Recent Soviet Experience and Western ‘Laws’ of Population Migration

Abstract

change in Soviet policy also offers the opportunity to compare recent Soviet population movement with generalization about internal migration phenomena observed for some time now in Western nations. Probably the most famous set of generalizations is E. G. Ravenstein’s pioneering The Laws of Migration based on the British Census of 1881 and subsequent observations concerning the experience of more than twenty countries. Ravenstein concluded that most migrants proceed short distances that females are numerous in short distance moves that when migrants do move great distances they tend to travel to large urban centers and that the economic motive predominates. In addition he generalized that migration proceeds by stages and that for each stream of migration a counter-stream or reverse flow develops. Ravenstein also surmised that migration occurs more frequently in rural than in urban areas and that the level of population movement increases as an economy becomes more complex. Taking into account more current research Everett S. Lee formulated a set of laws in A Theory of Migration which summarizes much of what demographers know concerning the volume of internal migration streams and counter-streams and the characteristics of migrants. It is the purpose of this paper to determine the degree to which recent Soviet migration can be adequately described by generalizations concerning Western experience. Rather than adhering to the letter of the lawsof either Ravenstein or Lee this survey and comparison proceeds according to an outline based on both works. (excerpt)