Key research themes
1. What factors drive residential migration and immobility in contemporary societies?
This theme addresses the underlying motivations and constraints that lead individuals to move or stay put within their residential contexts. It explores both the drivers promoting migration—such as economic opportunity, housing, family needs, and life events—and the countervailing forces causing immobility or forced moves. Understanding these determinants is critical for framing policies related to housing, labor markets, and social inequality, and for explaining why migration flows remain modest despite globalization.
2. How do life-course events and institutional factors influence residential mobility patterns among skilled and rural-urban migrants?
This theme explores the intersection of life trajectories, institutional settings (e.g., hukou system in China), and residential mobility among specific migrant subpopulations, such as skilled workers in urban China and rural-urban migrants undergoing forced relocation. It emphasizes the complex trade-offs migrants make between dwelling conditions and locational attributes like commuting distance and school quality, with implications for housing policy and urban labor markets.
3. What are the patterns, distances, and demographic profiles of internal residential migration, and how are these evolving in developed countries?
Research in this theme focuses on quantitatively profiling internal migration flows by distance, demographic attributes such as age and sex, and contextual factors like life course events including education, family changes, and employment. It analyzes long-term trends evidencing decreasing or stable migration intensities in some developed countries and highlights how mobility aligns with socioeconomic roles and personal life changes.