The Intergenerational Transmission of International Migration

Aude Bernard , University of Queensland
Francisco Perales, University of Queensland

Growing empirical evidence shows that the decision to emigrate is influenced by parents’ international-migration experiences, with 2nd-generation immigrants being more likely to emigrate than the native-born population. However, the factors underpinning this intergenerational transmission of emigration behaviour remain poorly understood. This study extends evidence in two main ways: (i) it assesses the relative contribution of two transmission pathways (family-migration history and childhood migration experience), and (ii) it considers both the probability of emigrating as an adult and the direction of migration (onwards vs. return). To accomplish this, we apply survival analysis to retrospective survey data for baby-boomers in 15 European countries. Compared with native-born individuals with no childhood-migration experience, 2nd-generation immigrants are only marginally more likely to emigrate during adulthood. In contrast, native-born individuals with childhood migration experience and individuals from the ‘1.5 generation’ who emigrated during childhood are significantly and substantially more likely to emigrate as adults. Building on these findings, we refine the concept of migration capital as a set of general and location-specific attitudes, skills, and resources that accumulate within and across generations through family migration history and lived migration experiences and which facilitate future migration by altering individuals’ perceptions of its monetary and non-monetary costs and benefits. We conclude by discussing theoretical implications for future research.

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 Presented in Session 6. Migration Momentum: Mapping Multigenerational Mobility