Who Migrates in a Context of Free Mobility? Assessing the Reason for Migration in Cross-National Register Data from Finland and Sweden

Rosa Weber , Stockholm University
Jan M. Saarela, Abo Academy University

Free mobility allows greater diversity in motivations and settlement intentions in the migration decision by opening up migration as an opportunity to a wider range of individuals. This paper identifies the reason for migration using pre- and post-migration information available in linked register data, seeing that register data do not provide information on the reason for migration if individuals are free to move. Moreover, we analyse differences in continued migration patterns and labour market integration by reason for migration. Using linked Finnish and Swedish register data from 1988-2005, we study 20,678 Finnish migrants aged 19-30 at the time of their first move to Sweden. Our analysis reveals substantial diversity in continued migration patterns and labour market integration by reason for migration. Migrants who are classified as labour migrants have a high prevalence of return migrating to Finland, but are less likely to circulate than student or family migrants. Student migrants have the highest prevalence of return migrating and circulating out of all the groups, while family migrants have a low risk of returning. Results on labour market integration reveal that labour migrants find their first job relatively quickly after migration. However, they are overtaken by student migrants who have considerably higher earnings eight years after immigration.

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 Presented in Session P3. Poster Session Migration, Economics, Environment, Methods, History and Policy