ABSTRACT
Research on internal migration tends to have a strong identification with particular disciplines: economists have explained it in terms of responses to wage and unemployment rates, geographers in terms of distance-decay models, sociologists in terms of community ties and life-style preferences. All of these approaches have merit, but neglect the fact that for many people migration is regulated by the institutional structures that affect their lives. Most household heads who migrate between regions end up with higher wage or salary levels, not because they chose to move to a region with high average wages, but because their move was a promotion to another job in a different branch of their organisation, or because they applied successfully for a widely-advertised job with another organisation. Migration in particular professions may reflect the tendency of those professions to reward experience in different environments, and the degree of acceptance in one place of qualifications gained elsewhere. Another important factor may be the ease of obtaining suitable housing in a different region, which may be affected by the organisation of the real estate industry. In Britain, most local authority housing is allocated from a waiting list, so in-migrants are likely to have severe difficulty in finding housing of this type. Government may have policy directly relevant to migration, such as encouragement to workers seeking jobs in a new region, or planned expansion and overspill schemes. Its policy may indirectly affect migration, by encouraging or discouraging large employers from locating in particular places. Local differences in welfare programmes may also have substantial effects.
