What does migrate mean?

[Zarinamo]

English Language Tests, Intermediate level

ESL/EFL Test #181 "Facts about pizza in the US: pizza industry expressions", question 9

Pizza ......... to America with the Italians at the end of the nineteenth century.

(a) roamed
(b) wandered
(c) drifted
(d) migrated

English Language Tests, Intermediate level

ESL/EFL Test #181 "Facts about pizza in the US: pizza industry expressions", answer 9

Pizza migrated to America with the Italians at the end of the nineteenth century.

Correct answer: (d) migrated

Your answer was: correct
_________________________

I thought the word migrate is uses just for people...

[MrPedantic]

Hello again Zarinamo,

Yes, usually it implies a living agent (whether human or animal). If the Italians had not been mentioned, the sentence would have sounded humorous or strange; but here, the sentence really means "the Italians migrated, and took pizza with them".

"Migrate" can also be used metaphorically, especially in IT; for instance, you "migrate" data when you transfer it to a new system or format, e.g.

1. We recently migrated the data to a new SQL server.

Best wishes,

MrP

[Zarinamo]

Thank you very much. Now it is clear...