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American Masters | The Dust Bowl: Documenting the First Migrants to California | Season 28

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American Masters
Clip: 08/29/2014 | 2m 41s

Photographer Dorothea Lange and her husband were the first to witness and to understand the causes of the huge migration to California in the 1930s: families were escaping the Dust Bowl. In this excerpt, Lange describes photographing the first car arriving in California. American Masters - Dorothea Lange: Grab a Hunk of Lightning premieres nationwide Friday, August 29, 9-11 pm on PBS.

Aired: 08/29/14

Rating: NR

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American Masters | The Dust Bowl: Documenting the First Migrants to California | Season 28

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American Masters Clip: 08/29/2014 | 2m 41s Photographer Dorothea Lange and her husband were the first to witness and to understand the causes of the huge migration to California in the 1930s: families were escaping the Dust Bowl. In this excerpt, Lange describes photographing the first car arriving in California.

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What was the Dust Bowl in your own words.

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What was the Dust Bowl in your own words.

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The Dust Bowl was a period of time where the southern plains region suffered from dust storms. These storms caused many deaths of people, livestock, and crops. People migrated out of Oklahoma and Arkansas and headed for California.

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The definition of Forced Migration is “movement imposed on a group of people”. These people do not have an option of migrating or not. In this instance of the Dust Bowl, the forced migration took place because of a natural disaster. Many people migrated towards the west, often to California.

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Push Factors are the factors that encourage a population to leave its “home base”. During the dust bowl, there were extreme shortages of food due to the killing of crops, job shortages, and health effects on the lungs from inhaling dust. These are all factors that pushed the population in this area away.

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Kinship Links are types of push or pull factors that influence a migrant’s decision to go where people have already found success. The people that migrated from the south to California saw California as “a land of hope and promise”, which is why many people migrated to California.

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Many people were “pulled” to California during the dust bowl. California was viewed as a land of hope and promise, and many dreamed that there would be more food, more jobs, and less health problems.

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A Chain Migration is when people move to another place, and then other people follow in their footsteps and do the same thing. Many people did the same thing and moved from the area of the dust bowl effects to California.

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The Gravity Model is the two parts to Ravenstein’s Laws of Migration: “The majority of migrants move a short distance” and “Migrants who move longer distances tend to choose big cities.” During the Dust Bowl, many people chose to move to California. California was not extremely far away, and a lot of people attempted to move to a city.

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1. Every migration flow generates a return or counter migration.

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1. Every migration flow generates a return or counter migration.

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After the dust bowl ended, people slowly did start to move back to their homes.

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2. The majority of migrants move a short distance.

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2. The majority of migrants move a short distance.

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This is somewhat accurate, as the migrants moved as close as they could but still staying far enough away from where the effects of the dust bowl.

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3. Migrants who move longer distances tend to choose big-city destinations.

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3. Migrants who move longer distances tend to choose big-city destinations.

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These migrants did not follow this, as many moved out to where more rural farmland was. However, these migrants did not move an extremely far distance.

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4. Urban residents are less migratory than inhabitants of rural area.

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4. Urban residents are less migratory than inhabitants of rural area.

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In this instance, we see that as true because most people in this rural area that was affected by the dust bowl migrated, while the residents in the urban parts did not as much.

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5. Families are less likely to make international moves than young adults.

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5. Families are less likely to make international moves than young adults.

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In this case, mostly everyone ended up migrating. However, not many migrated internationally, as many moved west to California.