Internal Migration Capital: Linking Past and Future Migration Over the Life Course

The previous chapters have shown that migration experiences accrued in childhood and early adulthood facilitate subsequent migrations. This chapter builds on this evidence to formulate a general framework that connects past and future migration over the life course. It argues that the accumulation of migration experience supports the development of migration-facilitating skills, perceptions and networks that alter the perceived costs and benefits of migrating and can be mobilised for future migration throughout adulthood. It empirically tests this concept and related research hypotheses by applying a series of logistic regression models with an individual random effect and a country fixed effect to retrospective migration histories in 27 European countries, distinguishing between intra and inter-regional migration and between onward and return migration. The results show that the impact of past migration is cumulative and linear for intra-regional migration: the higher the number of past intra-regional moves, the higher likelihood to migrate intra-regionally in the future. However, for onward inter-regional migration only the first adult inter-regional migration is statistically significant, which suggests that this initial experience promotes a learning process that lowers the migration decision threshold. Finally, the results show that individuals with a migration experience are more likely to engage in onward and return migration following adverse family-related transitions such as union separation or in response to economic transitions. The greater responsiveness of past migrants to education completion and change of employment may bring long-term economic benefits.