Migration Destination Choices Research Articles

A comparison of migration behaviour in Japan and Britain using spatial interaction models

AbstractSeveral recent papers have compared the measurement of migration in different countries, and some have compared migration patterns to the extent that these can be compared cross‐nationally. In this paper we measure and comment on differences in the behaviour of migrants in two systems, Japan and Britain. In both countries the focus of attention is on interregional migration. Migration behaviour is measured in terms of elasticities of migration responses to various aspects of destination attractiveness, namely distance from the origin, population size and relative accessibility to other destinations. Origin‐specific migration destination choice models are calibrated to obtain this information. The results reveal interesting differences in the factors underlying destination attractiveness in the two countries which have important implications both for the way in which migration is modelled, and for the impacts of migration on the urban systems in both countries. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The Ethnic Minority‐Majority Income Gap in Rural China during Transition

The Ethnic Minority‐Majority Income Gap in Rural China during Transition

Where are they going? A comparison of urban and rural youths' locational choices after leaving the parental home

The decision for adolescents and young adults to leave their parents and their home community is complex and difficult. This study of youth migration focuses on the geographical location to which urban and rural youths relocate upon exiting their parental household. Little is known about destination choices of youths, especially how they differ for youths from urban and rural areas. A multinomial logit model of migration destination choices that incorporates individual, household, and community-level factors is estimated with data from the 1979 cohort of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Results indicate that while the local economy and labor market are important to the migration decision, the magnitudes of these effects are generally small. Non-economic individual, household, and community factors play an important role in the migration process, as well. The magnitudes of non-economic factor effects generally are greater for rural youths compared to urban youths.

Intermetropolitan Migration and Hierarchical Destination Choice: A Disaggregate Analysis from the US Public Use Microdata Samples

In this paper the authors describe the application of spatial choice models to microlevel intermetropolitan migration destination choice data from the US Public Use Microdata Samples (PUMS) for the period 1985–90. The metropolitan and the microlevel data facilitate an analysis incorporating well-defined geographic units and their respective attributes, as well as an analysis disaggregated by the personal factors of migrants. The PUMS files provide one of the richest sources of national-level migration micro data in terms of geographic resolution, the number of individual or household characteristics recorded, sample size, and availability. The focus of the modelling exercise is to examine the performance of competing-destinations migration models which are based on the assumption that migrants process spatial information hierarchically. To date the only empirical testing of such models has been undertaken with aggregate spatial flow data, so the PUMS data provide a unique opportunity to examine the behaviour of the competing destinations framework in more detail. The authors provide information on the determinants of intermetropolitan migration within the USA and on the validity of the theoretical foundations of the competing-destinations framework. Traditional spatial choice models are shown to be severely misspecified and the distance-decay parameter estimates from such models to be potentially biased in such a manner that they exhibit the well-known ‘spatial structure’ effect. This effect does not appear when the parameters are estimated from competing-destinations models.

The Choice of Migration Destination: Dominican and Cuban Immigrants to the Mainland United States and Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico provides an alternative destination for immigrants from the Spanish-speaking Caribbean because the culture is similar to that in the source country. In this study, we use the 1980 Census of Population to examine the importance of relative earnings and culture in the choice of destination. The main finding is the similar pattern of choice of location for immigrants from the Dominican Republic and Cuba. The more educated and more professional immigrants are found in either Puerto Rico or outside the enclave on the mainland. Within this group, those with less time remaining in the labor market and lower English ability are found in Puerto Rico. We find that not all differences in location decision are attributable to differences in reward structure by location.

The Choice of Migration Destination: Dominican and Cuban Immigrants to the Mainland United States and Puerto Rico

"Puerto Rico provides an alternative destination for immigrants from the Spanish-speaking Caribbean because the culture is similar to that in the source country. In this study, we use the 1980 [U.S.] Census of Population to examine the importance of relative earnings and culture in the choice of destination. The main finding is the similar pattern of choice of location for immigrants from the Dominican Republic and Cuba. The more educated and more professional immigrants are found in either Puerto Rico or outside the enclave on the [U.S.] mainland. Within this group, those with less time remaining in the labor market and lower English ability are found in Puerto Rico. We find that not all differences in location decision are attributable to differences in reward structure by location."

The Costs and Returns of Human Migration

The Costs and Returns of Human Migration