Returning and New Montana Migrants: Socio‐economic and Motivational Differences

This paper examines return migrants and new migrants to Montana: Who are they? Why do they move? Do return migrants move for different reasons than new migrants? Data from the 1994–1997 Montana Poll, a representative survey of Montana households, are used. A comparison of socio‐economic differences of return and new migrants shows that the two migrant types are very similar in terms of education, income, and age. This stands in contrast to the findings of others who maintain that return migrants are negatively selected with respect to education. Logistic regressions were employed to identify the effect of age and place ties on reasons for moving. Return migrants and new migrants move to Montana for very similar reasons, with family being the most important primary reason for moving. Moving for lifestyle reasons, such as environmental quality and urban amenities, were found to systematically change with age. This could explain why people return to a place they left earlier in life. While other research on return migration compared return migrants and other migrants who left the same place of origin, this paper offers a comparison of return migrants and other migrants who seek out the same destination. Results from the Montana Poll suggest that the same destination attracts return migrants and new migrants with similar socio‐economic characteristics who move there for very similar reasons.     

Returning and New Montana Migrants: Socio‐economic and Motivational Differences

This paper examines return migrants and new migrants to Montana: Who are they? Why do they move? Do return migrants move for different reasons than new migrants? Data from the 1994–1997 Montana Poll, a representative survey of Montana households, are used. A comparison of socio‐economic differences of return and new migrants shows that the two migrant types are very similar in terms of education, income, and age. This stands in contrast to the findings of others who maintain that return migrants are negatively selected with respect to education. Logistic regressions were employed to identify the effect of age and place ties on reasons for moving. Return migrants and new migrants move to Montana for very similar reasons, with family being the most important primary reason for moving. Moving for lifestyle reasons, such as environmental quality and urban amenities, were found to systematically change with age. This could explain why people return to a place they left earlier in life. While other research on return migration compared return migrants and other migrants who left the same place of origin, this paper offers a comparison of return migrants and other migrants who seek out the same destination. Results from the Montana Poll suggest that the same destination attracts return migrants and new migrants with similar socio‐economic characteristics who move there for very similar reasons.     

Examining trans‐Tasman migration of new immigrants to New Zealand from the People's Republic of China: A quantitative approach

‘Back‐door’ migration refers to the entry of overseas‐born New Zealand citizens to Australia. Many New Zealand Chinese migrants from the People's Republic of China (PRC) are within this migration flow. Based on a detailed analysis on the permanent and long‐term arrival and departure data from Statistics New Zealand and an online survey conducted by the author, this paper examines the trans‐Tasman migration of New Zealand's PRC migrants. The result shows that compared with New Zealand‐born citizens, the trans‐Tasman migration of China‐born New Zealand citizens is not large in number. The 2001 Australia immigration policy change of the welfare provisions to New Zealand citizens discouraged ‘back‐door’ migration of the PRC migrants in the short term only. Australia still remains a favoured destination for many of them. Economic consideration is the main factor drawing these migrants to Australia. This paper also reveals a circulatory feature of the PRC migrants' trans‐Tasman migratory movements, as evidenced by a significant number of respondents who had migrated from New Zealand to Australia indicating that they would come back to New Zealand at some future time.     

Personal and location-specific characteristics and elderly interstate migration

"The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of locational and individual characteristics upon interstate retiree migration, particularly in state-level public policy variables. Data regarding the characteristics of individual movers are drawn from the 1990 U.S. Census of Population and Housing 5% Public Use Microdata Sample. The household data are merged with location-specific attributes including both natural amenities and local fiscal variables." Three alternative models are developed, involving push factors, pull factors, and differences in site characteristics experienced by migrants. "The results indicate that both personal and locational characteristics are important factors determining the decision of elderly migrants to change their state of residence. While there is some limited support for the push and pull specifications, the difference model is found to provide the best overall fit."     

Human capital agglomeration,institutional barriers,and internal migration in China

This paper investigates how human capital agglomeration interplays with institutional factors to affect migration destination choice in China. Over the last decades, China has experienced massive internal migration, substantial human capital investment, and the relaxation of its hukou system, thus providing us with a valuable opportunity to examine the role of human capital externality in migration choice. Based on rich data on province-to-province migration flows for different education and hukou groups, we find that migrants in China, especially highly educated and urban-to-urban migrants, have a strong preference to move to provinces with a high agglomeration of human capital. Further examination reveals that low-skilled migrants in China are less likely to benefit from human capital agglomeration because of their lower ability to overcome hukou restrictions. Our findings raise the concern that labor migration under the skill-biased hukou system would enlarge China's regional disparities in human capital and economic development.     

The housing,geography, and mobility of Latin American urban poor: the prevailing model and the case of Quito,Ecuador

In this study of the constraints of low-income migrants in securing decent housing in Quito, Ecuador (a rapidly growing city), there is a literature review of Latin American intraurban mobility and housing, the development of a theoretical model, and a bivariate analysis. John Turner's model of the three stages in the life cycle of migrants and the three concentric zones of urbanization provides the initial framework for examining Quito migration. Quito differs from other Third World and Latin American cities in that its origins are pre-Colombian, and physical barriers surround the city. Data were obtained from housing data collected independently in 1990 and 1991 and survey data on households living in 1000 inadequate housing units in 1989. 35.5% of Quito's population live in inadequate housing (poor building materials, poor construction, deterioration, or lack of basic services). Three concentric and elongated zones are constructed based on distance from the center city and periphery and are representative of shelter types (rented rooms, shanty, house, and apartment). Shelter improves with type of ownership status. The attitudes of local officials influences the proportion of the poor living in rental or self-help housing. 36% of Quito's low-income residents live in rented rooms, and 38% live in shanties and houses. Bridgeheaders (new migrants who are usually young single males) tend to live in rented rooms for under five years and to move over time to shanties and then houses. Colonial preservation in central Quito and landlords' incentives for encouraging migrants to stay in rental housing interferes with the third phase of the model. Mixed housing throughout the city fits the third phase. Local laws prevent squatters and self-help housing. Rented rooms are primarily in the central city. Occupant income increases with shifts from rented rooms, to shanties, to houses. Shelter, geographic, and mobility patterns that do not fit the model are identified. Urban circumstance may not be linear and evolutionary as predicted, but the pattern is not diverse enough to warrant abandoning the model. The recommendation is for a flexible model for adapting a universal model to local and global conditions.     

Return migration to Eastern Kentucky and the stem family concept

This research provides a conceptual framework--based on the stem family concept--with which to explore the cyclical nature of return migration to Eastern Kentucky. The work of Brown, Schwarzweller, and Mangalam shows how the stem family facilitates the outward movement of migrants during times of economic opportunity outside Appalachia, while providing a potential haven when sociocultural pulls within Appalachia exceed the economic tugs outside the region. Responses from 119 households in Laurel, Pike, and Powell counties are used to test hypotheses associated with the general model. The survey results support the continued existence of extreme stem family forces within Eastern Kentucky. Most immigrants are return migrants; return migration motives continue to be more related to sociocultural factors than they are job-related decisions. Most returnees are well below retirement age, and even the younger and more educated among these have a strong preference for remaining in Eastern Kentucky, although their historical tendency had been to move away when economic pulls are strong enough. The work of Brown, Schwarzweller, and Mangalam shows how the stem family facilitates the outward movement of migrants during times of economic opportunity outside Appalachia, while providing a potential haven when sociocultural pulls within Appalachia exceed the economic tugs outside the region. Overall, there is a need to better understand the role of awareness space in the destination selection of cyclical migrants.     

Do rural migrants benefit from labor market agglomeration economies? Evidence from Chinese cities

We combine the 2005 China Inter-Census Population Survey data and the 2004 China Manufacturing Census to test whether workers, particularly rural migrants, benefit from labor market Marshallian externalities. We find that workers in general, and rural migrants in particular, benefit from labor market pooling effects (measured by total employment in a city-industry cell) and human capital externalities (measured by share of workers with a college degree or above in a city-industry cell). These findings are robust to various sorting bias tests. However, rural migrants benefit much less than do local or urban workers, possibly because rural migrants lack social networks and are discriminated doubly in terms of being both “rural” and “migrants.” Our findings have policy implications on how Chinese cities can become skilled during the rapid urbanization process coupled with global competition.     

The Impact of Migration on Social Capital: Do Migrants Take Their Bowling Balls with Them?

Questions surrounding the impact of population migration on social capital is the focus of this study. Putnam observed that “for people as for plants, frequent repotting disrupts root systems. It takes time for a mobile individual to put down new roots.” However, because of a trending decrease in mobility over time, Putnam rules out migration as an explanation for the long‐term decline in social capital that was the subject of his widely read 1995 book Bowling Alone: America's Declining Social Capital. This study undertakes an empirical examination of the impact of migration on county‐level social capital, which in tribute to Putnam one might view as an attempt to answer the question—do migrants take their bowling balls with them when they move? The potential for county‐level migration of population to impact social capital levels at particular locations in space arises from the conventional argument that social capital promotes trust and cooperation among agents. This trust increases socially efficient collective action but requires investment in relationships and commitment of scarce resources to build social capital. It seems plausible that migration of population might have a negative impact on the stock of social capital by interfering with trust and cooperation among agents. However, it is also possible that migrants may take their social capital with them to new places of residence. In other words, the propensity to join social and civic organizations might reflect inherent traits of individuals who are willing to make commitments of their resources to building social capital in any community where they reside.     

Protected Area Designation,Natural Amenities,and Rural Development of Forested Counties in the Continental United States

Policy makers who wish to spur economic development in rural forests face challenges that include population decline and poverty. Protected land and natural amenities enhance the quality of life and prospects for economic development, but there is limited research on how different types of protected land or natural amenities affect the rural forest economy. We use county level variables for protected areas differentiated by access and extractive use, and natural amenities differentiated by climate, water area, and topography to explain spatial variation in labor and built space markets. Results show that temperate summers and water area increase wages and housing prices and explain more than 30 percent of the spatial differences in wages, housing price, employment density, built space percent, human capital, and local road density. Protected area decreases wages, but, if open access, increase housing prices and human capital and explain more than 20 percent of the spatial differences in human capital, built space percent, and local road density.     

Migration regions and interstate labor flows by occupation in the United States

"This paper investigates the migration patterns of occupational groups [in the United States]. The results confirm previous analyses of the differences in movement behavior between occupations but, in addition, show that this variation is a function of the industrial sector of employment. The chief aim of the paper, however, is to uncover the geography of labor flows for different occupational groups using a principal components analysis of interstate flow matrices....Results indicate that migration regions vary by occupation and industry and we argue that these differences reflect job information flows and regional employment structure for various classes of labor." Data are from the Public Use Microdata Sample A taken from the 1980 census.     

The Shifting Destinations of Metropolitan Migrants in the U.S., 2005–2011

Recent estimates that central cities are growing faster than their suburbs in the U.S. have captured the attention of both academics and the popular media. Many commentators have used these numbers to claim that internal migration trends in the U.S. have reached a turning point, in which migrants increasingly prefer urban residences to suburban locales. However, these assertions often rely on problematic definitions of city and suburb, and pay too little attention to demographic variations among migrants. This paper examines whether recent internal migrants in the U.S. are choosing closer‐in destinations, drawing from microdata samples from the American Community Survey since 2005. During this period, there is an overall trend of migrants to the largest metropolitan areas in the U.S. choosing to migrate closer to the metropolitan core. However, this trend varies significantly among major demographic groups; whereas younger, single, educated, and white‐collar migrants show evidence of a return to the core, migrants who are blue‐collar, less‐educated, older, and with families remain more suburban. In turn, this analysis suggests that overall trends of “back to the city” migration are producing considerable divergence in the metropolitan destinations of different demographic groups.     

Unveiling various spatial patterns of determinants of hukou transfer intentions in China: A multi-scale geographically weighted regression approach

As the floating population has become a vital issue influencing China's economic and social development and aroused broad concern, many scholars have paid attention to the factors that influence settlement intentions of the floating population, while their spatial differences are usually neglected in extant studies. To rectify this situation, this study employs a multi-scale geographically weighted regression model to investigate the spatial pattern of determinants on hukou transfer intentions of the floating population, based on the data of the China Migrants Dynamic Survey in 2016. The results demonstrate that the effects of various determinants present different spatial patterns: part of significance pattern (the average residence time in destination cities, the ratio of rural hukou holders, the number of flows, the ratio of family income to family expenditure, the geographical location), the “East-West” pattern (the ratio of self-employed migrants, the average wage of employed workers), the “Southwest-Northeast” pattern (the ratio of migrants in the secondary industry, the ratio of sharing town employees' social insurance, the ratio of floating population accompanied by children in destination cities, and the population density of municipal districts). Cities of different conditions should formulate different policies that are sensitive to their contexts.     

Polish Labour Migration to the UK: Data Discrepancies,Migrant Distributions,and Indicators of Entrepreneurial Activity

This paper contributes to a growing body of work on labour market migration to the UK from the new Member States (NMS) of the European Union, particularly the migration of Polish nationals to the UK, drawing attention to the weaknesses of existing data sets which attempt to quantify these migration flows and in particular to map the geographical distribution of migrants. The analysis of Worker Registration Scheme (WRS) and National Insurance Number (NINo) allocation data demonstrates that NMS migration has focused on urban and rural locales rather than having a predominantly rural or “peripheral” area bias. The paper also argues that the discrepancies between WRS and NINo data potentially reveal a “hidden” geography of self‐employment and entrepreneurial activity among NMS migrants which merits further investigation.     

Destination Choice of the Newly Arrived Immigrants to the U.S. from 2000 to 2005–2007: A Multivariate Explanation for Immigrants from Top Source Countries

Using the PUMS files of the 2000 U.S. Census and 2005–2007 merged ACS data, we study the metropolitan destination choices made by newly arrived immigrants from seven top source countries between 2000 and 2007. Using a multinomial logit model, we find that the dispersion of new immigrant groups varies by origin, although all groups were subject to 1) the attraction of co‐ethnic communities, and 2) the positive effects of labor market conditions in the destination (especially the employment growth rate). However, co‐ethnic concentration is much more important than labor market conditions in the destination choice decision, particularly for the poorly educated. Conversely, there is a strong negative effect of co‐ethnic concentration on highly educated new immigrants, revealing a dispersed geographical pattern of these highly educated immigrants. We also find the importance of employment share growth rate for highly educated immigrants which suggests that they are more sensitive to the upward employment structure at the destination than a specific job growth rate, and they may not be attracted by a metropolitan area with a low‐quality employment structure, despite whether there was an increase in high‐level jobs.     

Does Sprawl Induce Affordable Housing?

The costs of sprawl are well documented, but there are fewer studies of its potential benefits. One such benefit is argued to be the facilitation of the filtering process, resulting in a greater quantity of affordable and available housing for low‐income households. While metropolitan area data indicate a positive correlation between sprawl and the supply of affordable housing for very low‐income households, regression analysis does not provide evidence for this hypothesis, after controlling for other metropolitan characteristics. The results put into question the argument that sprawl expands housing opportunities for households of all incomes, specifically those who are the poorest.     

A Computable General Equilibrium Model of Chinese Economy

To research the distortions of Chinese economy under a system of free markets, a computable general equilibrium model is constructed. And we will derive the model. The conclusions of the study are: (1) prices and resource allocation in the 1995 Chinese economy were substantially distorted; (2) labor was be overpaid and capital was underpaid in most non-agriculture sectors;(3) More the agricultural labor force would have been employed by the non-agricultural sectors had China been a market economy. (4) The elimination of these distortions would imply a significant improvement in allocation efficiency and a redistribution of income from labor to capital, from households to the state, and from urban households to rural households.     

Asia and the Pacific on the move: workers and refugees,a challenge to nation states

In the last 30 years international migration has been transformed from being of little or no significance in Asia to being of substantial economic, social, political and demographic importance. Two types of migration which have increased greatly in significance since the 1970s are international labour migration and refugee movements. Throughout most of the last two decades Asia has had more refugees than any other world region, although numbers have declined in the 1990s with the success of resettlement and repatriation programmes for Indochinese refugees. On the other hand, international labour migration has continued to increase in scale and importance, with the majority of workers moving between Asian countries in the 1990s, although the Middle East remains an important destination. It is argued that two elements, proliferating migrant social networks and the emergence of a vibrant immigration industry, have given a momentum to international migration which to some extent limits the power of nation states to control it. There is some concern among countries in the region that the increase in migration is creating excessive economic dependence upon the export of labour. Fears that migration threatens social cohesion depend upon the extent to which migrants settle permanently in destination areas.     

Income Distribution Characteristics of Rural Economic Sectors: Implications for Local Development Policy

Recent trends suggest increasing reliance on private markets to provide for local economic well-being. This research demonstrates the study of regional household income distribution patterns associated with productive activities important to many rural areas. A social accounting matrix analysis was used to examine agricultural production, agricultural processing, forestry production, forest products processing, and tourism in a small rural region in Wisconsin to illustrate the variable distributional characteristics of private market structures and related local economic development policy. The results showed that while high income households comprised 22 percent of total regional households in the study area, they received between 57 percent and 63 percent of earned income associated with changes in sectoral factor income. Medium income households (34 percent of regional households) received between 32 percent and 41 percent of earned income, and low income households (44 percent) received between 2 percent and 6 percent. The ability of local policy to influence distributional patterns is implied to the extent that local action can facilitate variable growth rates of targeted economic sectors.     

Measuring Amenity Benefits from Farmland: Hedonic Pricing vs. Contingent Valuation

The amenity value to Kentucky residents from horse farm land was estimated using both the contingent valuation method and the hedonic pricing method. The hedonic pricing model included both the housing and labor markets. A value function estimated from dichotomous choice contingent valuation responses showed that the value of a change in the level of the horse farm amenity was sensitive to the size of the change, with no evidence of value that is independent of the size of the change. The two methods generated estimates of the external benefits from horse farm land that were within 20 percent of each other.