Life Course Events and Migration in the Transition to Adulthood

Abstract

Do life course events stimulate migration during the transition to adulthood? We identify nine specific life events in the family, education, and employment domains and test whether they lead to migration in the short term, using fixed-effects models that remove the influence of all stable individual-level characteristics and controlling for age. Marital and school completion events have substantively large effects on migration compared with individual work transitions, although there are more of the latter over the young adult years. Furthermore, young adults who are white and from higher class backgrounds are more likely to migrate in response to life events, suggesting that migration may be a mechanism for the reproduction of status attainment. Overall, the results demonstrate a close relationship between life course events and migration and suggest a potential role for migration in explaining the effect of life course events on well-being and behavior.

Moving on up? How Social Origins Shape Geographic Mobility within Britain’s Higher Managerial and Professional Occupations

“…First, while much existing literature has investigated the consequences of geography for social mobility, we reverse the analytic lens to ask how social origins shape patterns of long-distance geographic mobility. We find that higher managers and professionals from advantaged social origins are substantially more likely to make long-distance residential moves than those who were socially mobile, consistent with existing literature on residential mobility and migration (Champion et al, 2014; Gamsu and Donnelly, 2020; Horowitz and Entwisle, 2020). The implication is that geographic mobility is a correlate of advantaged social origins rather than a determinant of an advantaged adult class position.…”

“…The decadal frequency of our data makes it difficult to identify these higher frequency patterns of residential moves. Future research could use panel studies with more frequent data collection to understand the roles that geographic mobility and social origins play in the evolution of professional-managerial careers, from formative area context, to the process of leaving home and completing education (Horowitz and Entwisle, 2020), to later career progression (Champion et al, 2014).…”

“…Geographers have long established that the advantaged – in terms of their socio-economic and ethnic/racial backgrounds – are more likely to be geographically mobile (Champion et al, 2014; Gamsu and Donnelly, 2020; Horowitz and Entwisle, 2020) as are the young and educated (Greenwood, 1997; Young, 2017). As a result, we question interpretations of the relationship between geographic and social mobility that only suggest geographic mobility as a cause for social mobility.…”

Do migration outcomes relate to gender? Lessons from a study of internal migration, marriage and later‐life health in China

“…Alternatively, migration also influences the likelihood and timing of union formation and dissolution, owing to the socialization, selection and disruption processes involved in migration (Caarls & de Valk, 2017; Kulu & Milewski, 2007). Given that migration and family life events both affect physical and mental health, only focusing on a single life domain might not precisely isolate its effects (Horowitz & Entwisle, 2021). Hence, it is important to consider the interplay of migration and family life course when examining the health consequences of migration.…”

Internal migration and the de-standardization of the life course: A sequence analysis of reasons for migrating

“…Young adulthood is indeed a "demographically dense" period of the life course (Rindfuss 1991) when key transitions in the family and work spheres occur. Shifting individual and household needs and preferences often cause a mismatch between current and desired place of residence, which in turn leads to a migration (Horowitz and Entwisle 2021;Mulder and Hooimeijer 1999). Hence, a large literature has accumulated on the links between internal migration and education completion (Bernard, Bell, and Charles-Edwards 2016;Machin, Salvanes, and Pelkonen 2012;Mulder, Clark, and Wagner 2002), childbearing (Kulu 2008), employment (Detang-Dessendre and Molho 1999), union dissolution (Boyle et al 2008;Spring et al 2021;Thomas, Mulder, and Cooke 2017), and retirement (Rogers 1988(Rogers , 1990.…”