Do secondary motives shape migration? The interplay between

Do secondary motives shape migration? The interplay between labour markets, residential qualities and family ties.
Viktor A Venhorst, University of Groningen, Faculty of Spatial Sciences. [email protected]
It is generally reported that short distance moves are associated with residential motives whereas longer distance moves are more often related to labour market or educational motives. Yet, at the same time, in the Graves -Linneman type of frameworks moves are viewed more in terms of a trade off with migrants willing to trade labour market outcomes for untradeable local amenities. Such untradeable amenities can include family networks. Such networks might be instrumental in finding better matches in labour and residential markets, but moving closer to or away from family might be a goal in its own right as well. This suggests that looking at migration as a multi faceted decision, rather than a one dimensional work - housing dichotomy might prove fruitful in deepening our understanding of what drives interregional migration. Even if a longer distance move is undertaken for the primary motive of finding work, secondary motives may prove vital in making the ultimate decision as to whether to move at all, and if so what the destination might be.
In this paper we will investigate primary and secondary motives for migration. We will try and establish which combinations of primary and secondary motives occur, and what their prevalence is. We will investigate whether there are differences between subgroups that have received ample attention in the literature, such as young recent graduates, families, elderly. In particular, we investigate to what extent more classic motives such as labour, education and residence, coincide with motives related to family networks. Furthermore we investigate whether different profiles are associated with different migration outcomes.
Data (Niedomysl et al, 2009): This paper uses survey data collected in collaboration with Statistics Sweden in spring 2007 via a postal questionnaire sent to a stratified sample of 10,000 Swedish migrants, of a total population of 244,704 migrants who had moved at least 20 km in 2006. This group was stratified by sex, age (four age groups in a total range of 18– 74 years of age), and migration distance (four groups). The questionnaire contained 40 questions covering various aspects of migration and the migrants’ individual characteristics. After two reminders, 4,909 migrants (49%) had returned useful responses. Of these, 4566 had moved across a municipal boundary and thus constitute the studied population.
The dataset has been used in motive research before (Niedomysl et al 2009, 2011), looking into the relationship between migration motives and return migration for example. Specifically we will use the questions on primary and secondary motives, and on specific reasons to either stay or leave particular areas.
There are no preliminary findings yet, we are currently translating and preparing the data.