Putting family centre stage: Ties to nonresident family, internal migration, and immobility

Keeping kin close? Geographies of family networks by race and income, 1981-2017

Objective

This study examined changes in geographic proximity to family members among race and income groups in the United States from 1981 to 2017.

Background

Close geographic proximity to family members can facilitate mutual support and strengthen family bonds. Some scholars argue that institutional sources of support have replaced many core family functions, which might mean that households are likely to live increasingly farther away from family. Advancing technology and changing labor market opportunities might reinforce this pattern. Yet, the ongoing cultural and emotional salience of family might curtail the effects of these factors on the increasing distance to family.

Method

We conducted a quantitative analysis of longitudinal data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). We utilized the multigenerational structure of the PSID and restricted-use geocodes to map kin proximity at every interview from 1981 to 2017. We cross-classified our sample by race and income, focusing on Black and White respondents across income quartiles (n = 171,501 person-periods).

Results

High-income White respondents showed the greatest increases in distance from kin over time, whereas proximity to kin among other race-income groups was relatively stable.

Conclusion

Proximate kin has become less central in the lives of high-income White households over time, whereas close proximity to kin has been the norm over time for other racial and income groups. These results have implications for racial and income differences in kin relations over time.

Leaving the City: Counterurbanisation and Internal Return Migration in Sweden

This paper examines counterurban migration among young families with children in Sweden and the extent to which these moves reflect return migration, recognising the role of family members and family roots at the destination from a life course perspective. Drawing on register data for all young families with children leaving the Swedish metropolitan areas during the years 2003-2013, we analyse the pattern of counterurban moves and explore how the families' socioeconomic characteristics, childhood origins, and links to family networks are associated with becoming a counterurban mover and choice of destination. The results show that four out of ten counterurban movers are former urban movers who choose to return to their home region. Among them, almost all have family at the destination, indicating that family ties are important for counterurban migration. In general, urban residents with a background outside metropolitan areas are much more likely to become counterurban movers. Families' previous residential experiences during childhood, particularly in rural areas, are found to be associated with the residential environment they choose to resettle in when leaving the big city. Counterurban movers making a return move are similar to other counterurban movers in relation to employment status, but tend to be better off economically and move longer distances than other counterurban movers.

Do Internal Migration Experiences Facilitate Migration Intentions and Behavior?

Growing evidence suggests that internal migration experience shapes future internal migration behavior. However, it remains unclear what stage of the decision-making process past internal migration facilitates and whether the impact depends on the distance moved. To advance understanding of the role of past migration, we explicitly and dynamically link migration experiences to the formation and realization of future internal migration intentions by blending the aspiration-ability framework with the learned behavior hypothesis. We empirically test our proposition by fitting a series of logistic regression models to longitudinal microdata from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey, which has been conducted annually since 2001. We use a two-step approach by first modeling internal migration intentions and then modeling the realization of these intentions, distinguishing between residential moves, onward interregional migration, and return interregional migration. We find that migration experience is positively associated with both the formation and realization of migration intentions and that the effect of past migration increases with the distance moved and the number of past migrations. These findings suggest that migration experiences accumulate over the life course to predispose individuals toward subsequent migration. Finally, we show that the effect of past migration is not the result of a lack of social capital among repeat migrants-a finding that reinforces the importance of conceptualizing internal migration as a life course trajectory rather than a series of discrete events.

Internal migration toward siblings in later life

Objectives

Research on the role of siblings in older adult migration lags behind a growing number of studies on adult children as a mobility attraction. We attend to this gap by examining (a) to what extent the absence of partners and/or adult children influences older adults’ (age 70–84) migration toward faraway siblings (at least 50 km away) and (b) how these migrations are patterned by the location of other family members (children, other siblings, and nephews/nieces).

Methods

We use multinomial logistic regression models and analyze dyads of older adults and all distant siblings from the Swedish population register data between 2012 and 2016 (N = 1,743,234). We control for several characteristics of older adults and their siblings that may affect the decision to move closer, including sociodemographic characteristics and measures of location-specific capital.

Results

Widowed, divorced, and never-married older adults were more likely to move closer to distant siblings than those with a partner. Not having children was associated with a higher likelihood of moving toward a sibling. Living near adult children or other siblings deterred relocation toward siblings, while family clustered at a distance reinforced the location’s attractiveness for migration.

Discussion

As declines in fertility broadly reflect people’s decisions to have fewer children or forego having families, siblings might emerge as more active players in the family networks of older adults. Our research indicates that siblings can be a destination for migration and, therefore, should be considered as important members of social networks of older adults, especially those who do not have partners and/or adult children available.

Family Complexity and Parents' Migration: The Role of Repartnering and Distance to Non-Resident Children

Recent research suggests that the increasing complexity of family life could be a factor in declines in internal migration (long-distance moves within countries). As many separated parents continue to share childcare responsibilities or have visiting arrangements, their mobility is naturally constrained. However, the relationship between family complexity and individual migration behaviour has never been studied explicitly. We compare separated parents with parents in two-parent families in their likelihood of migrating within the Netherlands. We use detailed records of parents' partnership status and children's residential situation. An event-history analysis was performed using register-based population data (N = 442,412). We find that separated, single parents are more likely to migrate than those in two-parent families. The same is true for repartnered mothers, while repartnered fathers are about as likely to migrate as fathers in two-parent families. Separated parents' migration behaviour depends on where their children live. Having non-resident children who live some distance away is associated with a much higher likelihood of migrating than having resident children or non-resident children who live nearby. Having both resident and non-resident children who live nearby-shared residence (i.e. joint physical custody) is likely common in this situation-is associated with a considerably lower likelihood of migrating than having resident children only. Based on our findings, one would expect family complexities stemming from parental separation to be associated with higher rather than lower levels of migration. However, potential future increases in the number of parents who share physical custody after separation might lead to lower migration levels.

There Is No Place like Home! How Willing Are Young Adults to Move to Find a Job?

The European Union (EU) has undergone significant economic crises in recent years. Therein, young people were amongst the hardest hit groups, with youth unemployment rising as high as 50% in some member states. Particularly high rates of youth unemployment were often observed in rural areas, where labour market supply in relation to demand were notably divergent. One of the core pillars of the EU’s agenda is to tackle the persistent problem of youth unemployment. Since the recent crisis, this has been via the “Youth on the Move” initiative, which involves the promotion of intra- and international mobility of young adults in order to gain access to job opportunities. However, what has received little attention so far is the question of what the general willingness of young adults to move is like, and to what extent this varies, for example, depending upon the area they live in. This paper therefore asks if rural youth differ from youth in urban areas in relation to their willingness to move for a job within their country or to another country. Moreover, what influences the general willingness to be mobile? Based on the Cultural Pathways to Economic Self-Sufficiency and Entrepreneurship (CUPESSE) Survey, which includes data on 18–35-year-olds in a sample of 11 European countries, it is shown that living in a rural area is strongly associated with the willingness to move. Furthermore, it shows that rural youth are more willing to move within the country but less willing to move to another country. Based on the presentation of the various factors, which promote or curb mobility readiness, the results make it clear that the success of EU initiatives depends on the preferences and willingness of the target group in question.

Do older parents' assistance needs deter parent-child geographic divergence in Norway?

The role of intergenerational geographic proximity in individuals' migration decisions has been well-established. The circumstances under which parents and their adult children move away from or remain close to each other are, however, less clear. Drawing on Norwegian register data for 2014-2016 and three-level logistic regression models, we examine whether formal care needs of older parents (aged ≥65) deter parent-child geographic divergence and whether variation in the likelihood of divergence is associated with municipal-level characteristics. After accounting for location-specific capital and parents' and children's sociodemographic characteristics, parents and children were less likely to diverge after the onset of parental care needs. Utilising in-home nursing decreased the likelihood of divergence for mothers while utilising institutionalised care decreased the likelihood of divergence for fathers. The use of in-home nursing care among single mothers further reduced the likelihood of divergence. Parents and adult children living in central areas were the least likely to diverge geographically. The likelihood of intergenerational divergence was lower for fathers and children living in municipalities with high healthcare spending.

Migration after union dissolution in the United States: The role of non-resident family

Separation from a spouse or cohabiting partner is associated with a high likelihood of moving, even over long distances. In this paper, we use longitudinal data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics for the United States to analyze the role of non-resident family in the migration of separated people immediately after and in the years following union dissolution. We explore both migration in general and return migration among separated people, drawing comparisons to married and never-married people. We find that having parents, children, or siblings living close by substantially deters migration, especially among separated people. We also find marked positive effects of having family members in the county where the respondent grew up on the likelihood of returning there. Separated people are especially likely to return, compared to others, if they have parents in their county of origin. Furthermore, a lack of an effect of years of education on migration, and a negative effect of this variable on return migration, suggest that migration after separation is less related to human-capital considerations than other types of migration.

The Role of Family and Friends in Return Migration and Its Labor Market Outcomes

Drawing on survey data on individuals’ motives for migration in Sweden (N = 2172), we examine the importance of family and friends for return versus onward migration, including their importance for different age groups and in different communities on the rural–urban spectrum. The results point to a significant relationship between the importance of family and return versus onward migration, with family importance decreasing with age among returning migrants. At the same time, the importance of friends for returning increases with age. The findings did not suggest a significant relationship between urbanicity and returning versus migration elsewhere. Based on a subset of respondents who were employed prior to migrating (n = 1056), we further examined labor market outcomes for onward versus returning migrants. The results broadly indicate that return migrations are linked to lower likelihoods of labor market deterioration and improvement, suggesting greater labor market stability for return vis-à-vis onward migrations. However, the importance of family for returning (versus moving elsewhere) is associated with higher likelihoods of labor market deterioration and improvement compared with staying the same, indicating greater volatility in labor market outcomes when the importance of family is considered.

The roles of family and friends in the immobility decisions of university graduates staying in a peripheral urban area in the Netherlands

Highly educated individuals constitute great assets for regional development and economic growth. Nevertheless, young university graduates are relatively geographically mobile and less likely to stay in peripheral regions. Based on semi-structured, life-calendar interviews, this study explored the immobility decisions of graduates who have stayed in a peripheral urban area in the Netherlands where they completed their university education. The study specifically focused on the roles of family and friends in the staying processes of these young adults. The results indicate that the decision to stay was frequently and consciously re-evaluated by some, whereas for others, it resulted from a 'lack of triggers' for moving elsewhere. Notably, the interviews revealed that family and friends act as more than motives for staying or deterrents to migration. On various occasions, family and friends had played crucial roles as advisors, influencers, triggers, exemplars and facilitators in the staying processes of highly educated young adults.

Social origins, geographical mobility and occupational attainment in contemporary Italy

This paper studies the effect in the Italian case of geographical mobility on employment and occupational attainment, defined as access to the upper class, avoidance of the working class, and avoidance of agricultural jobs. It observes the distribution of its effect over the life course. Given that migration is a gendered phenomenon, we perform separate analyses by gender. Our data set, moreover, includes residential information at the municipality level, making it possible to specify geographical mobility in different ways, according to the distance, the characteristics of origin, and destination and the frequency of individual movements. Third, it studies whether the effects of geographical mobility change according to social class of origin and geographical area of origin.

Our analyses, based on linear probability panel models with fixed effects, show a strong gender divide concerning the probability of employment and avoidance of the working class. A positive effect of geographical mobility on occupational outcomes appears to exist only as regards men, because for women the divergence between movers and stayers appears well before geographical mobility. Finally, the effects of geographical mobility are generally stronger for individuals originating from the middle and lower classes and from rural areas, but they are not so strong as to enable those individuals to substantially change their position in the occupational hierarchy.

Young Adults' Migration to Cities in Sweden: Do Siblings Pave the Way?

Young adult internal migration forms a large share of the influx of people into large cities in the developed world. We investigate the role of the residential locations of siblings for young adults’ migration to large cities, using the case of Sweden and its four largest cities: Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmö/Lund, and Uppsala. We use register data for the full Swedish-born population of young adults aged 18–28 living in Sweden in the years 2007–2013 and multinomial logistic regression analyses of migrating to each of the four cities or migrating elsewhere versus not migrating. Our point of departure is the paving-the-way hypothesis, which posits that young adults who have a sibling living at a migration destination are particularly likely to move to that destination, more so than to other destinations. Additional hypotheses are related to having more than one sibling in the city and to the gender of siblings living at the destination. We find support for the paving-the-way hypothesis and an additional effect for having more than one sibling in the city. Having a sibling of the same gender in a city matters more for moving there than having a sibling of the opposite gender.

Geographic mobility among older people and their adult children: The role of parents' health issues and family ties

This research examines the relationship between older parents' health issues and (i) their relocations closer to their faraway adult children, (ii) their relocations into institutionalised care facilities, or (iii) having distant children move closer. Additionally, we investigate how these relocations are structured by children's gender and location. We focused on parents aged 80 years and older and their distant children. Multinomial logistic regression models were employed for older men and women based on data from administrative registers of Sweden. Whereas severe health problems were associated with an increased likelihood of parent relocations closer to their children or into institutions, they were not associated with the likelihood of children's moves towards parents. Mothers were more likely to move towards daughters or towards distant children who had at least one sibling living nearby. Children moved closer to their parents when there was at least one sibling living near the parent or in response to their own life circumstances.

Young adults' return migration from large cities in Sweden: The role of siblings and parents

Living in cities affects young adults' access to education and work. With the use of register data for 2000-2013, we examined the role of having siblings and parents living close by and having siblings and parents living in the area of origin, in young adults' return migration from the four largest cities in Sweden. We found that young adults were less likely to return, and also less likely to migrate elsewhere, if they had siblings or parents living in the city of residence than if this was not the case. If the parents no longer lived in the region of origin, the young adults were very unlikely to return. Young adults were more likely to return if they had siblings living in that region than if they had no siblings or the siblings lived elsewhere. Adverse circumstances such as dropping out of tertiary education, low income, and unemployment were associated with a greater likelihood of return migration.

Migration for family and labour market outcomes in Sweden

Using information on stated motives for migrating among working-age individuals in the 2007 Swedish Motives for Migration survey (N = 1,852), we use multinomial logistic regression to examine whether and how moves for family reasons are linked to labour market outcomes in ways that differ from migration initiated for other motives, including more overtly labour-related factors. The results indicate that family-based migration is associated with worse labour market outcomes than migration for employment or other reasons. Additionally, family-motivated migrants with co-resident children are more likely to experience labour market deterioration than those without children. Among those who were unemployed before moving, those who reported family as a motive for moving were significantly more likely to be employed after the move. These results help us better assess how families and social networks impact economic outcomes-negatively in some circumstances and positively in others.

Geographic Proximity to Parents, Intergenerational Support Exchange, and Migration Within Germany

Previous research on internal migration has emphasised the importance of local ties to family members outside the household, and to parents in particular. Family members who live close to an individual’s place of residence represent a form of local social capital that could make migrating costlier, and therefore less likely. This idea has been empirically supported. Yet, how family ties bind remains largely unexplained. We assume that intergenerational support is a manifestation of local social capital, and that spatial proximity is needed for support to be exchanged. Thus, we used mediation analysis that includes explicit measures of support exchanges between parents and their adult–children born in 1971–1973, 1981–1983, and 1991–1993 to explain the binding effect of living close to parents. Logistic regression models of migrating a distance of more than 40 km were conducted using eight waves of the German pairfam data. Living close to one’s parents was indeed found to be negatively associated with the likelihood of migration, and part of this association could be explained through intergenerational support: the more the instrumental support an adult child exchanged with her/his parent, the less likely she/he was to migrate. Receiving emotional support from the parents was associated with an increase in migration propensity. Neither giving emotional help nor receiving help with childcare functioned as mediators. It thus appears that adult children are particularly likely to value the proximity of their parents when they are exchanging instrumental support, but that the emotional bond between adult children and their parents can often be maintained over longer distances.

Kin location and racial disparities in exiting and entering poor neighborhoods

Blacks and Latinos/as are less likely than Whites to move from a poor neighborhood to a non-poor neighborhood and are more likely to move in the reverse direction. Using individual-level data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (1980-2013) and neighborhood-level census data, this study explores the role that the spatial location of familial kin networks plays in explaining these racially and ethnically disparate mobility patterns. Blacks and Latinos/as live closer than Whites to nuclear kin, and they are also more likely than Whites to have kin members living in poor neighborhoods. Close geographic proximity to kin and higher levels of kin neighborhood poverty inhibit moving from a poor to a non-poor neighborhood, and increase the risk of moving from a non-poor to a poor tract. Racial/ethnic differences in kin proximity and kin neighborhood poverty explain a substantial portion of racial gaps in exiting and entering poor neighborhoods.

Understanding Immobility: Moving Beyond the Mobility Bias in Migration Studies

This article suggests that there is a mobility bias in migration research: by focusing on the “drivers” of migration — the forces that lead to the initiation and perpetuation of migration flows — migration theories neglect the countervailing structural and personal forces that restrict or resist these drivers and lead to different immobility outcomes. To advance a research agenda on immobility, it offers a definition of immobility, further develops the aspiration-capability framework as an analytical tool for exploring the determinants of different forms of (im)mobility, synthesizes decades of interdisciplinary research to help explain why people do not migrate or desire to migrate, and considers future directions for further qualitative and quantitative research on immobility.