emigration

noun

em·​i·​gra·​tion ˌe-mə-ˈgrā-shən 

plural emigrations

: an act or instance of emigrating : departure from a place of abode, natural home, or country for life or residence elsewhere

… with the advent of steamships, by the 1880s intensive emigration had spread from every corner of the globe.

—B. S. Rabinowitz

Further Chinese emigration to Taiwan was to be carefully limited.

—Jonathan D. Spence

Examples of emigration in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Shortages of skilled labor are restraining production in defense firms and across the economy, compounded by the emigration of several hundred thousand mostly younger people due to fears of conscription and political repression. — ABC News, 18 Sep. 2026

The interlocking effects of mass emigration, rapid aging, and a growing generational divide pose enormous challenges for Cuba’s future. — Will Freeman, Foreign Affairs, 17 Sep. 2026

The Chinese American star joined his parents and eight siblings on a harrowing emigration from South Vietnam to a Hong Kong refugee camp in 1978, three years after the Vietnam War ended. — Jack Smart, PEOPLE, 15 Sep. 2026

Colonizers call it voluntary emigration, but there is nothing voluntary about fleeing after your home has been bombed, your fields poisoned, your water cut off and your child buried. — Literary Hub, 11 Sep. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1614, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for emigration

• abdication
• aberration
• abjuration
• abnegation
• abrogation
• acceptation
• acclamation
• acclimation
• accusation
• activation
• actuation
• acylation

Medical Definition

emigration

noun

em·​i·​gra·​tion ˌem-ə-ˈgrā-shən 

: diapedesis