Migration and motivation: the migrant's perspective

Migration is often viewed as economically motivated. However, many of the studies on which this is based are a result of either aggregate data or retrospective questioning of migrants. The present study indicates that such approaches may give a distorted view of migrants' motives. The data indicate that nonmonetary career reasons are important instigators of migration among well-educated international migrants. In addition, these factors tend to be major perceived gains from migration. However, choice of destination is strongly influenced by location of friends and/or relatives. Reasons for discrepancies between this and previous studies are noted.