Using Swedish register data, we analyse how life course preferences and sibling ties are related to the geographical dispersion of siblings. We argue that life course preferences and siblings ties are influenced by siblings' socio-demographic characteristics, by similarities and differences between them, and by their family background. The measurement of geographical dispersion, the nearest neighbour index, allows us to go beyond dyadic relationships and investigate entire networks. Results from the OLS regression analysis show that life course preferences are related to the dispersion of siblings, and that differences between siblings are associated with a greater geographical dispersion than similarities are. Sibling ties developed during childhood also seem to be associated with the dispersion of sibling networks.
Lifestyle migration is part of an ongoing quest for a better way of life. More or less affluent migrants moving to a destination with a perceived better climate are studied in the context of social rather than economic motivations. This paper focuses on Dutch families and their decision to move to the rural municipality of Hällefors in the Bergslagen area, Sweden. Such a Nordic destination, actively attracting migrants, has not previously been investigated in the context of lifestyle migration. The purpose of the paper is to examine what factors contribute to the decision to move. The research questions are the following: what are the socio-demographic characteristics of the migrating families? What meanings do the migrants attach to their work environments and places of residence prior to moving? What motivations and expectations have shaped the decision to move? These questions are addressed through an interview study. Results show that the adult family members were mainly born in the late 1950s or in the 1960s. The children were born in the 1990s and early 21st century. According to most respondents, effects of overpopulation and rapid urbanisation, both felt on the work floor and in the living environment, became a serious trigger to leave the Netherlands. Differences between the families consider the character of occupations (within or outside the creative industries) and the length of the decision process. In contrast to some other lifestyle migrant populations, families in this study considered returning as part of their ongoing quest.
The aim of this paper is to analyse young adults' experiences of moving and the role of identity narratives; how intersecting and multiple identities are constructed through their mobility; and the significance of space and representations of space and place in the processes of subject formation. The focus of this paper is on stories of mobility and the representations of one of many European rural peripheries: the Swedish North. The narratives offer alternative ways of thinking of the urban and the rural; people desire and belong across the places of migration. Even so, the hegemonic neoliberal understanding of the city as progress is reproduced by the informants, while at the same time some of them describe the rural as progressive for valuing the immaterial things people today have forgotten. These narratives can be viewed as ways of both reproducing and resisting the neoliberal understanding of the 'need to be mobile'.
The central issues explored in this article are the importance of geographical location in explaining the attitudes of individuals, and the interplay between these attitudes and overt behaviour. The context is as follows: In the late 1990's, sick-listings in Sweden underwent a substantial increase, causing the public expenses for the general sickness insurance to soar. Moreover, the extent of the usage of the insurance was found to vary significantly across different regions within the country. This development of the sickness insurance generally, and the regional differences specifically, have since been the subject of an intense debate. Differences and/or changes in attitudes toward sick leave within the population have been proposed as possible reasons for the regional variations. Much of the discussion has, however, been based on speculative arguments rather than empirical studies. Using data from a survey conducted in 2005, this research explores whether geographical location influences individual attitudes toward sick leave, and whether these attitudes in turn influence the sickness absence of individuals. The data are analysed using factor analysis, ordinary linear regressions and logistic regressions. The results provide some support for the idea that geographical factors matter to individual attitudes, and that variation in these attitudes is in turn associated with propensity for sickness absence. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Migration has, over the years, attracted infinitely more attention than non-migration or staying. In this paper, the focus is set on those individuals who have demonstrated lifelong sedentary behaviour. The aim of the study is to scrutinise the ways in which people who have lived their entire life in the same place make sense of their sedentary, or immobile, lifestyle. The study builds upon semi-structured interviews, conducted in 2011–2012, with persons aged 60 years and older who were living in an urban area in northern Sweden. Initially, the different definitions of staying are highlighted by the informants, and the flexibility of the concept is addressed. The findings indicate that even though reasons for staying might be harder to articulate than reasons for migration, the explanations given are still complex and multi-layered. The findings also suggest that the decision to stay is not a choice made once and then never renegotiated but rather a decision made over and over again. Furthermore, the significance of intertwined lives, both with living relatives and with preceding and following generations, is analysed. Finally, the results from the study challenge earlier pictures of stayers – where they were portrayed as stigmatised – and highlight the need to consider staying, as well as moving, as a conscious choice in order that we may gain a better understanding of the dynamics of staying.
This study explores the magnitude and composition of kinship ties at Swedish workplaces. By analysing official register data and illustrating findings from interviews with HR personnel at different workplaces, the following questions are discussed: How much kinship concentration is there today on the labour market in a modern Western society such as Sweden? How is the kin‐based selection of workplace members structured by place? The study is based on an analysis of individually connected register information on all workplaces in Sweden in 2012. The number of individual links between relatives and couples at an average workplace amounts to 14% of the number of employees as derived from 310, 000 couples and pairs of relatives among 4.3 million workers. So, even today in Sweden, kinship is a common phenomenon observable for most workers at most workplaces. Of all such connected pairs of kin at workplaces, more than a third contain counterparts living in the same household. A non‐linear individual‐level regression reveals that population density in the vicinity of the workplace is substantially related to kin density. Large agglomerations seem to coexist with low kin density workplaces. Although some level of kin membership is unavoidable especially at workplaces in sparsely populated places, removing this part still reveals that kinship above an unavoidable level seems to exist. The study contributes to the discussion of kinship in workplaces by examining the magnitude and composition of kinship ties in the whole work force and complementing findings with interviews.
Rural households across the globe engage in both migration and natural resource use as components of livelihood strategies designed to meet household needs. Yet, migration scholars have only recently begun to regularly integrate environmental factors into empirical modelling efforts. To examine the migration-environment association in rural South Africa, we use vegetation measures derived from satellite imagery combined with detailed demographic data from over 9000 households at the Agincourt Health and Demographic Surveillance Site. Results reveal that household-level temporary migration is associated with higher levels of local natural capital, although no such association exists for permanent migration. Further, more advantaged households exhibit a stronger association between migration-environment, in-line with the 'environmental capital' hypothesis, suggesting that natural resource availability can facilitate household income diversification. We argue that a focus on migration's environmental aspects is especially timely in the contemporary era of climate change and that natural capital availability and variability represent critical pieces of the empirical migration puzzle, especially regarding cyclical livelihood migration.
As the large post-war cohorts reach retirement age, there is a growing potential for later-life migrants. Not only are these cohorts large in number; they are also healthier and can make plans for a substantially long period to enjoy retirement. Additionally, in Sweden this generation is largely one of urbanization, which means that many have a linkage to the rural areas where they grew up. Attracting this potential of returning retirees is one strategy to counteract population decline: in some rural areas, politicians target returning retirees as potential in-migrants. Returning to one's origin is one potential motivation for migration later in life, once employment is no longer a restraining factor to a particular place, and it becomes possible to choose a place of residence more freely. The aim of this study is to examine the extent to which returning to one's roots is a factor in interregional migration in Sweden in the age group of 55–70 years. Data consist of all persons in Sweden aged 55–70 during the period 2003–2005, including their permanent residence and parish of birth. The results indicate that approximately one out of five migrants in this group who move further than 30 km are return migrants while about ten per cent return to parish. The results further confirm that migration in this age group, particularly return migration, is oriented towards rural areas. People born in the rural areas are also more prone to return at older age compared to those born in urban settings.
Whereas the significance of family networks for support and well‐being has been shown in previous research, few studies have analysed the income distribution within family networks. The aim of this study is to examine income distribution within family networks and how they have changed over time for women and men in different parts of the income distribution and if the incomes are more similar in the geographically proximate family network. The analysis is based on register data and by use of ordinary least squares (OLS) and quantile regressions. The results indicate that men in the lowest income group tend to have become more similar to their family network over time. Gender differences have decreased, possibly as an effect of women's higher labour market participation rate leading to decreased income disparity. This paper contributes by highlighting how the uneven distribution of economic resources in family networks adds to individual's own resources.
Studies testing ‘spatial assimilation’ are no longer restricted to traditional suburbanisation movements correlated with high education, income and exposure to the ‘majority’ population. Instead, greater emphasis is now being placed on other ‘cultural’ and ‘social’ aspects associated with assimilation and different patterns of movements. While these ideas have remained dominant in North America, fewer studies have tested their applicability in European contexts. This paper addresses this by examining the spatial mobility of Iranian and Iraqi immigrants from segregated areas within Stockholm County, Sweden. By using register data for individuals for the years 2001 and 2007, binary logistic regressions reveal how significant differences emerge between those who move and those who stay, particularly for human capital (education) prior to movement and social capital (having a ‘Swedish’ partner) after movement. This raises important questions for future research dealing with issues of integration, segregation and mobility.
As a result of the ongoing urbanization trend in many countries, most rural and peripheral areas are suffering from depopulation and out-migration. Nevertheless, some rural areas are experiencing a net in-flow of older migrants. One explanation mentioned is that people own second homes that are converted into permanent homes in later life. However, this description has rarely been tested empirically. Rather, it has been described as residual for migration into rural areas. Three hypotheses have been put forward in relation to second homes as a trigger for migration in later life. The first is that second-home owners are less inclined to move but utilize their second home more as a substitute for permanent amenity migration. The second is that owners are more likely to move as they have the opportunity to move permanently to their second home, while the third is that second-home owners would be more likely to downsize from their permanent home and make housing adjustments. This study attempts to answer the question if second-home ownership triggers migration in later life and if it is a matter of housing adjustment or converting a second home into a permanent home. This is performed by analysing microdata covering all individuals in Sweden in the 55–70-years age range in the 1999–2008 period. Results support the hypothesis that second-home ownership triggers migration in later life and, by so doing, imply that a life course perspective is valuable for our understanding of migration in later life and that not only permanent migration but also experiences of temporary mobility are relevant for migration biographies.
Living in cities affects young adults' access to education and work. With the use of register data for 2000-2013, we examined the role of having siblings and parents living close by and having siblings and parents living in the area of origin, in young adults' return migration from the four largest cities in Sweden. We found that young adults were less likely to return, and also less likely to migrate elsewhere, if they had siblings or parents living in the city of residence than if this was not the case. If the parents no longer lived in the region of origin, the young adults were very unlikely to return. Young adults were more likely to return if they had siblings living in that region than if they had no siblings or the siblings lived elsewhere. Adverse circumstances such as dropping out of tertiary education, low income, and unemployment were associated with a greater likelihood of return migration.
The aim of this paper is to investigate the extent to which elderly parents and adult children move close (or very close) to each other and how this mobility is influenced by socioeconomic conditions, family situation, gender and age. The analyses are based on register data for the years 2001 and 2002 covering all elderly parents and their adult children residing in Sweden. For instance, our analyses show a positive relationship between, on the one hand, moving close to an adult child or an elderly parent and, on the other, the presence of other family members (e.g. siblings and grandchildren). We also found that moving very close to adult children was more common among the young-old and less common among the old-old. One interpretation is that young-old parents often move close to their adult children to have social contact or assist them, but as the parents grow older and their health weakens, care becomes increasingly important and, in the Swedish welfare state, it becomes more the responsibility of public institutions.
Economic and political changes in formerly socialist economies affect migration patterns and gender relations in complex ways. The consequences of transition from planned to market economies for men and women, respectively, are manifested both in gendered migration patterns and gendered urban labour markets, where young migrant women now constitute an important part of the ‘globalised’ industrial working class of Southeast Asian cities. This paper analyses female rural–urban migration to industrial work in Lao PDR, one of Southeast Asia’s smallest transition economies. Since the implementation of the New Economic Mechanism in Lao PDR in 1986, a process of feminisation of rural–urban migration has started and female employment in industries in Vientiane Capital increased. The paper highlights some of the consequences of economic transition for female rural–urban migrants, focusing on changing gender roles and women’s status as industrial workers, both inside and outside factory gates.
This paper compares the determinants of living alone among elderly women in six countries (Tanzania, Kyrgyzstan, Indonesia, Brazil, Spain, and Sweden) with very different family systems, policy contexts, levels of development, and socio-economic characteristics. Different factors behind the residential choices of elderly women are estimated by means of logistic regression. Decomposition models are used to assess the extent to which observed differences between countries correspond to specific population compositions or to other factors. Although the importance of all independent variables for living alone is shown to be strong and statistically significant, persistent intercountry disparities in behaviour linked to levels of familism and development remain. Population composition explains only a small part of the observed differences in living alone. Economic development provides an important underlying explanation for the incidence of living alone among women, but many specific differences can also be explained by societal characteristics such as family systems and available policy options.
The assimilation of refugees into their host community economic structures is often problematic. The paper investigates the ability of refugees in rural South Africa to accumulate assets over time relative to their host community. Bayesian spatial-temporal modelling was employed to analyse a longitudinal database that indicated that the asset accumulation rate of former Mozambican refugee households was similar to their host community; however, they were unable to close the wealth gap. A series of geo-statistical wealth maps illustrate that there is a spatial element to the higher levels of absolute poverty in the former refugee villages. The primary reason for this is their physical location in drier conditions that are established further away from facilities and infrastructure. Neighbouring South African villages in close proximity, however, display lower levels of absolute poverty, suggesting that the spatial location of the refugees only partially explains their disadvantaged situation. In this regard, the results indicate that the wealth of former refugee households continues to be more compromised by higher mortality levels, poorer education, and less access to high-return employment opportunities. The long-term impact of low initial asset status appears to be perpetuated in this instance by difficulties in obtaining legal status in order to access state pensions, facilities, and opportunities. The usefulness of the results is that they can be used to sharpen the targeting of differentiated policy in a given geographical area for refugee communities in rural Africa.
Based on longitudinal data from national Swedish registers, family life courses dynamics for all women born 1935 in Sweden are explored for the period 1990-2006. Focusing primarily on the existence and geographical proximity to parents, children and grandchildren, assuming that the family life courses affect the life situation as well as strategic decisions, this longitudinal study uses a holistic approach, analysing how different types of family life courses are associated with socio-economic conditions as well as with the timing of retirement. The primary task was not to identify the causal determinants of work life exit, but rather to unfold how retirement transition is entwined into the different types of family life courses, whereby retirement and family ageing are different sides of a multifaceted transition period. By using sequence analysis, the family life courses were structured into sequences and durations of states and different family life course categories were identified.
The sequence analyses reveal a complex relation between retirement decisions and having family members around. Early retirement was associated with a category with few relatives but also with a category with two younger generations present, while we found no strong association with early retirement for categories in which the old generation was around for a longer period. Late retirement was associated with belonging to categories characterized by late family formation and having children at home. These differences in retirement behaviour were also significant when controlling for education level, marital status and type of region in a Cox regression.
We explore staying and migration behaviour using a multigenerational perspective on local ties. Based on Swedish register data, we take a shared birthplace between young adults and one or more of their parents and grandparents as a proxy for multigenerational local ties in the young adult's birthplace. Our aim is to investigate whether the presence of this type of longstanding, multigenerational local ties in the birthplace increases one's propensity to stay or return there during young adulthood. Using multinomial logistic regressions, we model the residential trajectories between ages 18 and 30 of individuals born in 1981, 1982, and 1983 who lived in their birthplace at age 18 (i.e., stayed in, moved from, or returned to the birthplace by age 30; N = 185,897). We find that the propensity for staying in one's birthplace increases with each additional parent or grandparent with whom the birthplace is shared. Overall, differences between ties shared with parent(s) and grandparent(s) are surprisingly similar, except ties that are shared with both parents. These have a particularly strong and positive effect. Although men seem to be tied more strongly than women to their fathers and paternal grandparents, we found no differences between men and women in their ties to mothers and maternal grandparents.
Theoretically significant research on transnational migrations has usually been based on in-depth qualitative studies with detailed case study data linked to specific contexts. The concept of transnationalism has been used to capture and theorise enduring and complex interchanges of people, things and ideas between places, regions and/or countries, that are separated by borders, and usually by large physical distances. Transnationalism has also been linked to accounts of intense forms of international migration under globalisation, often in contexts of unequal power relations. Rather few studies have tried to grasp the phenomenon in larger samples, examining its importance and characteristics over time in different migratory contexts. While sharing theoretical and epistemological understandings from the transnational research field, this paper explores the phenomenon by analysing a comprehensive set of quantitative data on long-distance frequent movers between Sweden and Asia, Latin America and Africa. By looking at the most mobile of all migrants in this South–North context, the paper explores the characteristics and scope of transnational migrations. The analyses show that transnational circulators, defined here as individuals who have migrated three times or more between Sweden and these regions, constitute a very small proportion of all South–North migrants over a 35-year period. They are more likely than other groups to be highly educated, male, low-income earners and Swedish citizens. These results contrast with other studies where transnational mobility of the highly skilled is often associated with successful career migration and high income groups. The conclusion of this paper is that, despite the high qualification level of circulators, long-distance circulation between Sweden and the global South is associated with negative income and labour market situations. The paper also questions the relevance of the concept of transnationalism itself in this specific context. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
This paper examines the significance of spatial and socioeconomic factors in determining place attractiveness, and it suggests an explorative method for the analysis of detailed patterns of spatial attractiveness. By departing from a simple spatial model that distinguishes between different hinterlands at varying distances from the individuals’ immediate neighbourhood, we analyse the relative importance of demographic, labour-market, service as well as physical factors for income levels and in-migration rates. Based on a longitudinal spatially referenced microdatabase covering over 100 annual attributes per individual and digital land-use information for the entire territory, vicinity characteristics were calculated for every populated square kilometre (108,000 squares). Regression, a partial F test and h2 were used to decompose explained variation in attractiveness into indicators classified insocioeconomic categories and spatial ranges. The findings indicate a considerable variation across the spatial scale. For example, the characteristics of the vicinity (km2) seem to have a much larger influence on variation inplace attractiveness than the characteristics of the hinterland (within 5 to 50 km). Moreover, place attractiveness seems to be determined to a very small extent by physical factors in the immediate vicinity. Demographic andsocioeconomic factors appear to be the main determinants of place attractiveness.
The development of city regions can be regarded as both a driving force behind and a consequence of increased interaction between firms and people in a region. This paper focuses on people's place attachment to different geographic levels - neighbourhood, residential municipality, and city region - and the relationship between place attachment and mobility. In the present paper, the issues of whether attachment differs between residents in small versus large regions, between the centre and hinterlands, and of whether there is a relationship between attachment and mobility (commuting and migrating) are in focus. The analyses are based on a questionnaire distributed in 2009 to 6000 citizens in the city regions Goteborg and Umea in Sweden. The study shows a relationship between mobility and attachment to the neighbourhood and residential municipality but not with the city region. Satisfaction with the social life in the neighbourhood and public services in the residential municipality were shown to be important for the respondents, place attachment.
Indigenous people comprise a significant proportion of the population living in remote parts of Australia, particularly in the north. A growing body of literature has documented high mobility between remote Indigenous settlements, service towns and cities. The extent and nature of this mobility is thought to be driven, at least partly, by the types of services and infrastructure available in communities. Understanding to what extent these service and infrastructure provisions drive people's mobility and the type of people who move is essential for creating policy for remote communities and making investment decisions. We use 2011 census data to examine this issue for the Northern Territory, the Australian jurisdiction with the highest Indigenous composition in its remote population, by constructing generalised linear mixed models comparing Indigenous people's actual locations on census night with their stated usual place of residence. We found that individual characteristics (gender and age) had high impacts on individuals being at home or away on census night and that good health care provision, government subsidised community jobs and Internet access are associated with higher levels of absences from home. Meanwhile, those living in communities that had recently received new houses were less likely to be away on census night. The results can contribute to the efficiency of service provision and to understanding the dynamics of Indigenous mobility.
In affluent societies, an active choice of lifestyle is increasingly becoming an option. With increased possibilities for mobility, opportunities to lead a good life can be accessed across global space. However, lifestyle management is largely directed and constrained by structural frameworks, and movers have to allocate resources and experience in order to manoeuvre structures and make optimal lifestyle choices. This paper explores how residential mobility may be used as a resource to gain access to opportunities. Based on thematic analysis of in-depth interviews, this is performed by exploring the experiences of Swedish lifestyle movers in Malta, in their tailoring of mobility practices that allow them to enjoy opportunities for the good life in both countries. The research questions that have guided this study are as follows: (a) What does the good life comprise? (b) How are structural frameworks surrounding opportunities for lifestyle management perceived by movers? and (c) In what ways do movers actively tailor their mobility practices to achieve the good life? The results show that movers are highly engaged in tailoring their access to opportunities through place fixity, such as permanent residency and social integration, and through routinised and timed mobility practices.