The Forces Driving Human Migration

The volume of South–North migration is increasing. Does this mean that restrictive migration policies have failed? How exactly do migration policies affect the size, direction and nature of migration? How do development processes affect migration? Staff at the International Migration Institute aim to answer these questions through a major research initiative called ‘The Determinants of International Migration’ (DEMIG).

What drives migration?

There are many factors in both countries of origin and countries of destination that affect international migration. We know that economic factors, migration networks and policies all play some kind of role in shaping people’s migration decisions, but how important are they and how do they interact with other factors?

The DEMIG project aims to improve what is currently a limited understanding of the multi-level forces driving international migration. For instance, it is often thought that under-development in countries of origin is one of the most important reasons why people choose to move to richer countries in the global North. However, recent evidence suggests that development can actually lead to increasing migration, as people in the global South increase their resources and their ability to travel.

The effect of migration policies

The project investigates how social, cultural and economic factors and state policies in origin and destination countries affect emigration and immigration flows. Researchers will therefore be able to find out how migration policies affect migration flows, while simultaneously taking into account all the other forces driving international migration. 

Principal investigator Hein de Haas, with Mathias Czaika, Simona Vezzoli, María Villares-Varela, Valentin Danchev and Edo Mahendra are carrying out a systematic empirical analysis of policy effects. They will embed this analysis into a new, comprehensive theoretical framework of the forces driving international migration.The team is also compiling a unique country-to-country migration database containing bilateral migration flow data over the 1950–2010 period. They will be able to test general migration theory by exploring the complex links between human development and migration.

Project funders

DEMIG is core-funded through a five-year (2010–2014) Starting Grant awarded to IMI Senior Research Officer Hein de Haas by the European Research Council (ERC). IMI is a member of the Oxford Martin School at the University of Oxford, and recently received additional funding from Dr James Martin (founder of the School) to match the grant from the ERC.