ABSTRACT
Assessment of quality of life can be made either through the use of objective indicators or, as is the case with most migration research concentrating on this issue, more subjectively by those concerned. Quality of life is implicated in almost all forms of migration. For example, migration to improve job prospects represents a dear attempt to improve quality of life, since economic security is essential for well-being. Likewise, life-course moves, such as those linked to marriage or retirement, all involve attempts by the individual or household to improve their everyday living situation in tune with their changing wants and needs. These moves for employment and life-course reasons have, however, been discussed in previous chapters. They must also be seen in terms of demands placed on the migrant through economic pressures and household norms. This chapter concentrates on the extent to wh ich mi-
gration can be more completely evaluated in terms of individual personal, household or other group attempts to improve the quality of life, notably in migration representing an active effort to obtain a preferred living environment. In other words, the chapter concentrates on migrations driven by environmental concerns in the broadest sense, wh ether these concerns are linked to the physical or to the social environment. People here are, in the memorable phrase, 'voting with their feet' much more explicitly than was apparent in the types of migration discussed previously.
