International Migration Processes Research Articles

FEATURES OF ASSESSMENT OF THE INFLUENCE OF PROCESSES OF FORCED MIGRATION ON SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF REGIONS

Forced migration processes, which started in Ukraine with the collapse of the Soviet Union, have taken new forms and reached their peak with the aggression of the Russian Federation in 2014. Since then, the problem of determining the impact of these processes on the development and security of the country's regions has been particularly relevant. In this regard, the article considers existing methods and international experience of a quantitative assessment of the impact of migration phenomena on the socio-economic development of regions. In addition, the author pays special attention to the identification and justification of the features inherent in internal migration processes, which directly impose restrictions on the quantitative assessment of the impact of these phenomena on the socio-economic development of regions and the obstacles researchers face in this field. Several critical features are determining the requirements for the choice of quantitative methods for assessing the impact of migration processes on regional socio-economic development, i.e., the complexity of establishing a direct relationship resulting from displacement is completely separated from the general societal changes; the impact of displacement will vary depending on several key factors; a high level of subjective judgements and estimations; the research results are sensitive to the level of initial data aggregation, their homogeneity and comparability; the lack of statistical information must be taken into account. A retrospective analysis of existing domestic and foreign approaches to overcome these problems has been carried out. Moreover, their advantages and disadvantages are pointed out. Based on the obtained results, it has been proved that the linear paradigm, which is superior to the classical economic and mathematical methods, is not always applicable. At the same time, the possibility of using modern non-linear approaches such as the theory of open systems, the theory of chaos has been proposed and justified. Furthermore, relevant conclusions have been made, and prospects for further research have been outlined.

Международная миграция и рынки труда в пандемию COVID-19

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, international migration was a global process with multilateral population movements between states. Migration provided countries with significant opportunities for development, providing an influx of intellectual capital, labor, and financial resources. For example, in some developing countries, remittances from migrant workers have been comparable to, and in recent years even exceeded, FDI and aid. According to the UN in 2020, every seventh inhabitant of the Earth was a migrant. In fact, migration has become a global factor in the development of societies and economies. The COVID-19 pandemic has made significant adjustments to international migration, and has also significantly transformed both international and national labor markets. In relation to the international labor market, the pandemic can be seen as a negative externality, and the result of its negative impact was the failure of the economy in general and the labor market in particular. The failure of the labor market was expressed in the instability of supply and demand, which led to a change in working conditions and employment, an increase in structural imbalances in terms of compensation for work and the distribution of labor resources across sectors of the economy, as well as a decrease in the importance of professional forms of organization of the workforce. With regard to the processes of international migration, one can state the formation of the phenomenon of the “post-COVID syndrome”, which refers to the restoration of the scale of migration flows after a pandemic, accompanied by a transformation of the factors and structure of migration. Due to the high importance of migration flows for national economies and the world economy, these changes will be able to significantly transform the international and national labor markets, in which migrants occupied significant niches. In this regard, the issue of monitoring and improving the mechanisms for managing migration in crisis and post-COVID conditions at the international and national levels is being updated.

Expatriação de atletas e seus aspectos psicológicos: uma revisão sistemática de literatura.

Athletes from sports modalities migrate throughout their career to other countries in search of different objectives, among them, to achieve better performance and social and financial status. In this sense, the objective of this study was to review the literature in relation to the psychological aspects involved in the expatriation process of athletes. For this purpose, searches were carried out in the Scielo, PubMed, SportDiscus, BVS, Embase and CAPES theses and dissertations databases, with words specific to each base, in English, Portuguese and Spanish. Studies that included performance athletes and investigated the process of international migration in sport were included and review studies and studies with students, student athletes and coaches were excluded. After careful screening, carried out by means of the bibliographic reference manager program, the EndNote® software, eight studies eligible for analysis were selected and stored using the temporal model of cultural transition. Thus, the results obtained illustrated that, among athletes, it is not a common practice to search for previous information about the host country and / or the sports context to which they will be inserted. In relation to the process of acute cultural adaptation, it became evident that the main strategy used is linked to basic psychological needs, in addition to language learning, were fundamental in promoting the feeling of belonging to culture and, consequently, the development of sociocultural adaptation. Therefore, it is concluded that investigating the psychological aspects involved in the international migration of athletes, offering the psychological preparation to face the challenges pertinent to cultural adaptation, will probably contribute to a better understanding in the choices of strategies to be used in this process, as well as can determining the success of the migration.

ФОРМИРОВАНИЕ И РЕАЛИЗАЦИЯ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННОЙ МИГРАЦИОННОЙ ПОЛИТИКИ В РОССИИ: ЭКОНОМИЧЕСКИЕ АСПЕКТЫ

The effectiveness of the development of the socio-economic system of any modern state directly depends on the rationality of the formation and the effectiveness of the implementation of the state migration policy. The purpose of the article is to analyze the trends and problems of the development of migration relations in the Russian Federation, the features of the state migration policy and the development of recommendations for its improvement. The paper analyzes the main elements of the regulatory framework in terms of regulation of the state mig- ration policy in the domestic economy. The study of the dynamics of the migration flow was carried out, and also one-factor correlation-regression analysis was used. The main approaches to the rational implementation of the migration policy of the state in relation to illegal migrants are highlighted. A statistical assessment of the dynamics of the migration flow in the Russian Fede- ration in 2010–2018 has been carried out to the level of crime. It is shown that from the point of view of maximizing the average level of profi- tability of products in the economy of the Russian Federation, the annual flow of migrants of working age should be about 200–250 thousand people. The main problems in the implementation of the state migration policy in the Russian Federation are highlighted, such as insufficient attention to the processes of intraregional migration, the lack of comprehensive programs in this area, the lack of efforts to socialize legal migrants from neighboring countries, the lack of effective measures to overcome the migration of the most qualified personnel. Recommendations were developed for improving the state migration policy in the Russian economy in terms of improving the statistical registration of migrants; implementation of a viable strategy for state management of migration processes; creation of effective mechanisms for the integration of migrants into the system of the host society; paying attention to the processes of internal migration, as well as the development of international cooperation in the field of migration policy.

The Challenges of Climate Change forMigration

Nowadays, when we want to describe environmental conditions, terms like air, water and soil pollution, melting glaciers, devastating drought, rising sea levels, population problems or the decrease of biodiversity are among the first ones to come up. The environment has always been a driver of migration. The estimation on the total number of environmental migrants due to global factors such as population growth, poverty, governance, human security and conflict, which have a huge impact, is quite challenging. As for the predictions, this amount may range from 25 million to one billion by the year 2050.2 Europe has become one of the most important immigration destinations in recent decades, and migratory pressures are increasing. Furthermore, the continent is affected not only by external exodus, but also by internal migration, as a result of environmental degradation, which can also be observed there, further accelerating the process of internal migration. The immigration policies of most destination countries are not conducive to receiving large numbers of environmental migrants, unless they enter through already existing admission categories. Thus typically, the purpose of the residence is employment, education and family reunification, but what about the people who had to leave their homes because of the environmental degradation? During the coronavirus pandemic economic activity slowed down, causing a reduction in carbon emissions, but due to the constant deterioration of the environmental conditions there are a lot of discussions about the term sustainable development. The aim of this study is to demonstrate how climate change has a major role to play in the migration tendencies, as it may amplify the existing political, social or economic problems. Discussing this topic, it is inevitable to use the term environmental refugee. After an overview of the relevant scientific literature, the author looks for the answer to the question whether there have been any changes in the regulations since the introduction of this concept.

Особенности процессов внутренней миграции и формирование новых центров притяжения внутренних мигрантов в Казахстане

The article presents an analysis of the processes of internal migration in Kazakhstan in the period from 2000 to 2019. Also the main vectors of internal migrants are identified. On the basis of secondary data analysis, the factors that shape internal migration flows in the country are analyzed. The paper considers state programs aimed at stimulating the relocation of citizens from labor-surplus regions to labor-deficient regions, gives their results and addresses the problems that make difficult to analyze the effectiveness of these state programs.

Socio-ecological aspects of the realization of the human potential of workers in resource-producing regions

One of the problems of resource-producing regions, both in Russia and in other countries, is provision of industrial enterprises with professional personnel. It has an impact on the development of socio-economic infrastructure, the degree of technological development, the state of the environmental situation and other aspects. Depending on the state structure and socio-political situation, these problems have their own specifics, in particular, it concerns the coal industry of Kuzbass in the XX-XXI centuries. In the XX century, the formation of human resources was first ensured by free recruitment, organized recruiting and party mobilizations. It is emphasized that under these conditions, the state authorities and the party leadership were forced to make a decision to use the labor of special settlers, labor settlers, home front soldiers, as well as the labor of Soviet Germans deported to Kuzbass at industrial facilities, including at coal industry enterprises. At the end of the XX - beginning of the XXI century, there is a change in the approaches to the formation of human resources, depending on the socio-economic, demographic and other conditions of the development of modern Russia. The problems of the formation and development of industry, the dynamics of human resources potential and demographic changes in Western Siberia were considered in the works of A. B. Konovalov, S. V. Soboleva, E. M. Shcherbakova, and others. Climatic conditions, the lack of basic household infrastructure, staff turnover on the one hand, and the lack of environmental standards on the other, have led to inefficient socio-economic regional development and an increase in environmental problems. In modern conditions, this is manifested not only in the growth of oncological diseases in Kuzbass, but also in the degree of environmental pollution by industrial waste, including the tendency to alienate agricultural land for the construction of technological roads, warehouses for the fertile soil layer and sites for auxiliary equipment. Attention is focused on the fact that for the rise of industry and the increase in coal production, it was necessary to attract labor, and the demographic situation is contradictory: on the one hand, the dynamics of the natural birth rate of the population decreased, which was a characteristic phenomenon for all regions of Western Siberia, and on the other, the lack of labor resources was compensated due to internal migration processes.

Emigration from closed administrative-territorial formations of the nuclear industry in the 1990s: trends and consequences

The article examines the emigration of residents of the closed administrative-territorial formations (ZATO) of the nuclear industry in the 1990s. The methodological basis of the research was formed by the basic principles of scientific historical research - the principles of objectivity and historicism. Particular attention waspaid to the trends in emigration processes, the structure of the outgoing flow, directions of departure. It was shown that the radical modernizing transformations of the late 20th century led to the fact that the inhabitants of Russia, including closed cities, were fully involved in global processes of international migration. As a result of the study, it was revealed that in the 1990s, emigration from the closed administrative territories of the nuclear industry was relatively limited in scale. The emigration flow reached its peak in 1996, after which it began to decline. During the period under study, about 60% of ZATO residents emigrated for the purpose of permanent residence abroad. Mostly young people (up to forty years old) left the country. Dissatisfaction with the possibilities of realizing creative and scientific potential has led to intellectual emigration («brain drain»).

Migración chilota en Magallanes: una lectura sociológica de la diferenciación social

En este artí­culo se pretende presentar una lectura sociológica de dimensiones de la diferenciación social que vivencian los y las migrantes internas de Chiloé en Magallanes. A través de realización de entrevistas cualitativas a migrantes llegados antes de 1980, se identifican dimensiones históricas y sociales de los procesos de inserción a una sociedad diferente y cómo se materializa el ser chilote, lo que tiene efectos hasta el dí­a de hoy. Se considera que las tradiciones conceptuales que describen la construcción de un otro a través de la noción de extranjero y migrante generan importantes rendimientos analí­ticos para procesos de migración interna, y a partir de ello, se concluye que la diferenciación y discriminación de chilotes en Magallanes tiene un carácter más latente que manifiesto, pero estable en el tiempo que se reproduce hasta la actualidad.

Psychological Distress and Somatization in Immigrants in Primary Health Care Practices.

The process of international migration causes a situation of vulnerability in people’s health and greater difficulty in coping with disease. Furthermore, the adversities suffered during migration can trigger reactive signs of stress and cause anxious, depressive, confusional and somatic symptoms. This article studies the relationships between psychosocial risk, psychological distress and somatization in immigrants from four communities: Maghrebis, Sub-Saharans, South Americans and South Asian. A cross-sectional study was carried out with questionnaires on 602 immigrants who were surveyed in the primary care centers of an urban area of Catalonia. The instruments used were the Demographic Psychosocial Inventory (DPSI), the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) and the Somatic Symptom Inventory (SSI). The average psychosocial risk obtained was 0.35, with the highest values in the Sub-Saharan community. Psychological distress showed a mean value of 0.66, with the Sub-Saharan community scoring the lowest in all dimensions except depression. The average somatization values were 1.65, with the Sub-Saharan community scoring the least. The female gender is a risk factor for somatization and psychological distress. Perceived psychosocial risk is a predictor of psychological distress, but not somatization, suggesting that the use of more adaptive coping strategies could minimize the effect of the migration process on somatizations.

International migrations and ethnic interactions in the modern world: features of social actualization

The presented article researches the features of the social implementation of the processes of international migration and ethnic interactions in the modern world. The author consistently focuses on the analysis of statistical data, driving forces and factors of international migration movements affecting the globalizing planetary society in general and Russia in particular. A special place in the study is paid to the problems of sociocultural adaptation in the context of interethnic relations, the formation of various behavioral models and strategies of interaction between representatives of different peoples and cultures of the world, as well as topical issues of the development and practical implementation of an effective integration policy of the state in relation to the multiethnic and multicultural contingent of its population. The materials of this article are intended to contribute to both scientific understanding and practical achievement of harmonization of ethnic and cross–cultural interactions at various levels of public life’s organization.

Terrorism Threat Level in the Context of Modeling the Impact of Macroeconomic Indicators

The authors call terrorism a global threat and point out the necessity of studying this negative phenomenon on the basis of empirical data while taking into consideration regional specifics. They use the methodology of cluster analysis (SPSS Statistics software) of statistical data on the number of terrorism crimes to analyze the spread of this threat on the territory of the Russian Federation. Three centers of terrorism tensions have been identified: North Caucasian Federal District, Moscow and the Republic of Tatarstan. Besides, the authors attempted to establish a linear dependence between the dynamics of terrorism crimes and such factors as socio-economic situation and migration. The calculations showed that there is no cause-and-effect link between material status and terrorism. The socio-economic situation is not the key factor that creates the condition of terrorism threat, although its impact is considerate. This is equally just for the above-mentioned centers of tensions. Foreign researcher of this problem come to similar conclusions. Besides, the correlation between the migration coefficient (increase per 100 th. inhabitants) and the level of terrorism crimes has not been proven. At the same time, it is mentioned that the insufficiently external and internal migration processes influence the spread of extremism ideology. To prove this, the authors present information from the Court Department of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, according to which in recent years the number of foreign citizens who commit terrorism crimes has been steadily growing, and they have been involved in practically all types of terrorism crimes. It is thus impossible to identify a single key factor of terrorism. The system determining terrorism crimes consists of a complex interaction of negative processes in all spheres of public life (economic, social, governance, ideological, criminal), which is reflected in the psychological state of society as a whole. It is expedient to pay special attention to the analysis of the personality of terrorists as well as persons who get involved in terrorism activities.

Migration Trends in the World and in Poland versus National Security

Purpose: The aim of the paper is to analyse migration trends in the world from 1990 to the present day and economic migration in Poland in the years 2015-2019. Aspects related to national security in the context of the scale of crimes committed by economic migrants residing in Poland will also be discussed. Design/Methodology/Approach: In the research implementation process, data, and sources analysis, as well as a modeling method to show extrapolation of migration trends. Findings: The methodology used allowed the authors to determine that international migration processes have permanently entered the order of functioning of countries around the world. Practical Implications: According to the authors, showing current trends in global migration contributes to acting at international and national levels to counteract the negative effects of migration Originality/value: According to the authors, presenting the forecasted upward trend in international migration based on the logistic model of the number of migrants in the world may become a factor stimulating the activities of specific countries in terms of their security in the broad sense.

The Information Communication Technology, Social Media, International Migration and Migrants’ Relations with Kin in Nigeria

Studies abound on international migration and remittances across the world and studies are particularly not lacking on the subject in Africa. There are however few studies on the moderating roles of information communication technology (ICT) and social media in the relationships among international migration, remittances and relationships in Sub-Saharan Africa. This article examines the dimension of ICT and social media in migration studies. This is an aspect that has often been ignored and overlooked even though ICT and social media have great contributions in the international migration process particularly as migrants and relatives in sending and receiving countries both have the primary experience. Research objectives include: reasons for emigration; information technology/social media used by migrants and their kin as they relate across spaces; and how ICT affects relationships of kin and international migrants. Secondary data were gathered through journals, books, documents and reliable Internet sources. Primary data were gathered in Ibadan, Nigeria in 2018 through 30 in-depth interviews analysed through content analysis. Findings reveal the nature of ICT used by international migrants and their kin and purpose of utilization and the effects of ICT on international migration, remittances and kinship networks. The article presents detailed data, narratives, interpretations and implications of relationships among international migration, ICT/social media and kinship networks. This article argues that ICT/social media is central to international migration decision-making, access of migrants and kin to social forces and factors motivating international migration, and it is very important to how migrants and kin maintain and/or weaken relationships and access to remittances and utilization.

ЭТНОПОЛИТИЧЕСКИЕ ФАКТОРЫ ВНУТРЕННЕЙ МИГРАЦИИ В РЕСПУБЛИКЕ КРЫМ

Recently, internal migration processes have been of particular importance for the development and functioning of the Crimean Peninsula. Since 2014, Crimea has been increasingly attracting migrants from other regions of Russia. When considering the ethnopolitical situation in Crimea and ethnic migration, it may seem that modern migrations on the Crimean Peninsula do not significantly affect the ethnic composition of the population. However, the factor of ethnicity in a destructive sense is being updated, and there may be concerns about changes in the national composition, as a deliberate policy of resettling Russians to the Peninsula by a part of the Crimean Tatar population under the influence of the Mejlis, and, to no lesser extent, the risks of ethnic and social discrimination, infringement of individual rights by ethnic status.

Population Change and International and Internal Migration in Italy, 2002-2017: Ravenstein Revisited

In 1885, Ravenstein formulated his “laws” of migration, based on the experience of the British Isles. In a further 1889 paper, he extended his analysis as a tour d’horizon of migration and population changes in other nations, including Italy. Even if social and economic processes including globalisation and rising mobility have changed the world since then, Ravenstein’s “laws” remain a point of reference today. Harnessing theoretical and methodological advances made since the 19th century, this paper describes and seeks to explain the role of international and internal migration in regional population change in Italy from 2002-2017. This paper provides the first geographically detailed migration analysis for the country’s 611 Local Labour Market Areas (LLMAs), using register-based migration and population data. Our contribution focuses on several of Ravenstein’s “laws” relating to gender (differences between men and women), natives and non-natives (differences between the Italian and the foreign population), distance migrated from origin to destination, and the role of the economy in shaping push and pull factors of migration. The results show that international migration is more prominent among men than women. In the case of internal moves, the rates of migration among men and women are similar, and internal migration is more prominent among the foreign than the native Italian population. Overall, international migration gains contribute substantially more to population change than internal migration gains and losses do. In Italy, the effects of persistent economic imbalances and of distance on migration patterns are not in line with Ravenstein’s hypotheses: not all areas with high unemployment show an effect of dispersion, nor does distance always act as a deterrent to migration. The geographically detailed analysis presented here illustrates the temporal and spatial coexistence of diverse international and internal migration processes depending on local characteristics, as well as the importance of the economic or administrative centres as the driving force behind national patterns. Our results show that, even 130 years after their formulation, Ravenstein’s migration “laws” (more accurately called “hypotheses” today) are still a valuable starting point in assessing and understanding migration processes and their role in regional population change.
 
 * This article belongs to a special issue on “Internal Migration as a Driver of Regional Population Change in Europe: Updating Ravenstein”.

ОСОБЕННОСТИ РОССИЙСКОГО МИГРАНТСКОГО ОБРАЗОВАТЕЛЬНОГО ДИСКУРСА

In recent years, the processes of international cooperation and migration in the sphere of science and education in Russia have been actively developing in the context of the formation of an international scientific and educational space. This article discusses the features of the functioning of the Russian migrant educational discourse. Based on the analysis of sources in the Russian scientific and periodical press, electronic media, and articles in the blogs of teachers and parents on the Internet that are part of the migrant educational discourse, we have noted that it is dominated by erethism. Most of the texts of this discourse indicate that they are dominated by a negative attitude towards this group of students studying in Russian schools. The media often uses the technique of "dramatization", strengthening the negative position of the topic at the expense of the title. The analysis of texts shows that in the migration educational media discourse, communication strategies primarily Express a conflict (confrontational) communication strategy. Only a small part of the texts (about 20%) is focused on cooperative tactics aimed at developing linguistic tolerance in a multicultural educational space.

Підходи до виявлення зовнішнього керування міжнародними міграційними процесами

В статті розроблені способи виявлення зовнішнього керування процесами міжнародної міграції з метою попередження їх використання як засобу деструктивного впливу на цільову країну або зменшення негативних наслідків такого керування. Виділено два основні напрямки впливу суб’єкта зовнішньої політики на міграцію – з метою вирішення внутрішніх проблем і з метою її використання як засобу деструктивного впливу. Враховуючи можливий прихований характер дій суб’єкта зовнішньої політики, для кожного з напрямків розроблено способи виявлення його зацікавленості в міграції і в її певних характеристиках, розроблено показники, аналіз яких дозволяє виявити ознаки керування актором процесів міжнародної міграції, набуття нею конфліктогенних властивостей і використання конфліктного потенціалу міграції з метою ослаблення або дестабілізації цільової країни зсередини.

The Process of Internal Migration in England and Wales, 1851-1911: Updating Ravenstein and the Step-Migration Hypothesis

Since their publication in 1885 and 1889 respectively, Ravenstein’s laws of migration – which have since been summarised as eleven broad rules – have achieved something approaching universal acceptance (Ravenstein 1885, 1889). While most of these laws have been tested and retested using data drawn from a range of countries and time periods – invariably reconfirming the status of his hypotheses as “laws” – one hypothesis has been resistant to attempts to confirm Ravenstein’s interpretation; the so-called step-migration hypothesis. Given the conflicting definitions of step-migration, this article first recounts the historiography of the term and the subsequent reason why this paper has defined step-migration as a means by which individuals migrated, rather than a population-level phenomenon in which out-migrants are continually replaced by in-migrants. Recent studies have invariably concluded that while step-migration may have been the predominant means by which migration occurred during periods of industrialisation in the past, it is no longer the process by which movement occurs in modern, post-industrial societies (Plane et al. 2005). This article therefore critically re-evaluates the evidence upon which Ravenstein based his laws. The census. Whereas Ravenstein used the published report of the 1881 census; the present study utilises the complete, individual-level manuscript census returns from 1851 to 1911. Through an analysis of approximately 160 million lifetime migration paths, this paper draws two important conclusions. First, that most people’s migratory activity tended to be concentrated in a single move – usually upon leaving home – rather than in a series of steps over their lifetimes. This means the census – recording only individuals’ birthplace and location on census night – captures most people’s full migration histories, amplifying its value as a source for studying migration in the past. By first identifying the age range in which migration occurred, this article argues that the similarity of the age profile of migrants to those leaving home suggests they were one-and-the-same process. By then constructing synthetic cohorts and analysing the distances migrated by the population in each census between the mean ages of key lifecycle events – leaving home, leaving service and entering marriage – it is demonstrated that very little migration occurred beyond the first move. This is reiterated in a cohort analysis which shows very little change in the destinations of migrants between censuses. In order to search for evidence of migration post-marriage, mothers’ migration paths are reconstructed from those of their co-resident children. This similarly demonstrates that only a minority of mothers migrated during their childbearing years with the majority of migration occurring prior to the birth of their first child. This article therefore shows that while 1851-1911 was not a period without migration, nor was it one of constant movement. Rather, England and Wales urbanised because the majority made a considered choice of destination once in their lives. This article therefore demonstrates that migration in steps was the exception rather than the rule and that the individual-level census returns are a valuable source of migration evidence between 1851 and 1911 and deserve far wider use.
 * This article belongs to a special issue on “Internal Migration as a Driver of Regional Population Change in Europe: Updating Ravenstein”.

Multiple moves and return migration within developing countries: A comparative analysis

AbstractThis paper sheds new light on internal migration processes by estimating stylized migration histories for populations in 31 countries. The focus is on repeat migration and on return migration back to rural areas from urban areas. Migration histories are portrayed by introducingmigration pathway matrices, representing the shares of the population (by gender) that have moved or stayed in rural and urban areas over three periods (childhood and two forward periods). Using data from Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), the estimation of national migration pathway matrices was done with an information‐theoretic procedure using maximum‐entropy econometrics to estimate migration frequencies by population groups. Moving multiple times is found to be a consolidated practice in all countries analysed. Sizeable urban‐to‐rural migration flows are found, with rural returnees often contributing substantially to these flows. This phenomenon is more pronounced in countries in relatively early phases of economic development and among male migrants. For the sample of countries in sub‐Saharan Africa, on average, 51% of men and 32% of women migrating from urban to rural areas are return migrants who lived in rural areas as children. Results indicate many migrants move multiple times: In the overall sample of countries, at least 43% of men and 36% of women who move once will move a second time (or more), accounting for nearly 120 million individuals. We find large differences in migration histories across genders, with these differences tending to be smaller for countries that are further along their economic development path and more urbanised.