An Eloquent Visualization of State-to-State Migration

John Metcalfe looks at Restless America, the "prismatic, arc-veined portal" that "shows the movements of the roughly 7.1 million Americans who relocated across state lines in 2012. It's based on the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey, an annual tabulation of moves that just so happens to include the involuntary uprootings of prisoners and members of the military."

What drove Walker, "a data-analytics virtuoso in Mumbai who also made that clever visualization of property values in New York City," to create the graphic? 

I'm really interested in migration, as I think migration patterns show that people still see opportunity and hope for better lives, and they're willing to take risks. I see migration as a form of 'creative destruction'; it renews and enriches some communities while eroding others. This process strains individual cities, but I think it's healthy for the country overall. People need to dream and be allowed to act on their dreams. I wanted to show this on a national scale.