The Effect of Long-Distance Family Migration and Motherhood on Partnered Women's Labour-Market Activity Rates in Great Britain and the USA

Paul Boyle, Thomas Cooke, Keith Halfacree and Darren Smith
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Paul Boyle: School of Geography & Geosciences, University of St Andrews, St Andrews KY16 9AL, Scotland
Thomas Cooke: Department of Geography, University of Connecticut, 437 CLAS Building, 215 Glenbrook Road, Unit 4148, Storrs, CT 06269-4148, USA
Keith Halfacree: Department of Geography, University of Wales Swansea, Singleton Park, Swansea SA2 8PP
Darren Smith: School of the Environment, University of Brighton, Cookcroft Building, Lewes Road, Brighton BN2 4GJ, England

Environment and Planning A, 2003, vol. 35, issue 12, 2097-2114

Abstract: Many studies of long-distance family migration demonstrate that female partners are often disenfranchised in the labour market. One factor that has not been fully considered is the role of children. Heterosexual couples may be more likely to migrate in favour of the male ‘breadwinner's’ career if the couple have children, or are planning to commence childrearing in the foreseeable future. However, little work seems to have examined this empirically. The authors focus on the influence of ‘motherhood’ in different national contexts, using comparable census microdata for Great Britain and the United States. They test whether apparent ‘tied migration’ effects may in fact be influenced by family decisions related to childbearing/childrearing, and two sets of modelling results are provided. First, they examine whether the effects of long-distance family migration on women's labour-market status is influenced by the presence or absence of children of different ages. Second, they conduct the same analysis for women who have a high-status occupation. The results demonstrate that women in families with young children are most likely to be out of employment after family migration. A smaller, but similar, tied-migration effect exists for families with older children and families with no children. The same pattern exists for women in high-status occupations. Tied migration appears to influence women's labour-market status equally in Great Britain and the United States, regardless of the presence or absence of children.

Date: 2003
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:envira:v:35:y:2003:i:12:p:2097-2114

DOI: 10.1068/a35138

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