All of these are examples of forced migration except the emigration of Jewish people from Europe to Israel in the 1950s. You could easily claim that Jewish people migrating away from Europe in the years before the end of World War Two were forced migrations, but in the 1950s most of the migration was voluntary. The desire to be part of a shared Jewish cultural identity in Israel was the primary driving force.

As Americans, we tend to primarily associate the Atlantic Slave Trade with the arrival of enslaved Africans into English colonies in North America; however, this represented a relatively small proportion of the slave trade at the time. The plantations of Brazil, and to a slightly lesser extent, the Caribbean, were the most common destinations for slaves. By some estimates, more than ten million slaves arrived in Brazil during the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries.

During the Reconstruction era of American history and up to the Civil Rights’ Era many African-Americans migrated North, to industrial centers like New York and Chicago. They were seeking personal liberty and economic opportunity. Much of the urban ethnic makeup of contemporary America is because of this pattern of migration.

For many years, industrial centers in the midwest like Chicago, Detroit, Pittsburgh, and Cleveland were home to booming economies and burgeoning populations; however, as American industry began to decline as a global force in the second half of the twentieth century, there were far fewer jobs available. This led many Americans to migrate south and west in search of greater economic opportunity and better weather. The region they left behind became known as the “Rust Belt” to reflect how the heavy machinery was going to rust due to disuse.

The term “Cotton Belt” is how the South in the United States was often referred to, reflecting the region's centuries long dependence on cotton plantations for much of its wealth; however, in recent years, many Americans have been migrating from the Northeast and the Midwest to the South in search of better weather and new job opportunities. This has caused geographers to rebrand the region as the “Sun Belt.” It stretches across most of the Deep South and includes Texas and California.

During the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, Europe accounted for by far the largest proportion of immigrants arriving in the United States; however, over the course of the twentieth century, this trend changed dramatically. Now, the majority of immigrants to the United States come from Latin America. A significant number also arrive from South and East Asia, particularly from India, China, and Korea.

The Dust Bowl migration of the Great Depression has been immortalized in American culture though pieces of literature like John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath (1939). The movement began because the extremely harsh and arid climate of the 1930s, combined with the loss of jobs caused by the Great Depression, meant that many farmers in America’s Great Plains and Midwest states were no longer able to sustain themselves. They migrated, with their families, en masse to the west coast. Because this migration was caused by an environmental disaster it is known as an “eco-migration.”

In general, the majority of contemporary human migration is from South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa to North America and Europe. The general pattern is north and west.

The former British colony of Australia has an interesting and somewhat unique early history compared to other British colonies. After the abolition of slave labor in the British Empire, the British began to send convicted criminals to Australia in a forced resettlement. Conditions were harsh for the convicts and their lives often shared many similarities with the lives of slaves. It is worth noting that when the Europeans arrived in Australia they did not find a deserted continent devoid of human life. There, as most everywhere else, they encountered native people (in Australia usually called Aboriginals) and violently suppressed them.

The Donation Land Claim Act was passed to encourage Americans to migrate westward to the Oregon Territory in the North-West of America. The act promised a sizeable grant of free land to anyone who made the endeavor and intended to reside there permanently. This sort of law was passed often in the early years of the American republic in order to encourage the westward expansion of the young nation. In the Oregon Territory it was of particular importance for the American government to encourage settlement because control over the area was disputed by the British government. If enough Americans lived there it would seem to be “natural” American territory.