Couples' Education and Regional Mobility – the Importance of Occupation, Income and Gender

Abstract

People with high education are more geographically mobile than people with lower education. Further, highly educated men are more mobile than highly educated women, and the man's education affects couples' migration propensities more than the woman's. This study examines whether the reasons for the higher migration propensities among highly educated people are the occupational characteristics and income commonly associated with high education. Further, the study examines whether the reason for the asymmetric effect of men's education relative to women's is that these occupational characteristics and income are unevenly distributed between men and women with similar educational levels. I studied dual-earner couples, with common children, residing in Sweden in 1997-2006. Results from logistic regressions indicate that both men's and women's education are positively related to couples' migration propensities, and that men's education has a larger impact on migration than women's, before adjusting for income and occupational characteristics. A substantial portion of the increased risk of migration among highly educated people can be attributed to income and occupational characteristics. Also, to a large extent, the differential effects of men's and women's education can be explained by the different types of occupations held by men and women within the same educational level, as well as by gender differences in monetary returns from education. When adjusting for these differences, only very minor gender differences in the effect of education remain. Despite theories on gender ideology, which implies men's attributes would dominate migration decisions, occupational characteristics have similar effects for men and women. Copyright

Through a social space lens – Interpreting migration of the tertiary educated

“…In addition, Swedish families with young children of a school age have a greater preference for living near family and relatives and a lower propensity to migrate (Branden, 2013;Niedomysl, 2008). However, this is contrary to an Italian study, which found that family commitments actually increase migration probability (Nifo and Vecchione, 2014).…”

“…However, if there are wage differences in her type of job between regions, migration propensity increases. On the other hand, this does not hold true for men (Branden, 2013).…”

On the waterfront: Studying the development of residences and workplaces at Norra Älvstranden, Gothenburg, Sweden

“…The location of educated 'talents' has been given top priority as a local survival strategy, especially considering the continued down-sizing and flexibilisation of the labour force in most notably the automotive industry and its related spinoffs. The public sector remains a very large employer, in part due to a constant urbanization process paralleled with the growing responsibilities of the local municipalities and the comparatively high share of female labour participation in Sweden (Andersson, 1987;Brande´n, 2013). There are also signs of a growing number of individuals employed within creative occupations, and a structural change of the Swedish economy over the last 20 years.…”

Family migration in a cross-national perspective: The importance of institutional and cultural context

“…An incipient literature has begun to question the role of occupational structures and regional contexts of opportunity in shaping the migration behaviour of family households (Nisic 2009;Shauman 2010;Brandén and Ström 2011;Perales and Vidal 2013). Analysing Swedish data, Brandén (2013) finds that the fact that men's education affects family migration decisions more than women's is due to a higher concentration of women in occupations with low wages and career potential. Using British data, Perales and Vidal (2013) show that gender asymmetries in the impact of spousal resources on family migration decisions are channelled by structural inequalities in the labour market (such as occupational sex-segregation).…”