Do ‘strong ties’ cause migration? Internal migration of young people in West-Germany.
This article aims to contribute to the understanding of the conditions under which the social capital from strong ties impacts on the first decision of internal migration. The existent literature assumes three different mechanisms: (a) ties to relatives are locationspecific assets which deter migration over time; (b) relatives can be regarded as financial resources which have a positive impact on individual migration at young ages, independently of their location of residence; (c) spurious association due to selectivity of migrants. We analyze these hypotheses studying different dimensions of ties to relatives and applying hazard models to a large data set for West-Germany (i.e. GSOEP). Following residence careers since age 15 we are able to identify a significant negative effect of the size of ties to relatives, which may be associated to value orientations of attachment to community. To live further away from ties exert a higher propensity towards migration, which grows when we control for regional heterogeneity, meaning that less dispersed ties to relatives may be found in settlements with higher migration propensity, like some rural areas with less economic opportunities. Living near parents and siblings impact negatively on migration, but parent’s resources have a positive effect. Last, we also find that the individuals with lower labor market opportunities are more likely to stay constrained by the social capital embedded in the location of residence. To sum up, ties to relatives affect importantly migration propensities, which imply that future trends in family relationships are likely to change migration patterns.
Vidal, S.