Thursday 9 October 2014

Minnesota



Minnesota:
There are many features that typify it's inhabitants, these are the climate, the geography, mobility and a transient population.

The climate of Minnesota represents the state because the winter weather is really cold as well as having lots of snow during this season. The freezing conditions where water freezes before it hits the ground means that winter clothing is a main feature of the states inhabitants, as they have to wear beanie hats, snow shoes/boots, gloves, scarves and thermal clothing so that they can live during the harsh weather.

The geography is also a feature that represents Minnesota's inhabitants because it is situated in the north of the country (Canada's border) and here the climate is much different than a southern state such as Florida. Another feature is the lakes that are in and around Minnesota, 'The Great Lakes' including Lake Superior which because of where it is geographically, it is the coldest lake out of them all.

These features have an influence on the mobility of the states as people move either to or from Minnesota. Many people move away from Minnesota because of where it is in the United States as well as the weather in the winter. A lot of it's inhabitants go to Florida which are then known as 'snowbirds' because they have come from the colder states to the warmer states in order to get the sunshine in the sun, as well as escaping the harsh winter conditions such as the snow. many of these people are elderly who struggle to live in Minnesota through the winter because it is extremely cold. However others within Minnesota don't move at all through the winter months because they either can't due to work etc. or because they just don't want to and are happy to live through the harsh weather conditions during the winter season. People don't generally go to Minnesota from other states because of the weather, but also because of there are another 49 states to choose from, which may offer more than Minnesota as well as a much better standard of living too such as Florida where it has a much warmer climate through the winter.

In the past it has been known that as many as 73,000 people aged sixty and over left for the winter (to a warmer state). This shows that the mobility of Minnesota is extremely high! The highest percentage of movement include the months of November, December, January, February and and March.

The state or region determines your identity because the culture across America varies throughout the whole country and this means that people who are from Minnesota will have an identity different from someone from North Carolina or North Dakota. For example, the identity of Minnesota's inhabitants would be 'northerners' whereas the identity of Alabama would be 'southerner'. All these different identities vary between each state so the region does determine the identity of a person.

Sources:
  wcanada.remax.com 
http://conservancy.umn.edu/bitstream/handle/11299/119679/1/19-4-issue.pdf

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