Migration decision-making and its key dimensions

Czaika, Mathias, Bijak, Jakub and Prike, Toby (2021) Migration decision-making and its key dimensions. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 697 (1), 15-31. (doi:10.1177/00027162211052233).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Migration decisions are made in the context of personal needs and desires, and the individuals making these decisions face uncertain outcomes. Information about future opportunities is incomplete, and whether migration turns out to be a personal success or failure depends mostly on circumstances that are ex ante unknown and ex post not fully under the control of the individuals who migrate. This article elaborates on four dimensions of the complex process of migration decision-making: the formation of migration aspirations, the cognitive rules for searching and evaluating information about migratory options, the timing and planning horizons for preparing and realizing migratory decisions, and the locus of control and degree of agency in making migration decisions. We review the current state of evidence and identify opportunities for future empirical research that can help us to better understand these key dimensions of migration decision-making.

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Accepted/In Press date: 29 March 2021

Published date: 21 December 2021

Additional Information: Funding Information: This work has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme; grants no. 870299 QuantMig: Quantifying Migration Scenarios for Better Policy (MC and JB) and no. 725232 BAPS: Bayesian Agent-Based Population Studies (JB and TP). A preliminary version of this article is available as QuantMig project report D1.3 from www.quantmig.eu . This article reflects the authors’ views, and the Research Executive Agency of the European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains. Publisher Copyright: © 2021 by The American Academy of Political and Social Science.

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