Understanding global human migration flows

International and internal migration have become the leading drivers of population change. They underpin the effective functioning of the labour and housing markets, and are key ingredients to economic resilience. They redistribute knowledge, skills and labour to places where needed to enhance economic productivity. Human mobility also influences the use and structure of urban spaces and shapes the demand of service provision.

Understanding the declining trend in internal migration in Europe

The project aims to establish the start and pace of the migration decline in 18 European countries, and to determine the factors underpinning this trend by examining associations between the drop in migration rates and broader demographic and socio-economic changes in the last three decades.

Rowe, F, Bell, M, Bernard, A, Charles-Edwards, E, Ueffing, P, 2017. `Measuring the Impact of Internal Migration on Population Redistribution in Europe', ERSA conference, Groningen

Graduate migration, human capital and regional development

Spatial mobility has differentiated impacts across the urban hierarchy. Rural areas are subject to persistent pressures to attract and retain youth and in particular young educated people to help redress accelerating ageing populations and replenishing labour gaps as well as to act as a key ingredient in stimulating economic development. In contrast, larger metropolitan areas are attraction magnets for the ‘best’ and the ‘brightest’. At the expense of smaller towns and rural areas, young people migrate up the urban hierarchy in search of enhanced education, employment and lifestyle opportunities. This line of research seeks to understand the geographical and employment destinations of university graduates, their process of human capital accumulation and impacts on places.

Corcoran, J, Faggian, A and Rowe, F forthcoming, `Editorial: Special issue on Migration Youth and Graduate Migration', The Annals of Regional Science.

Rowe, F, Corcoran, J and Bell, M 2016, `The returns to migration and human capital accumulation pathways: Non-metropolitan youth in the school-to-work transition', The Annals of Regional Science.

Tang, Z, Rowe, F, Corcoran, J and Sigler, T 2014, 'Where are the overseas graduates staying on? Overseas graduate migration and rural attachment in Australia', Applied Geography, vol. 53, pp. 66-76.