The main flow of people in the 19th century was from Europe to the United States. The initial years of the 19th century formed a part of the industrial revolution that had begun in the previous century around the year 1750. The Industrial Revolution that is termed to have lasted until 1820-1840 was marked by migration to the urban centers of manufacturing.

The period after 1850 saw the beginnings of a sustained migration pattern to the United States that lasted till the first decade of the twentieth century. While better earning opportunities were predominantly behind this wave of migration, there were other reasons such as the Irish famine of the 1840s which led to huge numbers of Irish migrants towards North America. A New World beckoned more and more people. However, when wages rose in Europe in response to reductions in the workforce, the tide was stemmed to an extent with reversals also being witnessed.

In China and Japan, the 19th century saw large migrations towards South-East Asia.

The 19th-century migrations also were continuations of the patterns of previous centuries of movements from Europe towards South America and which had begun in the 16th century and to North America beginning the 17th century.

In the 20th century, worldwide migrations led to two primary regions, Western Europe and the United States. Wars were also a big cause with two World Wars in the first half and wars in the Middle East in the second half of the twentieth century causing massive dislocations.

Overall, the patterns of migration were more or less the same in the 19th and 20th centuries. But, the conditions in the countries from which people departed in the twentieth century stayed stagnant mostly with no massive changes taking place in response to the flight of migrants.

The biggest change was undoubtedly towards the end of the 20th century when moving between countries had finally become effortless, and immigration policies set in place were airing their faults. According to census data in the United States, "by 1998, immigrants accounted for 9.8 percent of the United States population, compared with 4.8 percent in 1970." This data proves that even in the space of 30 years, the United States saw an incredibly change in their migration figures, with millions of people moving to the country from all over the world. Many would argue that migration has always had a similar pattern but it's only recently it's become so widely noticed. Migration has always occurred, but it's now occurring in such vast numbers and resources are being stretched that it's becoming a concern and that is, again, partly due to the ease of migration. Nowadays, every country is a visa and a plane journey away which, for an increasingly educated and consequently skilled population, means it's becoming easier to migrate.