Overview
This course is about internal migration in the United States. Each year in the U.S. about 11 million people move across county lines and five million move to a different state. By comparison, about one million immigrants have entered the country from abroad annually in recent years (pre-pandemic). Thus, interstate migration flows are five times larger than the annual inflow of immigrants from abroad (see , particularly, ). These comparisons reveal that internal migration, even at the long distance scale of interstate migration, has a larger effect on local and regional population change in the U.S. than immigration.
The course will overview histories of U.S. internal migration and discuss theories of migration that attempt to explain why and where people migrate. A substantial component of the class will include instruction on how to access U.S. internal migration survey and administrative data and use methods for analyzing that data to summarize geographical and temporal trends in U.S. internal migration. Students will do assignments and a final project that uses these migration data and methods. Migration theory will guide the empirical work in assignments and projects.
Recommended Background
Familiarity or comfort with using R and RStudio is highly recommended
Learning Objectives
At the end of the class you will have learned:
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about key migration events in American history (e.g. Great Migration of the mid-twentieth century, the decline of migration rates in the late twentieth century, ) and theories for explaining who moves and their destination geographies.
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how rates and patterns of migration changed during the pandemic period. It is too soon to tell whether any of those changes, such as they are, have persisted. We need data through 2022 at least to assess this question.
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how to access contemporary and historical survey and administrative data on U.S. internal migration.
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techniques and R code for shaping, analyzing, and visualizing that data.
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how to use these skills to investigate historical and contemporary internal migration by geography and population sub-groups (age, education, nativity, race and ethnicity, etc.).
Grade Breakdown (subject to change)
| ACTIVITY | % OF FINAL GRADE |
|---|---|
| Three assignments (15% each) | 45% |
| Three Quizzes (10% each) | 30% |
| Final Project | 25% |
| TOTAL | 100% |
Weekly schedule (subject to change)
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Week 1 Internal migration
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What is it, overview of migration rates and flows
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scales of migration: states, counties, in-between: metro areas, commuter zones.
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Using R/RStudio
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Week 2. Why do people move?
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Theory on who moves, why people move.
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Variation in rates of moving across groups
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Population aging and migration.
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Secular decline in migration
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Week 3. Sources of migration data, getting and using that data
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Surveys, Admin records.
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Social media data
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Grabbing migration data and manipulating it.
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Organizing the data, migration matrix, rates etc
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Week 4. Migration rates 1
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Calculating outmigration rates
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Variation across space and time
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Week 5. Migration rates 2
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Differences by age, education
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Using a migration schedule to predict migration, explain variation across space.
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Week 6. Migration histories and lifetime migration
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Longitudinal data and migration histories
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Immobility, onward, repeat, and return migration
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Lifetime migration as a substitute, meaning of lifetime migration: rates, variation across country, change over time.
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Measures of return and onward migration from these data.
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Grabbing lifetime migration data
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Week 7 Migration flows 1
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Descriptive measures
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Netmigration
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Migration efficiency
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Flow matrices - constructing, processing
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Week 8 Migration flows 2
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Migration distance: centroid measures
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Visualizing flows
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Week 9 Migration flows 3
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Gravity models
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Week 10 Project presentations