Family and individual determinants of the internal migration of the foreign-born population in Italy and Spain, 2001-2011

Verónica de Miguel-Luken, Universidad de Málaga
Joaquin Recaño Valverde, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

The main objective of this paper is to describe the different socio-demographical and individual factors that explain the internal migration patterns of the foreign-born population in Italy and Spain, countries with a common history of past emigration and which have become dynamic destinations in the European context of immigration since de middle of the nineties of the XXth century. The analysis is based on census micro-data files of 2001 and 2011 which provide information on individuals that have changed their place of residence by basic demographic characteristics (age, sex and country of birth, origin and destination of internal migration, housing tenure, employment and level of education). We intend to answer the following questions: Are the demographic patterns of internal migration of foreign-born similar to those of natives by age and sex? Do these migration patterns differ by immigrant origin? Are the observed demographic patterns by specific national groups always the same or do they differ according to the country of destination? And lastly, what changes are observed from 2001 to 2011? Following a descriptive analysis of demographic patterns of internal migration of foreign-born and native-born we will apply some multinomial models to explore some of the individual and aggregated characteristics that may influence in explaining the differences in mobility among groups in these two Southern European countries. Our main findings are: the internal migration intensity of the foreign born population is considerably higher than that of native population (this is proved for Africans, Asians and Latin-Americans); the first two groups also show important gender differences (males are more mobile), but patterns are more balanced for Latin-Americans; and finally, individual factors have similar influences in both countries, even if the odds-ratios show higher differences for medium and long distance migration.