Modelling the Process of Migrant Decision Making
1. The migrant’s choice of final destination is difficult as there are multiple options, and each
has different push and pull factors as well as different barriers to movement. Also, the
further away a place is the less information you know about it and therefore the harder it is
to make a decision to go there or not. Therefore, decisions can be based on perceptions. You
could also do step migration where you migrate several times however, this might be more
effort when you could just go to the final destination first. It can also be difficult to place a
value on some push and pull factors.
2. Step migration is common in LICs as usually the majority of the population lives in rural areas
and therefore it would be quite a big jump to move straight to a major city so instead, they
do it in steps. At each step they gain more skills and experience as well as there being more
incentives.
3. In the Todaro Model the thinking is that short term quality of life and income will decrease
but then in the future it will increase more than it was previously especially for new
generations. Whereas Lee model is fixed in time.
4. Starks model takes on the idea that families can work together to increase their quality of
life for example funding education for first born sons in hope that they will migrate and get a
good job and therefore be able to support the raising of the rest of the family.
5. It is hard to collect accurate population data as there are many people who migrate illegally
and therefore are not counted. An example of this can be seen in the US IRCA legalisation
where thousands of migrants came out of hiding and declared themselves American citizens.
1. The migrant’s choice of final destination is difficult as there are multiple options, and each
has different push and pull factors as well as different barriers to movement. Also, the
further away a place is the less information you know about it and therefore the harder it is
to make a decision to go there or not. Therefore, decisions can be based on perceptions. You
could also do step migration where you migrate several times however, this might be more
effort when you could just go to the final destination first. It can also be difficult to place a
value on some push and pull factors.
2. Step migration is common in LICs as usually the majority of the population lives in rural areas
and therefore it would be quite a big jump to move straight to a major city so instead, they
do it in steps. At each step they gain more skills and experience as well as there being more
incentives.
3. In the Todaro Model the thinking is that short term quality of life and income will decrease
but then in the future it will increase more than it was previously especially for new
generations. Whereas Lee model is fixed in time.
4. Starks model takes on the idea that families can work together to increase their quality of
life for example funding education for first born sons in hope that they will migrate and get a
good job and therefore be able to support the raising of the rest of the family.
5. It is hard to collect accurate population data as there are many people who migrate illegally
and therefore are not counted. An example of this can be seen in the US IRCA legalisation
where thousands of migrants came out of hiding and declared themselves American citizens.
