Suessmilch Lecture

The Geographic Immobility of Young Adults in the US

Mark Ellis
Auditorium Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, March 03, 2020

As part of the Suessmilch Lecture series, Mark Ellis from the University of Washington was intended to give a talk on young adults, those at the age when migration is most likely but who never migrate. He reviews issues associated with doing research on this population of long-term or life-time stayers. The talk was cancelled.

Title

The Geographic Immobility of Young Adults in the US:  Evidence from Linked Internal Revenue Service, Social Security Administration, and Census Survey Records

Abstract

Geographical immobility describes an absence of mobility, voluntary or otherwise, for a meaningful period of time. It occurs at multiple spatial scales from immobilities in daily life in and outside the home through continuous long-term or lifetime residence in a particular place, region or country.  Here I am concerned with the category of the geographically immobile who remain in the same region for a long period of time, never migrating from it.  I focus in particular on young adults, those at the age when migration is most likely but who never migrate.  I will review theoretical and measurement issues associated with doing research on this population of long-term or life-time stayers.   

To address the measurement issues, I will introduce a novel dataset for the analysis of US migration and immobility built from individual level Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Social Security Administration (SSA) administrative records linked to survey data from the US Census, including the decennial census and annual American Community Surveys.  I use these linked administrative and survey micro-data to calculate the size and assess the socio-demographic characteristics of the geographically immobile US population (those who never undertake an interstate migration between 2000 and 2015).

About the speaker

Mark Ellis is a population and economic geographer interested in the causes and consequences of residential and economic change within cities and across regions. In his current projects he examines the relations skilled migration and regional economic development; immigration and labor markets; residential neighborhood change, segregation, and diversity; immigrant settlement geography, immigration politics, and nativism.