Full Citation

Title: Internal Migration as a Life-Course Trajectory

Citation Type: Book, Whole

Publication Year: 2022

ISBN: 978-3-031-05423-5

ISSN: 2215-1990

DOI: 0.1007/978-3-031-05423-5

NSFID:

PMCID:

PMID:

Abstract: The past decade has seen a seismic shift in the study of internal migration, not only in sources of data and analytical methods, but in the overall scope of scholarly research, in modes of explanation, and hence in understanding. Triggered in large part by the growing availability of large-scale surveys, retrospective life histories and longitudinal datasets, the focus of contemporary research has expanded beyond its traditional concern with documenting spatial patterns, to encompass a temporal dimension that offers new and important insights into the dynamics of human population mobility. These also hold the key to some of the long-standing puzzles in migration research. Conventional, census-based analyses, using aggregate data, introduce time by juxtaposing cross-sectional results for consecutive migration intervals. Longitudinal data, on the other hand, allow for a fundamental realignment of the building blocks of migration research, focusing instead on the timing of sequential moves in the individual life course. Aggregating over multiple observations then delivers a cohort perspective that is at once both more comprehensive and more subtly nuanced. Use of a cohort approach elucidates the timing and spacing of migration. It facilitates identification of the life-course events that often act as triggers to population movement. Crucially, it also provides the basis for a robust suite of statistical indicators that collectively capture the essential dimensions of migration timing: its onset, frequency, spacing and completion. It is these cohort measures of migration that help unlock formerly intractable questions, such as the incidence of chronic mobility, and immobility, and their role in shaping overall migration intensities. They also underline mobility as a continuum, characterised by variable timing and movement frequency among people with markedly differing characteristics. Coupled with the battery of migration indicators previously developed for use with cross sectional data, these measures also provide invaluable insights into reasons for the marked variations in migration intensity that exist between countries. The literature is peppered with fragmentary excursions into the temporal aspects of migration, and threads from earlier work have helped shape the approach elaborated in this book. Indeed, various elements have been outlined in earlier papers by v the author herself, and the suite of cohort measures set out here parallel those widely used in the study of fertility. But the unique contribution of this book lies in bringing together the concepts, statistical measures and analytical methods that constitute a life-course approach to understanding migration, and elaborating them in a comprehensive form. In the theoretical domain, it also introduces the intriguing notion of migration capital and reveals how mobility in childhood shapes migration in later life. Data for some 27 European countries illustrate application of the various measures and deliver compelling substantive results. Human mobility is multi-dimensional, describing complex trajectories in both time and space. Surveys generally lack spatial detail but are well-suited to collecting the life histories that are needed to trace the temporal dimensions of human population movement. Coupled with a robust suite of cohort measures, as described here, this represents an essential part of the framework needed for understanding the dynamics of migration. It also represents a significant step forward in advancing the study of migration towards the analytical rigour characteristic of the other major components of human demography, fertility and mortality

Url: https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/978-3-031-05423-5.pdf

User Submitted?: No

Authors: Bernard, Aude

Publisher: Springer

Publisher Location: Durham, NC

Pages:

Volume: 53

Edition: 1

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Migration and Immigration

Countries: