The Measurement of Migration, from Census Data and other Sources

Abstract

In the first part of the paper a general classification of migration measures is introduced. The rates corresponding to these measures are defined together with the associated populations at risk. A particular problem in migration analysis is then tackled. The questions asked in the British censuses of 1966 and 1971 about migration generate tabulations of migrants over the one year, and over the five years, preceding the census date. It is often observed that the numbers of migrants in the two periods are not linearly related; that is, the number of migrants over five years is less than five times the number over one year. A simple stochastic model embodying population-accounting principles is developed to show why this is the case, and that the relationship between one-year and five-year figures is a complex one involving some multiple migrations, some return migrations, and some deaths.

Migration patterns and population redistribution

“…Improved methods for me;.isuring migration and understanding its important role in spatial population dynamics have been receiving increasing attention in recent years. The search for improved methods for measuring migration has, for example, stimulated research on the construction of multiregional life tables and demographic accounts [Rogers (1973a, b), Schoen (1975), Rogers and Ledent (1976), Rees (1977), Rees and Wilson (1977), and Ledent (1978)], and the need for a better understanding of spatial population dynamics has fostered mathematical analyses of the fundamental processes of spatial population growth and redistribution [Rogers (1966[Rogers ( , 1968[Rogers ( and 1975a, Stone (1968), Drewe (1971), LeBras (1971), Feeney (1970 and, Willekens (1977), and Liaw (1978)]. …”

Estimating Inter‐regional Migration in Europe

“…If T is the number of migrant transitions, (Rees, 1977), let capital letters such as I and J denote countries and let lower case letters such as i and j denote NUTS2 regions within a country. Then let T IJ be the number of migrants from country I to country J in some time period, say t to t + 1 (which we will leave implicit for ease of notation).…”

Dynamics of Interstate Labor Migration

“…Like the Lowry model, time in cohort models is relative, not historical, and migration forecasting takes on the character of the timeframe of analysis, not its underlying structure (cf. Rees 1977).…”