Explaining the Stages of Migration within a Life-course Framework

Despite manifold studies in the field of migration, the process of migration decision-making and behaviour is still not fully understood. In this article a more elaborated theoretical framework for the explanation of migration decision-making and behaviour is proposed by including a life-course perspective on goal formation into a psychological model of action phases. Hypotheses derived from this framework in regard to the influence of all relevant groups of predictors on certain stages of the migration process are empirically tested. The results support an explanation of the migration process within a three-stage model, in that perceived opportunity differentials between the place of living and alternative places, the influences of ‘significant others’, life-course events, and resources are prominent. Varieties in the importance of those factors in different phases of the life course are analysed and interpreted referring to the changing importance of instrumental goals within the theoretical framework. The data come from a tailor-made panel study with initially 2,400 respondents in Germany. For the analyses generalized ordinal logistic regression and probit models with sample selection are used.