A survey is presented of stochastic and deterministic developments in the study of the effects of nearest-neighbour ‘migration’ between spatially separated ‘colonies’. Such processes are of general applicability, and are relevant to any vector process X(t) = (X1(t), · ··, XN(t)) in which the arrival, departure and transfer rates for the states {X(t) = n} may be written in the form α i(ni), βi(ni) and γ ij(ni, nj), respectively, where n = (n1, · ··, nN). Whilst the main body of results are described in terms of birth-death, genetic and epidemic situations, the final section examines within colony interaction in the context of spatial predator-prey processes.
