Hypothesis Of Mobility Transition Research Articles

Micro-Mobility in Flux

In this article we use new, unique data on population composition and socio-economic structure for the c. 670 municipalities of the Belgian provinces of East Flanders, West Flanders and Antwerp in 1796, 1815 and 1846, in order to gain insight into the changing patterns of local migration intensity from the late eighteenth to the mid-nineteenth century. Although so-called micro-mobility is often disregarded in migration studies, this article argues that a spatial and diachronic analysis of local migration rates provides insight into the dynamics of social and economic change in relation to migration behaviour. The data show that the proportion of non-native residents varied strongly in accordance with different regional economies at the end of the eighteenth century, but that spatial variation declined markedly as overall migration rates converged on a higher average level by the mid-nineteenth century – leading to a re-interpretation of the mobility transition hypothesis.

Brigit Glorius, Izabela Grabowska-Lusińska & Aimee Kuvik (eds.): Mobility in Transition. Migration Patterns After EU Enlargement

Brigit Glorius, Izabela Grabowska-Lusińska & Aimee Kuvik (eds.): Mobility in Transition. Migration Patterns After EU Enlargement

On mobility and fertility transitions in east and southeast Asia.

The relationship between fertility and mobility is examined with reference to Zelinsky's [1971] mobility transition hypothesis. Five Asian countries (Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, China) at different stages of development and mobility transition are compared with respect to shifting sectoral patterns of migration and changing levels of fertility. National trends suggest that the development sequence proposed by Zelinsky on the basis of the European experience does not generally apply to Asia. In four out of five cases examined, fertility declined before substantial urbanization took place. Zelinsky's sequence of mobility change should be modified to fit the experience of developing countries, but the importance of the interrelations hip between fertility decline and mobility change remains

Aspects of Migration in an Advanced Industrial Society

This paper tests the hypothesis that 1935-80 U.S. migration patterns both within and between metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas and regions and migrant/nonmigrant educational differences reflect regional changes in socioeconomic development and settlement patterns. Gross migration flows support the mobility transition hypothesis and the idea that developmental changes in metropolitanization structure the context of migration. Since the Great Depression, socioeconomic transformations of the periphery have reduced differences in migration patterns between the periphery and core regions. While migrants still have more education than nonmigrants, their differences vary systematically by regional socioeconomic development. Specifically, migrant/nonmigrant educational differences are (1) similar at origin and destination when both are at similar levels of socioeconomic development; (2) lower at the origin if the origin is higher in socioeconomic development; and (3) higher at the origin if the destination is higher in socioeconomic development.

Mobility of Labour in High Mountains and the Socio-Economic Integration of Peripheral Areas

This paper discusses the mobility of labour in high mountain areas and examines its significance for the integration of these peripheral regions into the economy and society of the respective country. The interpretation is based on concepts of develop- ment and migration theory, especially on Friedmann's (1966) centre-periphery model, and on the hypothesis of mobility transition by Zelinsky (1971). Both stress the importance of labour migrations in the incipient process of spatial development. The practical application of these models to certain mountain areas, however, reveals their limitations. In the Alps, for example, labour migrations and integration of the periphery started centuries before the beginning of the phase of industrialization, although these processes have been interpreted in both models as transitional. On the other hand, mobilization of labour is a recent phenomenon in the Hindukush, Karakoram, and Western Himalaya. Here it developed as a consequence of the opening of the mountain valleys since the nineteenth century and with rapidly increasing over-population. Finally, four socio-economic types of high mountain regions are proposed. These have different patterns of spatial mobility instead of phase or stage models. The dynamic Type 4 is emphasized; this is characterized by recreational and daily commuting mobility and, contrary to the other three types, by full integration into a national or even international system.

The Postwar Mobility Transition in Eastern Europe

In this article we shall examine the decline of migration and its replacement by commuting in Eastern Europe specifically in the advanced industrial nations of the Soviet Union the German Democratic Republic Czechoslovakia Poland and Hungary. Since World War II these countries have experienced changes in mobility that are characteristic of the passage in Zelinskys model from the Early Transitional Society phase through Advanced Society phase and even exhibit elements in the attempts to control mobility of his Future Superadvanced Society. We however view the degree and rate of this transition as the result not of inexorable and universal process but of deliberate government interventions in the economies of the socialist nations. These interventions have severely affected the characteristics and consequences of the mobility transition resulting in distortions in Eastern European patterns that raise questions as to the wide applicability and utility of the mobility transition hypothesis. (excerpt)