Local Ties and Family Migration

The migration of couples and families has thus far been approached mainly from human-capital and gender perspectives. In this article, we investigate how the male and female partner’s local ties influence the likelihood of family migration. Our hypotheses are that local ties to work and family strongly decrease the likelihood of migrating; that, given the dominating gender structures, ties to the man’s work are more influential than ties to the woman’s work; and that ties to the woman’s family are more influential than ties to the man’s family. We use data from the ASTRID micro database for Sweden, based on administrative information about the entire Swedish population. Logistic regression analysis was applied to moves that exceeded a distance of 50 kilometers for two-gender couples who did not separate in the period December 2004-December 2005. With regard to the likelihood of migrating, we find marked negative associations in the following: working close to home, the presence of parents and siblings nearby, and whether someone lives near the place of birth. The man’s ties to work seem to be more important to the likelihood of migrating than the woman’s, but we find hardly any gender differences in the impact of ties to family.