Motives for economic migration: A review

Migration is a key driver of economic and societal transformation, touching people’s lives worldwide. Understanding why people decide to migrate is crucial for fostering inclusive and diverse societies and informing effective policy-making. This paper focuses on economic migrants, a particular g...

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Main Author: Kerstin Mitterbacher
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: University Library Heidelberg 2025-01-01
Series:Journal of Dynamic Decision Making
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/jddm/article/view/96536
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author Kerstin Mitterbacher
author_facet Kerstin Mitterbacher
author_sort Kerstin Mitterbacher
collection DOAJ
description Migration is a key driver of economic and societal transformation, touching people’s lives worldwide. Understanding why people decide to migrate is crucial for fostering inclusive and diverse societies and informing effective policy-making. This paper focuses on economic migrants, a particular group of migrants whose study has primarily been confined to narrow areas of interest and characterized by inconsistent terminology, limiting cross-study comparability and the synthesis of findings. Viewed through the interdisciplinary lens and derived from theoretical, empirical, and analytical research outcomes, the present paper concludes that economic migrants’ movements are influenced by the socio-demographic factors of ‘age’ and ‘education’ and are motivated by both the economic motives of ‘expected income’ and ‘employment’ and the economic-related motives of ‘corruption’, ‘amenities’, and ‘happiness’. These motives also reveal a typical profile of economic migrants: working-age, highly educated, predominantly male individuals who seek opportunities in developed countries to achieve a fulfilling life. The presented findings contribute to a better understanding of the dynamic decision-making process of economic migrants and offer valuable insights for policymakers to design more nuanced and targeted strategies for integrating migrants into societies.
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spelling doaj-art-c8bc01ba6a96413e90121526ad58cdf02025-02-01T10:08:40ZengUniversity Library HeidelbergJournal of Dynamic Decision Making2365-80372025-01-0110110.11588/jddm.2024.1.96536Motives for economic migration: A reviewKerstin Mitterbacher Migration is a key driver of economic and societal transformation, touching people’s lives worldwide. Understanding why people decide to migrate is crucial for fostering inclusive and diverse societies and informing effective policy-making. This paper focuses on economic migrants, a particular group of migrants whose study has primarily been confined to narrow areas of interest and characterized by inconsistent terminology, limiting cross-study comparability and the synthesis of findings. Viewed through the interdisciplinary lens and derived from theoretical, empirical, and analytical research outcomes, the present paper concludes that economic migrants’ movements are influenced by the socio-demographic factors of ‘age’ and ‘education’ and are motivated by both the economic motives of ‘expected income’ and ‘employment’ and the economic-related motives of ‘corruption’, ‘amenities’, and ‘happiness’. These motives also reveal a typical profile of economic migrants: working-age, highly educated, predominantly male individuals who seek opportunities in developed countries to achieve a fulfilling life. The presented findings contribute to a better understanding of the dynamic decision-making process of economic migrants and offer valuable insights for policymakers to design more nuanced and targeted strategies for integrating migrants into societies. https://journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/jddm/article/view/96536economic migrantsmotivestypical profileLiterature review
spellingShingle Kerstin Mitterbacher
Motives for economic migration: A review
Journal of Dynamic Decision Making
economic migrants
motives
typical profile
Literature review
title Motives for economic migration: A review
title_full Motives for economic migration: A review
title_fullStr Motives for economic migration: A review
title_full_unstemmed Motives for economic migration: A review
title_short Motives for economic migration: A review
title_sort motives for economic migration a review
topic economic migrants
motives
typical profile
Literature review
url https://journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/jddm/article/view/96536
work_keys_str_mv AT kerstinmitterbacher motivesforeconomicmigrationareview