Toward a Motivational Theory of Migration Decision Making

Within the context of the hypothesized transition to a post-industrial society, this paper reviews several current approaches to migration decision making. Several problematic areas are identified with the most important being the lack of a consistent theory of decision making. Borrowing from the mo...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Population 1978-12, Vol.1 (4), p.313-335
Main Authors: Sell, Ralph R., DeJong, Gordon F.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal migration behavior
Decision theory
Decision-making
Demography
Economic motivation
Human capital
Human migration
Labor migration
Migration
Motivation
Motivation research
Motive/Motives/Motivation/ Motivational
Rural urban migration
Theory/Theories/Theorem/ Theorizing
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Within the context of the hypothesized transition to a post-industrial society, this paper reviews several current approaches to migration decision making. Several problematic areas are identified with the most important being the lack of a consistent theory of decision making. Borrowing from the motivational theory of decision making articulated by John Atkinson and his associates, a motivational approach to the migration decision process is presented which consists of the multiplicative interaction of four variables: (1) availability, (2) motive, (3) expectancy, and (4) incentive. Previous migration research is evaluated from the perspective of motivational decision theory. We conclude that concepts used in previous migration decision making research are similar and that this model provides a valuable theoretical integration. One remaining problem is the reconciliation of the household unit of analysis most often used in migration research with the individual unit of analysis implied by the motivational decision theory.
ISSN:0146-1052
0199-0039
1573-7810
DOI:10.1007/BF00972555