th century. The earliest scholar who studied population migration was E.Ravenstien of Britain. In 1885, a paper entitled "The Law of Population Migration" was published. In this paper, he put forward seven laws, which are as follows: 1. Population migration is mainly short-distance, and the direction is to cities with developed industry and commerce; 2. The floating population first moves to the surrounding areas of the town, and then moves to the town; 3. The mobility of all parts of the country is similar, that is, the rural population is concentrated in cities; 4. Every large population migration also brings reverse flow as compensation; 5. Long-distance flow is basically to big cities; 6. Compared with rural residents, the mobility rate of urban residents is much lower; 7. The turnover rate of women is higher than that of men.

The most important macro theory in demography is the "push-pull theory" which studies the causes of population mobility. It was Bagne who first put forward this theory. In his view, the purpose of population movement is to improve living conditions, and those factors that are conducive to improving living conditions in inflow areas become pulling forces, while those that are unfavorable in outflow areas are pushing forces. Population mobility is determined by two forces: pulling forward and pushing back.

After Bagne, Maidel (G.Mydal), Sovani (Sovani), Base (BASE) and Trevartha (Trevartha) all made some amendments. The International Labour Office has also verified Bagne's theory in some research reports. Based on Bagne's theory, E.S.Lee thinks that both the outflow place and the inflow place actually have both pulling force and pushing force, and at the same time adds a third factor: the intermediate obstacle factor. Intermediate obstacles mainly include distance, material obstacles, language and cultural differences and immigrants' own value judgments on these factors. Population mobility is the result of the comprehensive action of these three factors.