GEP Research Paper 08/26
Intergenerational Transmission of “Migration Capital” and the Decision to Emigrate
Artjoms Ivlevs and Roswitha M. King
Summary
This paper uses 2007 survey data for Latvia to identify past family migration experience as a significant determinant of current decisions to emigrate
Abstract
This paper argues that intergenerational transmission of past accumulated ‘migration capital’ is a significant determinant of current decisions to migrate. Analysis of survey data confirms our hypothesis that past family migration experience increases a person’s current and future propensity to migrate; i.e. host country born children and grandchildren of former migrants are more likely to migrate themselves, compared to people without family migration experience. By contrast, a person’s own past migration experience does not augment current emigration decisions. The country of Latvia serves as an unusually instructive laboratory for our analysis due to the nature of its 1945-1991 immigration flows.
Issued in August 2008
This paper is available in PDF format