Motivation in the dynamics of European youth migration

ABSTRACT

In this article, we explore the complexities of the relationships between motivations in the migration process of young Europeans who have returned to their country of origin. We analyze a unique database of over 3,000 returnees, a sub-sample from a larger survey of about 30,000 young people in nine European countries. The findings suggest that there is a link between the motivations for the first migration and those for future migration among this group. Generally, past migration motivations tend to reinforce future migration motivations of a similar nature. By controlling for variables related to geographic space (countries of residence, development profiles of NUTS2 regions, urban profiles of local communities of residence), as well as for several socio-demographic variables and life satisfaction, we can better understand the influence of motivations for past migration on motivations for future migrations. This article extends the internal dynamics of migration approach by combining the idea of individual chains of migration motivations that are extending over-time with the idea of cumulative causation operating at the meso level.

KEYWORDS:

• Migration motivations
• return migration
• youth migration
• European migration
• OLS regression

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data used in this paper were produced by the Horizon 2020 Project YMOBILITY - Youth mobility: maximizing opportunities for individuals, labor markets and regions in Europe project (grant number 649491), which ran from 2015 to 2018. The replication package containing the variables we analyze and the code to replicate the findings presented in this article are available on Zenodo (DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7337823)

Additional information

Funding

The authors’ work for this paper was supported in part by the Horizon 2020 Project YMOBILITY - Youth mobility: maximizing opportunities for individuals, labor markets and regions in Europe project (grant number 649491) and by the CDI grant C1.2.PFE-CDI.2021-587/ Contract number 41PFE/30.12.2021, Unitatea Executiva pentru Finantarea Invatamantului Superior, a Cercetarii, Dezvoltarii si Inovarii.

Notes on contributors

Paula A. Tufiș

Paula A. Tufiș is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Bucharest. She holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from Pennsylvania State University (2007) and MA degrees in Sociology from Pennsylvania State University (2003) and Central European University (2001). Her main research areas are social stratification, migration, gender beliefs, child-rearing values, and quantitative research methods. Her publications have appeared in Sociological Forum, Sex Roles, The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences, Current Sociology and other outlets.

Dumitru Sandu

Dumitru Sandu is an Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Bucharest. His main publications are on transnational migration, transition sociology, community and regional development, measures of social capital, and health sociology. He has published in various academic journals, including Current Sociology, International Sociology, Population Space and Place, International Migration Review, Central and Eastern European Migration Review, Migrationes, Romanian Journal of Population Studies, Sociological Forum, Population Research and Policy Review, Population, Current Research in Vaccines Vaccination, and The Journal of Primary Prevention.