Social Networks and the Intention to Migrate

Miriam Manchin and Sultan Orazbayev ()

No 90a, CID Working Papers from Center for International Development at Harvard University

Abstract: Using a large individual-level survey spanning several years and more than 150 countries, we examine the importance of social networks in influencing individuals' intention to migrate internationally and locally. We distinguish close social networks (composed of friends and family) abroad and at the current location, and broad social networks (composed of same-country residents with intention to migrate, either internationally or locally). We find that social networks abroad are the most important driving forces of international migration intentions, with close and broad networks jointly explaining about 37% of variation in the probability intentions. Social networks are found to be more important factors driving migration intentions than work-related aspects or wealth (wealth accounts for less than 3% of the variation). In addition, we nd that having stronger close social networks at home has the opposite effect by reducing the likelihood of migration intentions, both internationally and locally.

Keywords: intention to migrate; social networks; international migration; local migration; remittances (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F22 F24 O15 R23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-int, nep-mig, nep-soc and nep-ure
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (61)

Downloads: (external link)
https://growthlab.cid.harvard.edu/files/growthlab/files/cidrfwp90.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Social networks and the intention to migrate (2018)
Working Paper: Social Networks and the Intention to Migrate (2018)
Working Paper: Social networks and the intention to migrate (2016)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cid:wpfacu:90a

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CID Working Papers from Center for International Development at Harvard University 79 John F. Kennedy Street. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chuck McKenney ().