November 24, 2014 | News

What role do friends and family play in the decision to emigrate?

In her doctoral dissertation, MPIDR-researcher Anna Klabunde has developed a model that allows for simulations to be done on interactions in human networks. She used the model to show what role the network of family and friends play in the decision to emigrate, exemplified by Mexican migrants. She has now been awarded a price for her work.

On November 21, 2014 Anna Klabunde was awarded the Gebrüder-Deschau prize for her doctoral dissertation. The price, granted by the ,,Gesellschaft der Freunde der Ruhr Universität Bochum” (the society of friends of said university), brings a 1300 euro cash bonus.

Her PhD work focused on the migration cycle of Mexicans who migrated between the United States and Mexico. She asked herself: What role do networks play in the decision to emigrate? And what role do these networks play in the distribution of migrants across various cities in the USA? In search of answers, she constructed a simulation model, with coefficients estimated with common econometric methods on the basis of a large household dataset, the Mexican Migration Project (MMP). She found out that expected income and network relations to other migrants are the main factors that motivate individuals to migrate. The decision to return home, by contrast, is influenced by the number and strength of relationships in the mother country. Anna Klabunde also used the model to simulate the consequences of immigration laws given these be tightened. She arrived at the conclusion that such a measure, in theory directed at just a small group of migrants, would in fact affect a far larger group of people as network effects come into play. Anna Klabunde also showed that the distribution of migrants across various cities of the USA is the result of migrants often choosing destinations where they have relatives or acquaintances.