Interregional Migration Patterns Research Articles

Interregional migration of construction workers in China: roles of employment opportunities and environment amenities

PurposeWithin the labor-intensive construction industry characterized by distinctly structural shortages in the labor force worldwide, efficient and effective migration of construction workers across regions is critical for the smooth operation of construction activities. This study aims to investigate how the interregional migration patterns of construction workers are impacted by the disparities in both employment opportunities and environment amenities between the origin and destination provinces.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on the push and pull theory and the archival data on 13,728 migrant construction workers in China, descriptive analyses are first performed to characterize the interregional migration patterns of the investigated construction workers. Combining regional data in the National Bureau of Statistics of China, this study uses hierarchical regression modeling techniques to empirically test the relative importance of the employment-related and environment-related factors in driving the interregional migration of construction workers after controlling for the effects of related economic and geographic factors.FindingsThe results provide evidence that the interregional migration of construction workers is principally driven by the disparities in employment opportunities while disparities in environment amenities (including climate comfort disparity, medical service disparity and educational service disparity) generally play much fewer substantive roles. With regard to the impacts of employment opportunities, the results provide evidence that compared with the disparity in job market size, the disparities in job income and industry development level are more significantly relevant factors, which positively pull and adversely push the interregional migration flows, respectively.Research limitations/implicationsThis study contributes to a deepened understanding of how workers specifically balance their employment and amenity needs to make temporary migration decisions in the “laggard” labor-intensive construction industry. This study also adds to the literature on population migration by characterizing the specific characteristics of construction workers and the temporary nature of the workers' migration activities. The findings hold important practical implications for construction organizations and policymakers for effectively managing the mobility of migrant construction workers.Originality/valueThe extant literature on migrant construction workers has primarily focused on the consequences of international migration and the generalization of empirical findings on population migration mechanisms in other domains to the construction industry is substantially limited by the specific characteristics of construction workers and the temporary nature of their migration activities. In addressing this gap, this study represents an exploratory effort to quantitatively characterize the interregional migration patterns of construction workers in the labor-intensive construction industry and examines the roles of employment opportunity and environmental amenity in driving interregional migration.

Interregional Migration of Youths in Russia: A Comprehensive Analysis of Demographic Statistics

Not dissimilar to many other countries, migration in Russia has a pronounced age-dependent pattern with the peak intensity at the age when people obtain higher and professional education. In this paper, we analyze migration intensity at student age (17–21) using three sources of demographic data with regard to their key opportunities and limitations. We compare the migration attractiveness of Russian regions in three ways. First, we apply APC analysis to the current migration statistical data, separately for two periods: 2003–2010 and 2011–2013. The reason for sampling these two periods is because there was a significant change in the migration statistics collection practices in 2011. Second, we use the age-shift method to analyze the data of the 2002 and 2010 Russian censuses. We offer a way to refine the census data by discarding the non-migration-related changes in the age-sex structure. Finally, we use information about the ratio between the number of school graduates and that of full-time high school enrolments in the academic years 2012/13 and 2013/14 across the regions. Based on the four indicators of migration intensity (intercensal estimates, statistical records for the two periods, and the graduate-enrolment ratio), we develop a rating of Russian regions in migration attractiveness for student-aged youths. A position in this rating depends not only on the level of higher education development in a region but also on the consistent patterns of interregional migration in Russia. The regions in the European part of the country have a much higher chance to attract migrants at student ages.

Evaluating the effects of Australian policy changes on human capital: the role of a graduate visa scheme

High-skilled migration across international borders is becoming increasingly important in policy and academic debates. In Australia, the recognition of the importance of attracting and retaining highly skilled individuals has stimulated fundamental shifts in immigration policies. This paper explores the impacts of one of these policy shifts in focusing on the introduction of a graduate visa scheme. The scheme was introduced in Australia for the first time in September 2007 offering international graduates from Australian universities 18 months of working rights post-graduation. Since the implementation of this visa scheme there has been a sharp increase in the number of overseas graduates staying in Australia. However, no research has been carried out that investigates the working conditions and interregional migration patterns of these graduates remaining in Australia under this temporary 18 months visa. Through the exploration of individual survey data describing the 2005 and 2008 cohorts of graduates representing the ‘before’ and ‘after’ the graduate visa scheme introduction this paper explores the impact of the visa scheme through analysing and comparing the working conditions and migration patterns of two cohorts of graduates. Findings suggest that although the introduction of the graduate visa scheme attracted more international students/graduates into the country, our analysis highlighted that the average working conditions of the international graduates who decided to remain in Australia worsened. Comparing these results with their domestic (Australian) graduate counterparts revealed that this was not due to the overall state of the Australian economy over the period under consideration.

Cluster Analysis of Interregional Migration in Turkey

AbstractDuring the past several decades, many studies illustrated the importance of socioeconomic factors on interregional migration in different countries. Interregional migration has had an immense impact on Turkey’s population dynamics after the 1950s. This study aims at investigating the patterns of interregional migration in Turkey during the period of 2008 to 2010 using a hierarchical cluster analysis. First, the paper gives background information about interregional migration by providing the ratios of immigration and emigration with respect to the population and the characteristics of the regions between 2007 and 2010. Second, interregional immigration and emigration flows are investigated by the use of a hierarchical clustering analysis with different linkage techniques, e.g., single, complete, average, and others, which determine how the distance between two clusters should be defined to represent actual partitioning. Then, the best partitioning of the regions is selected based on a popular inte...

Labour Mobility and Housing

This article examines whether housing tenure and regional differences in housing affordability have an impact on labour mobility. This relationship is important for understanding the sources of structural unemployment and impediments to economic growth. Using two sample surveys from the Czech Republic, this research reveals that at the individual level housing tenure is the most powerful factor determining willingness to change residence for employment reasons. A time-series regression analysis reveals that the impact of housing affordability on observed interregional migration patterns is relatively weak and that this effect is concentrated among the highly educated seeking employment in the capital, Prague. These results demonstrate that housing tenure has a significant impact on labour migration plans in case of unemployment and that the dynamic impact of regional differences in housing affordability on labour mobility is concentrated within the most highly skilled segment of the labour force.

Who is Headed South? U.S. Migration Trends in Black and White, 1970-2000

This research examines inter-regional migration patterns in the United States by native-born whites and blacks over the final four decades of the 20 th century. Our primary research question is whether regional changes in the United States have made the South a more favorable destination than it once was, especially for blacks. Using samples of census data from 1970 to 2000, we analyze white/black differences in primary (an original move) and return migration to the South, as well as in the selectivity of migration. We observe increasing rates of black (compared to white) migration to the South. Additionally, patterns of selectivity within this growing black migration stream suggest that younger, more educated black women are an important component of this regional population shift.

Origin dependence, secondary migration, and the indirect estimation of migration flows from population stocks

US census data from 1940 to 2000 are used in this paper to illustrate the importance of origin dependence on migration streams and to examine the effects of such dependence on patterns of interregional migration. These findings are then used to make possible the indirect estimation of migration flows. A method is introduced that uses historical regularities found in the ratios of secondary to primary migration and two consecutive birthplace-specific counts of multiregional population stocks. The results demonstrate how patterns of primary and secondary migration act to shape population redistribution processes.

Interregional Migration in Russia: An Application of the Gravity Model

The objective of this study is to test the applicability of the gravity model on interregional migration patterns in the Russian Federation after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The results clearly show that geographical (gravity) factors critically affect migration decisions in Russia. Although several problems are involved, distance-decay effects on migration were significantly observed; hence, geographical factors must be taken into consideration when analyzing migration in Russia.

Modeling interregional migration flows: Continuity and change

This paper addresses the question of how to formally represent the spatial structure of an observed origin‐destination‐specific pattern of interregional migration flows. Such a representation allows an analyst to compare the spatial structures of different migration regimes and contrast their changes over time. It also facilitates the indirect estimation of migration flows, in the absence of such data, by allowing the analyst to impose a particular age or spatial structure when observed flow data are inadequate, partial, or completely nonexistent. In this paper, we focus on the level and allocation aspects (or the generation and distribution components) of age‐specific interregional migration flows. We find that over time these flows exhibit strong regularities that can be captured by generalized linear models, which can then be used in situations where data are inadequate or missing to indirectly estimate interregional migration patterns.

Mississippians in motion? A population genetic analysis of interregional gene flow in West-Central Illinois.

Population genetic and biological distance studies of Late Woodland and Mississippian populations from west-central Illinois have provided insight into a number of prehistoric demographic processes at the regional level. However, a formal analysis of diachronic interregional gene flow has not been attempted within a population genetics framework. In this study, cranial measurements of 489 individuals from 13 skeletal samples across the central and lower Illinois valleys are analyzed to address two central issues. First, the potential impact of Cahokia's decline and associated demographic events on the population structure of west-central Illinois Mississippians is examined. Second, the Mississippian and Late Woodland interregional migration patterns are compared to determine if geographic and/or cultural boundaries affected local population structure. Following Relethford and Blangero ([1990] Hum Biol 62:5-25), R matrix methods are utilized to calculate observed and expected phenotypic variances, minimum genetic distances, and F(ST) values in order to detect patterns of differential external gene flow over time. The results indicate that Late Woodland peoples had a larger sphere of biological interaction than Mississippians. In the Mississippian period, culturally imposed barriers paralleled geographic boundaries between regions such that the geographic distribution of biological variation closely adheres to a classic isolation-by-distance model. Further, intraregional population movement was a more significant contributor to Mississippian population structure than interregional gene flow, even during periods of sociopolitical strife. Small-scale intraregional shuffling is consistent with other recent studies of prehistoric Mississippian biocultural and geographic landscapes in the southeast United States.

Immigration and the regional demographics of the elderly population in the United States.

This research examined the impacts of past international and interregional migration flows on regional elderly population growth and distribution patterns. The authors used 1960, 1970, 1980, and 1990 Census data and multiregional demographic models to analyze changes in the sources of regional elderly population growth rates, age compositions, and spatial distributions over time. Past elderly interregional migration patterns have exhibited considerable stability and have contributed less than aging-in-place in shaping regional elderly population geographies. Also the effects of immigration on elderly dependency ratios have been very modest. Little evidence exists of any significant breaks with past trends in internal elderly migration patterns. Reconstruction of elderly population changes between 1950 and 1990 reveals that the driving force behind the changes was net aging-in-place and not net migration. Finally, analysis of the possible population rejuvenating effects of immigration suggests that although its impact has contributed to lower elderly-to-worker dependency ratios, its level over the past decades has been insufficient to counteract the much stronger countervailing impact of population aging.

The Regional Demographics of the Elderly Foreign-Born and Native-Born Populations in the United States Since 1950

This article is an examination of the influence of birthplace on the internal migration and spatial redistribution patterns of elderly foreign-born and native-born populations in the United States during 1950 to 1990. Using data drawn largely from the U.S. Census Bureau’s published and unpublished records and from various Public Use Micro-data Sample (PUMS) files of the Censuses of Population, the authors consider the following questions: (1) What have been the regional age compositions and geographies of U.S. elderly foreign-born and native-born populations over the past several decades? (2) What have been the demographic sources of growth that shaped those age compositions and geographies? (3) What have been the interregional migration patterns of elderly foreign-born populations, and how have they differed from those of elderly native-born populations? (4) Are recent interregional migration patterns of foreign-born and native-born elderly persons likely to generate increased or decreased regional concentrations of their respective populations?

Measuring spatial focusing in a migration system

Equality indexes used in other geographical contexts may be used to gauge the degree of spatial focusing in an entire migration system or within the gross in- and out-migration fields of specific regions. They provide useful indicators of overall shifts in the patterns of interregional migration and can help give insight into the population redistributive roles played by specific regions. Perhaps the most common equality index used to measure income distribution is the Gini coefficient, yet it appears almost never to have been applied in migration research. In this paper we set forth a variety of Gini indexes to be used for different migration analyses and illustrate their application with recent data on U.S. interstate movements. We argue that the Gini index provides some singularly useful insights that differ from those afforded by other measures more commonly found to date in the migration analyst's tool kit.

Changing patterns of interregional migration and population redistribution in the United States : a cohort perspective

Évolution des migrations interrégionales et de la redistribution de la population aux États-Unis : une approche longitudinale. Au cours des dernières décennies, les démographes se sont intéressés à l'effet de la taille relative des générations sur la fécondité. Cet article examine l'effet de la taille relative des générations sur le niveau, la structure spatiale et la composition par âge des migrations interrégionales des jeunes adultes aux États-Unis. Le but de cet article est de tester certaines des hypothèses avancées par Plane et Rogerson dans un article récent sur ce sujet. Trois générations sont étudiées sur trois intervalles de temps : 1935-1940, 1955-1960, 1975-1980. S'ap- puyant sur le fait bien documenté maintenant selon lequel le lieu de naissance exerce une influence sur le comportement migratoire, les migrations de retour vers le lieu de naissance sont distinguées de l'ensemble des migrations. La taille relative des générations s'avère avoir un effet sur le niveau et la composition par âge des migrations. Par contre, l'effet sur la structure spatiale n'est pas clair puisque différents indices de concentration spatiale présentent différentes évolutions au cours des trois périodes de temps examinées.

Trends in the Regional Structure of Migration in Japan

This paper aims to examine the trends in the postwar interregional migration in Japan. Two methods, namely the Figure of Influence Relationships and the Multi-Dimensional Scaling Technique are applied using interregional migration data for 1960-1985. Main findings show while the number of interregional migrants had been reduced markedly since the First Oil Crisis in 1973, the interregional migration patterns were stable in the period 1960-1985.

The Use of Expert Judgments in Predicting Interregional Migration Patterns: An Analytic Hierarchy Approach

This paper presents an application of Saaty's analytic hierarchy process to the prediction of interregional migration patterns. This application is an example of how Saaty's method can be used in analyzing geographic problems to synthesize the results of theoretical models with the judgments of experts and policymakers. After discussing the basic theory behind Saaty's method and how expert judgments can be inserted into the Tobler‐Dorigo migration model, the results of an application of this model to predict migrations between the nine U.S. census regions for the 1965–70 period are used to illustrate the basic steps in this approach.

Recent Migration Trends in the Osaka Metropolitan Area

The interregional migration patterns in Japan have largely changed in the past ten years. The number of in-migrations into large urban areas is now decreasing, while the out-migration from these areas are increasing. These new trends are changing the migration patterns in large urban areas. This paper examines the recent migration trends in the Osaka Metropolitan Area. The total number of migrations and the age distribution of migrants are compared among administrative districts. The changes in migration patterns in the Osaka Metropolitan Area are then discussed.

An approach for simulating regional migration patterns

In this paper, GERTS III is presented as a possible approach for simulating regional migration patterns. Fourteen years of aggregate Canadian census data were compiled and a mathematical model was constructed to describe the patterns of inter-regional migration viewed as a discrete time Markov process. A GERTS III network was developed to analyze and describe this process. Measures of population mobility, degree of mobility and retention were derived. The implications for policy makers are highlighted.

Intergovernmental fiscal cooperation in growing metropolitan economies

Considerable pessimism has been expressed recently about the long-term fiscal problems facing the major metropolitan areas of the U.S., in particular the central cities. However, recent demographic trends and interregional migration patterns suggest that a more optimistic scenario may be in store. A new climate may be developing for intrametropolitan fiscal cooperation, especially in the newer and fast-growing SMSA's. This conclusion is based on several interrelated events: (1) the common fiscal and socio-economic histories of cities and suburbs in the growing regions of the country; (2) the increased concern for tax equity on the part of the more revenue-elastic state governments; (3) the pursuit within many states of a more progressive public expenditure structure with respect to human services.