The Characteristics of British Migrants in the 1990s: Evidence from a New Survey

Abstract

New data on migrants in Great Britain have been collected as part of a Gallup Poll. Data are available for 18 010 respondents on the length of time since they last moved, and for 3605 of these on whether the move was intra-urban, intra-county or intercounty. Respondents' personal characteristics are also available, including sex, age, marital status, household size, tenure, education, employment status, occupation and social class. These characteristics were cross-tabulated against migration and type of move. All personal characteristics had strongly significant relationships with migration, the strongest being age, housing tenure and employment. As found in other studies, younger people were much more likely to be recent migrants; there is little evidence that retirement migration is a numerically important phenomenon. Tenants of private rented housing are much more likely to be recent migrants than owner-occupiers, especially those who own their house outright; local authority housing does not appear to have a deterrent effect on migration. Students are highly migratory, and recent migrants are disproportionately likely to be unemployed, while retired people are the least likely to be migrants. Migration is associated with small household size and with late school-leaving age. Distance of move had a significant relationship to all personal characteristics except age and household size. The strongest relationships were with tenure, occupation and social class. Local authority tenants were much less likely than other groups to have moved between counties. The higher social classes and the more prestigious occupations (managerial and professional) were the most likely to have moved between counties.