Internal Migration (Rural–Urban): Industrialized Countries

Abstract

Internal migration is the movement of people between usual residences within national states. This article starts with a description of the levels of residential mobility and degrees of interregional migration in industrialized countries. The countries of North America and Australasia have higher rates of migration activity than those in Europe. Within Europe rates are higher in North and Northwest Europe than in South and East Europe. The article reviews the progress of urbanization which is reaching its later stages in South and East Europe but which is finished in many industrialized countries. In many countries the direction of internal migration has shifted to deconcentration from large cities to smaller towns and rural settlements. However, this phenomenon, called counterurbanization, is variable in both time and space: the article provides contrasting case studies of net internal migration at different levels in the settlement hierarchy. Where internal migrant outflows from large metropolitan centers to their hinterlands are important, the pattern is also variable across the life course stage. It is strongest in the family/older workforce ages, subdued in the retirement ages and often reversed in the age group where young people seek higher education or join the labor market.