The economic, political, or religious situation of one's home country may become intolerable and cause that person to want out. For example, many of the original thirteen colonies were begun because people in Europe were suffering from one of these three problems. As another example, in the first half of the nineteenth century, there was a severe potato famine in Ireland. Consequently, more than two million Irish immigrated to the U.S.. These kinds of things are called "push" factors. They push people away from their homelands.
