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Family life course transitions and the economic consequences of internal migration
Author(s) -
De Jong Gordon F.,
Graefe Deborah Roempke
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
population, space and place
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.398
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1544-8452
pISSN - 1544-8444
DOI - 10.1002/psp.506
Subject(s) - life course approach , internal migration , demographic economics , family life , poverty , population , family income , affect (linguistics) , economic growth , economics , sociology , psychology , socioeconomics , demography , social psychology , communication
Do family life course and migration events combine to improve or hurt family economic well‐being? The interaction effects of family life course events (i.e. became married, had a child, became separated/divorced) with migration are seldom conceptualised and measured in research on the economic well‐being of families. The more usual focus of the migration literature is on family and household structure rather than on family life course processes . Based on life course transition theory and longitudinal population survey data for the 1996–1999 and 2001–2003 panels of the Survey of Income and Program Participation, we utilise random coefficients models in an event‐history framework to provide new evidence on how before‐ and after‐migration life course events affect post‐migration family employment, family income and family poverty, for inter‐ and intra‐state migrants. The results show that, net the effect of factors selecting families and individuals to migrate, both inter‐ and intra‐state migration have negative impacts on family employment, poverty levels and income levels, but interstate migrants experience positive income growth. Separation and divorce markedly intensify the negative effects, but becoming married consistently interacts with migration to improve family economic well‐being. The causal order of family life course events and migration matters, with childbirth and separation/divorce after migration being particularly harmful to family economic well‐being. These effects are not mediated by state economic conditions. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.