Does the Desire to Leave One's Home Region during Adolescence Shape Migration Patterns over the Next Two Decades? Insights from a Longitudinal Study in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean Region, Quebec, Canada

Marco Gaudreault, ÉCOBES, Cégep de Jonquière
Marie-Ève Blackburn, ÉCOBES, Cégep de Jonquière
Béatrice Clin, ÉCOBES, Cégep de Jonquière
Julie Auclair, ÉCOBES, Cégep de Jonquière

Few recent studies have addressed the reasons behind interregional migration in Quebec. The fact that young people are leaving remote regions less often (Quebec, 2023) than they did in the early 2000s may have contributed to the decline in scientists' interest. The desire for rootedness among a cohort of adolescents in a region relatively far from Quebec's major urban centers was chosen as an important dimensions to document of the l’Enquête longitudinale auprès des élèves saguenéens et jeannois âgés de 14 ans en 2002 (ELESJ-14) (Gaudreault et al., 2006). The participants of the ELESJ initially came from the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean (SLSJ) region. These young people were invited to complete 7 questionnaires over 19 years (2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2012, 2014, and 2021). Thus, it will be possible to distinguish the paths at 24 and then 34 years of age for young people. The desire to settle at 16 and 18 years old will also be the subject of similar analyses. Also, the reasons that led migrants to leave the SLSJ region will be compared. Finally, an analysis will also be conducted to explore the reasons explaining the return of those who left and then came back to settle there.

Keywords: Internal Migration and Urbanization, Longitudinal studies , Children, Adolescents, and Youth

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