Internal Migration and Living Standards: A Global Assessment

Rodrigo Lovaton Davila, IPUMS - Minnesota Population Center
Sula Sarkar, University of Minnesota

Migration decisions are often associated to the search for better opportunities and increased well-being. In this study, we examine the role of living standards and inequality prevailing in the place of origin and destination as push or pull factors for internal migration. For this purpose, we use census microdata samples available for the 1990, 2000, and 2010 rounds for various countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The analysis benefits from harmonized microdata from IPUMS that include migration variables representing consistent spatial footprints. We construct a living standards index from seven indicators that we are able to calculate consistently across census datasets. Preliminary results for Bolivia 1991-2012 show that destinations with higher living standards and lower inequality receive higher migration flows, while lower inequality in the origin will push more persons to migrate.

Keywords: Internal Migration and Urbanization, Census data

See extended abstract.