What are push factors in the context of immigration?

Push factors refer to conditions within a person's country of origin that create an environment prompting individuals to leave. These factors can include a range of negative circumstances such as political instability, war, persecution, economic hardship, and lack of opportunities. By highlighting the challenges and threats that people face in their home countries, push factors help explain the motivations behind immigration.

For instance, individuals may emigrate to escape violence or oppressive regimes, or to seek better living conditions and employment prospects that are unavailable in their native land. Understanding push factors is essential in the study of immigration, as they illustrate the reasons behind why individuals and families make the difficult decision to leave everything familiar in search of a better life elsewhere. This contrasts with the concept of pull factors, which are the positive attributes that attract individuals to a new country, such as economic opportunities and social freedoms.