Internal Mobility over the Life Course. Life History Data from European Countries in a Transversal and Cohort Perspective

Frank Heins , IRPPS-CNR
Corrado Bonifazi, IRPPS.CNR, Rome

Territorial mobility is an event of the life course that is closely interlinked with the other ones at the level of individuals and families. Only few analysis take into consideration territorial mobility over the life course because the lack of data and the general focus on presenting current internal migration patterns instead of historical ones. The reconstruction of the complete housing history of an individual is in itself a complex undertaking and only few data sources allow for an international comparison of territorial mobility. The information provided through the life history interviews of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) and the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) allows filling these two gaps and the surveys offer the opportunity to clarify various aspects - demographic, social and economic - of territorial mobility in detail. The contribution examines the potential of these data and the methods to analyse the available information from a period and a cohort perspective at the macro level, and applying life course research techniques at the individual level. The factors associated with geographic mobility are the socio-demographic situation of the individuals and the families, including the role of homeownership, and the major events over the life course like the formation and dissolution of the couple, the birth of a child, and education and employment events. Cohabitation or marriage is the event associated most closely with a change of residence, followed by the birth of a child.

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 Presented in Session 78. Flash Session Migration and Migrants