University of Groningen : Family and friends weigh heavier than moving away.
ENPNewswire-November 2, 2021--University of Groningen : Family and friends weigh heavier than moving away
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Release date- 02112021 - PhD student Jonne Thomassen has moved to a different town or city several times, as have many of her peers.
Yet some people stay living close to family or friends all their lives. Thomassen is researching why some people do not move away. Family ties are clearly an important motive for staying and, in some cases, can even serve as a deterrent to moving away.
Young people migrate more often than people in other age categories
Young people migrate relatively often. There are certain key life events that tend to necessitate a relocation, many of which occur in early adulthood: leaving school, embarking on higher education, finding a job, buying a first home, starting a family, and so on. Young people tend to move long distances too, usually to gain better access to the big cities and specialist labour markets. Highly educated young people in particular find that such moves significantly enhance their career opportunities.
Staying close to home
Whilst many young people are indeed extremely mobile, not all are. It feels normal to me that I have moved seven times in the last 10 years. Many of my friends have done the same. But why is it that I now live almost 300 kilometres away from my parents, whereas my brother still lives within walking distance of them? Could I have made a career for myself closer to home? And what would my life have been like if I had?
Doctoral research on 'stayers'
These questions got me thinking. I want to gain a better understanding of what makes some young people decide not to move away. This group is poorly represented in academic literature, so I interviewed a number of these 'stayers' myself for my Master's thesis. Most of them cited more than one reason for wanting to stay close to home, yet almost all of them cited a strong sense of connection with the place where they lived. This often had to do with the presence of a social network and the proximity of family and friends. The precise dynamics merit closer examination. Now, as a PhD student, I will therefore endeavour to gain a better understanding of the role played by family and friends in the choice to stay.
Proximity of family influences migration behaviour
What do we already know about how the role of family and friends affects a person's decision to move house? Family and...
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