Lifetime Migration

This panel responds to growing calls to progress beyond a binary approach to migration (migrants/non-migrants) by recognising that migration is more complex and often repeats itself over the life course. By approaching migration as a life-course trajectory, the panel aims to accelerate a conceptual and methodological shift in migration studies that will produce theory and policy-relevant insights. Stimulating progress in analytical methods and enhancing access to existing longitudinal datasets and novel collections of individual lifetime mobility histories is core to this panel. By encouraging the analysis of migration over individuals’ lifetimes the panel seeks to:

(1) Recognise the heterogeneity of migration behaviours in individual’s lives across diverse populations, from lifetime sedentarism to one-time migration, repeat and chronic migration.

(2) Integrate internal and international migration as part of the same continuum of population movement and identify how these are linked over the life course.

(3) Establish how migration trajectories are associated with individual life chances and societal wellbeing and inequalities.

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