Internal Migration in the Developed World: Are we becoming less mobile?

The frequency with which people move home has important implications for national economic performance and the well-being of individuals and families. Much contemporary social and migration theory posits that the world is becoming more mobile, leading to the recent ‘mobilities turn’ within the social sciences. Yet, there is mounting evidence to suggest that this may not be true of all types of mobility, nor apply equally to all geographical contexts. For example, it is now clear that internal migration rates have been falling in the USA since at least the 1980s. To what extent might this trend be true of other developed countries?

Drawing on detailed empirical literature, Internal Migration in the Developed World examines the long-term trends in internal migration in a variety of more advanced countries to explore the factors that underpin these changes. Using case studies of the USA, UK, Australia, Japan, Sweden, Germany and Italy, this pioneering book presents a critical assessment of the extent to which global structural forces, as opposed to national context, influence internal migration in the Global North.

Internal Migration in the Developed World fills the void in this neglected aspect of migration studies and will appeal to a wide disciplinary audience of researchers and students working in Geography, Migration Studies, Population Studies and Development Studies.

Tony Champion is Emeritus Professor of Population Geography at Newcastle University UK. His research interests include migration and its impact on population distribution in the Developed World, with particular reference to counter-urbanisation and city resurgence. He was President of the British Society for Population Studies in 2013-2015.

Thomas Cooke is a population and urban geographer and Professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Connecticut, USA. His research focuses on internal migration decline in the United States, the spatial distribution of metropolitan poverty and the family dimension of migration behaviour. He is currently an Editor of Urban Geography.

Ian Shuttleworth is Senior Lecturer in Human Geography at Queen’s University Belfast, UK. His research interests include migration, labour market mobility, and social segregation. He also has an interest in divided societies with a special focus on Northern Ireland. He is currently director of the Northern Ireland Longitudinal Study Research Support Unit.