ABSTRACT
Migration between regions of North America is characterized by clear-cut inhibiting effects of distance, some cultural discontinuities, and drifts of population toward areas of economic opportunities. Most of the variations in gross migration rates in Canada stem from this east-west pattern of separation. The patterns of gross migration in the US are somewhat more complicated than for Canada, partly because the distribution of population in the US is over two dimensions whereas Canada's is largely east-west linear. When studying migration between gross regions of the US and Canada, the patterns of migration show reasonably simple patterns, suggesting that they are governed by distances in earth-space and certain types of social distance as typified by situations of Quebec and the American South. Problems of lack of migration data can and to some extent are being solved by efforts of local and national agencies to tap such sources as driving licences and tax registers to monitor interregional migration on a current basis.
