Internal migration of working youth: Determinants of readiness to move to another region

Abstract

The number of regions in Russia experiencing a significant outflow of population is growing so the issue of internal migration is still on the agenda. A review of empirical studies of internal migration in Russia has shown that most of the studies devoted to the causes and consequences of migration are bounded to the economic aspect ignoring the complexity of this social phenomenon. In this paper, readiness for voluntary internal migration is considered as a phenomenon that embodies individual subjective activity of a person, when a young person purposefully chooses not only a place of permanent residence, but also an appropriate lifestyle. The aim of the study is to determine what social factors contribute to intend to move to another city for residence. The set of social determinants that were tested consists of personal moral attitudes, close social ties, satisfaction with different aspects of work, shared opinion about current city from significant others, satisfaction with the city environment. These factors affect at different levels and are considered as significant elements of a system with its internal logic and hierarchy. The data of online panel survey of 357 working young people from different regions shows that social factors (opinions of significant others about the city of residence, perception of the city as a place for comfortable life, social status of parents) are significant predictors of intention to move. Common and universal attitude to “be financially free and independent” and social origin activate the opinion of significant others about the city, which is highly connected with the leading determinant: personal evaluation of the quality of life in current urban environment.