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Inter-regional migration and self-employment in Britain's regions: Fielding's escalator region concept revisited
Darja Reuschke, University of St. Andrews
Within Britain, the South East and London stand out as attracting significant migration flows from other UK regions and abroad at both ends of the service sector spectrum, e.g. highly skilled vs. low skilled labour. Fielding (1989, 1992) found that the South East enhances individuals' propensity for occupational advancement, while at the same time the region exports its 'entrepreneurial culture'. This means that workers moved away from the South East and set up businesses in new locations, most frequently in Southern England. Although some newer migration studies build on Fielding's finding, to date, self-employment has widely been ignored in migration research. Thus, little is known about the geographical mobility of the self-employed in Britain. Is there still an out-migration of entrepreneurs from the South East to the 'urbanised countryside' and, if so, how does it impact on regions' economic performance? What is the profile of out-migrants who become self-employed outside the South East region? Current research suggests that the proportion of the solo self-employed is higher in Southern England than in the North. How is the low labour market performance of the self-employed in the South linked to migration patterns? This paper tries to shed light on these questions using the Labour Force Survey and the British Household Panel Survey. The analysis considers contemporary patterns of in-migration to the South East region from the rest of Britain and abroad, as well as out-migration from the South East to the rest of Britain, accounting for the heterogeneity of the self-employed.
Email: darja.reuschke@st-andrews.ac.uk
Occupational mobility of highly-skilled migrants in Spain
Alessandro Albano, Maria Carella, University of Bari, 'Aldo Moro'
Literature on brain drain, although generally sparing of reliable statistics sources, is quite rich in descriptive and economic analysis about highly skilled migration flows from Developing countries. Moreover, there are few evaluations of the changes that these migrants are able to achieve in their socio-economic conditions, once they arrive in the hosting countries of the Developed world. The purpose of this paper is to study the occupational mobility experienced after migrations by graduated and postgraduated migrants who completed their studies before their arrival in Spain. In order to achieve this goal, we compared the first occupation attained in Spain with the last one held before leaving. So, we identified three different types of mobility: "downward mobility", if migrants obtained in Spain a less qualified job than the one practiced in the country of origin, "lateral mobility", if in Spain they got a job of the same level as that performed before departure, and finally, "upward mobility", if the job held in Spain is more qualified than that practiced in the country of origin. Finally, we used logistic regression models to identify the strongest predictors of the three types of mobility classified before. The empirical analysis was carried out using data from the Spanish National Immigrant Survey (ENI) of 2007, including information of around 15,000 individuals. Our attention will be focused on the about 2,425 highly skilled migrants.
Email: alessandro.albano83@gmail.com, m.carella@scienzepolitiche.uniba.it
Does migration make you happy? A longitudinal study of migration and subjective well-being
Beata Nowok, Maarten van Ham, University of St. Andrews
People migrate for a variety of reasons but most expect to be better off after migration. We investigate whether individuals who migrate within the UK actually become happier and, if yes, when and for how long. Thus we extend research conducted to date on migration impacts which has focused almost exclusively on the labour market outcomes and material well-being of migrants. Using life satisfaction responses from 12 waves of the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) we observe year-to-year changes in individuals' level of life satisfaction both prior and after migration events. A temporal pattern of migrants' happiness is derived employing a fixed-effects model. The analysis is conducted separately for men and women. The latter are often trailing spouses who sacrifice their labour-market outcome for the benefit of the household as a whole. At the same time, however, men and women may be affected differently by their labour and non-labour market gains and losses. We find evidence of significant changes in happiness around the time of migration. Migration is preceded by a considerable drop in life satisfaction. After migration people bounce back to their original happiness level. Nonetheless the positive effect of migration is transient and the life satisfaction drops steadily in the years after a migration event. Unlike in the case of labour market implications of migration, life satisfaction trajectories are remarkably similar between men and women.
Email: bn7@st-andrews.ac.uk
Socio-economic aspects of emigration: a gender perspective
Michal Sabah, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
According to a United Nations' estimates, as of 2005, women comprised 50% of the international migration stock. Previous research on the feminization of migration focused primarilyon low-skilled women who immigrate from developing countries to newly-developed or developed countries. The emigration from developed countries in general, and its genderial aspects in particular, have not been explored in much previous research. One of the main incentives to emigration is the economic situation experienced by individuals in their home country. Emigration might be perceived as a way to overcome financial crisis, but also as a general way to increase one's socio-economic status. By employing a unique register-based data of the emigration stock from Israel, through 2011, which is linked to the Israeli Labor Force Surveys for the years 2001-2007, this study sets to explore the differential effects of socio-economic factors on emigration by gender. Our database contains 350,000 men and women, 5,200 of who emigrated from Israel in the years 2008-2011. By conducting a cohort analysis for cohorts born in the years 1960-1986, and by comparing Israeli women who emigrated from Israel to Israeli men who emigrated from Israel and to Israeli women and men who did not immigrate, we aim to explore the socio-economic aspects of emigration. Israel, a Western developed country, is an interesting case study for the analysis of the socio-economic aspects of emigration by gender due to the dual role of women in the Israeli society: between the centrality of the family and the forces of the labor market.
Email: mich.sabah@mail.huji.ac.il
Why did India grant overseas citizenship only to Indian emigrants in sixteen countries?
Sengi Sugita, University of Kent
India became one of the few Asian countries which permitted dual citizenship in 2004 when the Indian government decided to grant dual citizenship (Overseas Citizenship) to Indian migrants in selected sixteen countries, mostly in North America, Europe, and Oceania. The paper aims at investigating the reasons behind this limited selection of sixteen countries, and considering the implication of dual citizenship both for a contemporary nation-state and for migrants. To this end, the paper takes two approaches to the selection of the sixteen states. One is the top-down approach which focuses on the Indian government's interests, primarily economic, as the key factor leading India to choose mostly highly industrialised states. The other is the bottom-up approach which accounts for Indian migrants' desire and demand for dual citizenship. They have justified such demand often based on their economic contributions to the homeland and their strong Indian identity. Considering perspectives of these two major actors, the paper argues that the government's material consideration was the most dominant factor behind the selection of the sixteen states' Indian migrants, and it showed the state's desire to define "who is an Indian" based in part on one's material contribution to the motherland.
Email: ss736@kent.ac.uk
The three presentations below from ONS, which formed one integrated session, can be accessed here:
ONS 2011 migration session presentations
Distributing immigrants to local authorities
Nigel Swier, Office for National Statistics
The Office for National Statistics has developed an improved method for estimating immigration to local authority level. The method builds on an approach proposed by the University of Leeds and distributes defined migration flows from the International Passenger Survey (IPS) using a range of administrative sources. For example, 'workers' are distributed using National Insurance number allocation and activity information while 'student flows' are distributed using administrative data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) supplemented by administrative and survey data from the department of Business, Innovation and Skills. Patient register 'Flag 4' data and some Census data are also used. This approach combines the use of the IPS, which is specifically designed to meet the UN definition of a long-term migrant, with administrative data sources that provide greater richness for small areas. Some data linkage is used to minimise double counting across sources. The method uses more timely data and offers greater transparency than the current model-based approach. This paper outlines the distributional model that has been developed and plans for implementation.
Email: nigel.swier@ons.gsi.gov.uk
Using administrative data to distribute long-term international immigrant workers to local authority level
Simon Whitworth, Office for National Statistics; Jen Ford-Evans, Office for National Statistics; Andrew Needham, Department of Work and Pensions
One of the main aims of the Migration Statistics Improvement Programme is to improve the method used for distributing long-term international in-migrants across the country. Currently, Local Authortiy (LA) migration estimates are produced by modelling the International Passenger Survey (IPS) data to LA level. However, recent cross government data sharing arrangements mean that ONS have gained access to several rich and informative administrative data sources that can be used to identify international in-migrants at LA level. These sources include the Lifetime Labour Market Database (L2) and the Migrant Worker Scan (MWS) which are owned by the Department for Work and Pensions. This paper will report on how ONS is proposing to use the L2 and MWS to distribute the national level IPS based estimate of long-term international immigrant workers to LA level.
Email: simon.whitworth@ons.gsi.gov.uk
Using administrative data to distribute long-term international immigrant students to local authority level
Sofie de Broe, Helena Howarth, Ben Winkley, Office for National Statistics
The Migration Statistics Improvement Programme aims to improve the method used for distributing long-term international in-migrants across the country. Estimates are currently produced by modelling the International Passenger Survey (IPS) data attributing migrants to Local Authority (LA) level based on predictive variables. Increased data sharing across government enabled a new approach, using the administrative data sources to identify types of migrants and distribute them according to the LA reported in the data source. The new approach aims to distribute by migrant stream of which the student migrant inflow is one. Students migrate to the UK to study both Higher (HE) and Further Education (FE) at government funded institutions and privately funded institutions. The Higher Education Statistics Agency data can reliaby used to distribute HE students; the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Welsh Assembly Government provides data on FE students. This paper will report on how ONS is proposing to use these data sources to distribute the national level IPS based estimate of long-term international student migrants to LA level.
Email: sofie.de.broe@ons.gsi.gov.uk
Modelling spatial variations in neighbourhood out-migration with geographically weighted regression
Stephen Jivraj, University of Manchester
There have been many studies which have modelled internal migration in the UK. However, most of these have used data at geographical scales that conceal the majority of migration flows between neighbourhoods. They have also tended to use Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression or spatial interaction models. The latter are computationally unfeasible for flows between a large number of neighbourhoods. This paper uses a spatial modelling technique called Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR). GWR can take account of the spatial variation in the relationship between out migration and its associated factors which are not accounted for using OLS for neighbourhoods in England. The variables included in the model are derived from theory and empirical research including housing, demographic, socioeconomic, and environmental factors. The results from the analysis show that the proportion of private renting, terraced housing, poor quality housing, worklessness and non-domestic building land space in a neighbourhood each affect out migration at varying levels across the country. For example, the effect of worklessness on out migration is much stronger for neighbourhoods in the South East than the North of England. Therefore, all other things held constant, a successful intervention to reduce worklessness which was initiated to discourage out migration would have a greater effect in neighbourhoods in the South East compared with neighbourhoods in the North.
Email: stephen.jivraj@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk
The rapidity of studentification and population change: there goes the (student)hood
Joanna Sage, University of Southampton; Darren Smith, Loughborough University; Phil Hubbard, University of Kent
Research on the linkages between student migration and residential change in university towns and cities has mainly focused on neighbourhoods with deeply engrained and relatively mature expressions of studentification. Limited attention has been given to neighbourhoods that are in the process of being studentified, or experiencing the preliminary, trend-setting flows of student inmigration. As a result, there is limited understanding of the pace of local demographic change and population restructuring in studentifying neighbourhoods. To these ends, this paper analyses the term-time addresses of students in Brighton, UK, between 2006/07 and 2008/09. A volatile residential distribution of student populations is revealed. We explore the factors underpinning these shifting student geographies by focusing on a specific neighbourhood undergoing profound population transformation during the period of study. This allows us to reveal how studentification unfolds "in situ", shedding light on the rapidity of population and demographic restructuring that is mediated by the conversion of family-dwelling houses to student Housing in Multiple Occupation (HMO). Our findings are pertinent to recent planning policies to engineer balanced populations and housing markets by regulating the (over)production of student HMO in university towns and cities. More broadly, the paper serves to demonstrate the value of adopting a longitudinal approach to gathering primary qualitative and quantitative data to track local changes to migration flows, demographic and population structures, and neighbourhood transformations.
Email: j.sage@soton.ac.uk
Migration norms and higher education: Ethnic differences in student migration in Britain
Nissa Finney, University of Manchester
This paper considers how changes to Higher Education funding in England and Wales – particularly the increase in tuition fees from 2012 - may impact on student migration and how this impact may differ between ethnic groups. The paper takes a lifecourse perspective, arguing that the 'migration norms' associated with being a student differ between ethnic groups. The paper raises the question of whether ethnic differences in mobility may become accentuated with changes to HE funding, and whether the educational and mobility choices of some ethnic groups will be particularly restricted. Analyses of 2001 UK Census microdata (SARs) show lower levels of mobility for ethnic minority students compared with White British students. Furthermore, for White British and Chinese young adults being a student is associated with higher residential mobility than non-students but for Pakistani (particularly female) and Black young adults the opposite is the case: non-students are more mobile than students. Thus, the concept of students as highly mobile appears to be ethnic-specific. Commissioned Higher Education Statistical Agency (HESA) data is used to explore ethnic differences in patterns of homeleaving for Higher Education and results from qualitative work are drawn upon to discuss the importance of financial considerations, family ties and place perception in the student migration decision making of young adults from different ethnic groups. The concluding discussion considers the implications of ethnic differences in student migration for access to higher education and the 'widening participation' agenda.
Email: nissa.finney@manchester.ac.uk