A cross-national comparison of internal and international migration aspirations.

Internal migration is much more common than international migration. It has been suggested that this is partly due to blocked international mobility; many people who prefer international migration cannot afford the costs and instead migrate internally. Several studies have shown that internal and international migrants have different socio-economic profiles, although the direction of the difference varies. This paper aims to shed light on the differences in characteristics of internal and international migrants and therewith on the role of blocked mobility. The paper focuses on migration aspirations rather than actual mobility; this gives an idea of people’s preferences rather than what they are able to accomplish. If internal migration is indeed a second-best international migration aspirations should be much higher. The paper looks at a range of factors that may have differing influences. These are education, perceived quality of life in the residence country, perceived job opportunities, migration networks, migration culture, internet access and urbanisation. The analysis draws on data from EUMAGINE; a multi-method project conducted in a total of sixteen research areas of Morocco, Turkey, Senegal and the Ukraine. The results show that in most areas international migration aspirations are indeed higher than internal migration