• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
• /
• v.28 no.1
• /
• pp.40-57
• /
• 1993

This paper aims to show the various aspects of migration in Kwangju merropolitan area, southwestern Korea, for a period of years 1980-1985. Migratory patterns are spatially extensive in countryside around Kwanfju, and due to high accessibility to the metropolitan area urban implosion emerges in the city. In Chonnam province where Kwangju is loca-ted, all cities and counties except for such in-dustrial areas as Yochon, and Kwangyang are experiencing population losses in terms of net migration by survival rate methods. Kwangju is the exceptionally one of in-migration areas in Chonnam, though its central part(Dong-Gu) is also an out-migrated area. Predominantly in-migration urban areas have high proportions of a student age group between 15-19 years, and that reflects the importance of the educational factor in migration analysis. The municipal authorities of Kwangju are planning to block the way of the middle sxhool students who live in the outskirts of Kwangju to entrance to high school in the city. Thant may stir up migrations into Kwangju for the elementary and middle school students, because the city id expected to provide educational opportunities higher and better than remaining Chonnam areas. Population of Kwangju would, therefore, grow as the students migrate into the city. The findings on the residential intra-city movement in selected 5 Dongs indicate that implications of a short-distance movement re noteworthy; neighbour to neighbour, and the nearest stop in the way from the outer Kwangju as well. Trends in a short-distance movement are in accord with Ravensteins's "law of migra-tion". But in casw of the inter-provincial migra-tion to Kwangju, the number of in-migrants from remoter Seoul is more than that from nearer Chonbuk province. Therefore it supports the fact that the movement between capital region and far off local cities overcomes a distance barrier. The temporary mobility for a day has been increased as the standard of living has improved and it reaches a peak on weekend or on con-secutive holidays. The number of temporal movers to Kwangju from capital region and Yongnam area, southeastern Korea has a greatincrease in terms of the frequency of the passengers' mobility, in particular on Myongjol(the ethnic and traditional festival day) in com-parison with on weekdays. By comparison with two largest Myongjols, the number of movers is more on Chusok(The Full Moon festival on lunar August) than on Sol (lunar new year's day). Annual peak point of weekday movers appears in August because of summer vacation. But the lowest one appears in June, which is related to the busy farming season. A patients' move for medical services in on the increase with a change of living conditions. It is especially true in the industrial counties such as Kwangyang and Yochon. By way of conclusion, it should be pointed out that one of the problems we face in survey of migration volume by the survival rate method is that the survival rate somtimes exceeds the value 1.0, in normal states of which should be under 1.0. it may be due to the shortcoming from the census statistics. We should not give therefore too much stress on the importance of migrations or moves as an element of changes in spatial pattern. In cinclusion, the results of the study show some geographic facts as the followings: 1. One of the outstanding phenomena in all types of movement is the seletivity of ages. The most important factors are related to education and employment. 2. Short-distance movement is carried out in accordance with Ravenstein's law, but in case long-distance movement, in-migration from capital region is prominent in spite of remoten-ces. The gravity between large cities such as Kwangju and Seoul, which has a frequent human movenent, causes urban implosion of small cities between those cities. 3. The temporary mobility for a day, in con-trast to that of permanent movement, is more related to transportation, and its volumes and annual variations are a large-scale. 4. Passengers' mobility is high in industrial cities. And the scope of patients' mobility is narrower than passengers'.