Addressing the age selection of migrants: early migration and parental home leaving in the UK

Sergi Vidal, Universitat Pompeu Fabra

In this study we asses the age-selection of migrants and the effect of residence duration applying a multi-process event history model for the processes of migration and leaving the parental nest to a british panel data-set (i.e. BHPS). In the model we allow individuals to migrate more than once and to leave and come back the parental home again. Allowing correlation between the error terms of each equation, we found that the age at parental home leaving has not significant impact on migration, but duration of residence out of parental home impacts negatively on the hazard of migration. Three explanations apply, (1) individuals who leave earlier the parental nest are selected towards migration, (2) social background strongly mediates the opportunities of young people, and (3) the opportunity cost exerted by location-specific amenities grows overtime. Moreover, early migrants are more likely to return since they are highly dependent on parental income.