English

Refugees from Syria arriving on an inflatable boat at the island of Lesbos, Greece, in 2015. Push factors for refugees to leave their home countries include famine, persecution, and war.

Noun

push factor ‎(plural push factors)

1. A factor that encourages one to leave one's current home, region, country, organization, or religion.
   • 1995, George Henderson; Thompson [Dale] Olasiji, Migrants, Immigrants, and Slaves: Racial and Ethnic Groups in America, Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, ISBN 978-0-8191-9738-2, page 2:

     The push-pull hypothesis proposes that people will voluntarily vacate old premises and seek new ones when conditions are no longer comfortable or tolerable, or when conditions in another country offer more favorable circumstances for an improved standard of living. According to Juan Gonzales (1990), immigration to America reveals both of the aforementioned push and pull factors. The push factors include economic conditions, political conditions, social conditions, overpopulation, and natural disasters. […] Political push factors include such unsettling events as rebellion, revolution, war, and seizure of the government—all of which reflect grave instability in a society.

   • 2005, Stephen Codrington, “Population Change”, in Planet Geography, 3rd edition, Sydney: Solid Star Press, ISBN 978-0-9579819-3-5, page 11:

     The decision of whether or not to migrate is not taken lightly by any migrant. […] Factors that might force a person to leave their place of residence are called push factors, and these can be broadly divided into ‘hard push factors’ and ‘soft push factors’. Hard push factors include war, starvation and environmental catastrophes, while soft push factors persecution, poverty and social loneliness.

   • 2005, Atul Mishra, “Entrepreneurial Motivations in Start-up and Survival of Micro- and Small Enterprises in the Rural Non-farm Economy”, in Journal of Small Business and Entrepreneurship, volume 18, number 3, Regina, Saskatchewan: Faculty of Administration, University of Regina, ISSN 0827-6331, page 314:

     Socially discriminated entrepreneurs did not switch activity because of: / Push factor[:] Unemployment / Pull factor[:] Low Uncertainty of income […] / Traditional entrepreneurs switched activity because of: / Pull factor[:] could handle alone / Push factor[:] lack of skilled labour

   • 2015, Kelly Swanson, AP Human Geography 2016, New York, N.Y.: Kaplan Publishing, ISBN 978-1-62523-145-1:

     A pull factor is a positive perception about a location that influences a person to move there. A push factor is a negative perception about a location that induces a person to move away from that location. Both push and pull factors are based on an individual's perceptions of the area. A pull factor for one person may be a push factor for another.

Related terms

• pull factor