Internal Migration of Immigrants: Do Immigrant Characteristics, Class of Entry, and Context Matter?

Monica Boyd, University of Toronto
Maureen Kelly, U.K. Office for National Statistics
Doug Norris, Statistics Canada

This paper models the internal migration of international migrants as a function of three factors: 1) immigrant characteristics, defined as age, education, sex, marital status, and language knowledge and age of children (on arrival); 2) criterion of admission (family, humanitarian or economic) and entry status (main applicant or dependent); and 3) ethnic and economic contexts. "Ethnic" context is measured as a destination/origin ratio for the birthplace/ethnic group to which a specific migrant belongs and economic context is measured as the difference in the unemployment rate at the time of internal migration between place of destination and origin. The population studied in this project consists of sub-population of all foreign born, namely those who were admitted for permanent residence (landed immigrants) over a ten year period between 1986 and 1995 and who were adults in the prime labor force and migratory ages during the period (age 20-44 on arrival).