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Migration Flows and Quality of Life in a Metropolitan Area: the Case of Barcelona-Spain

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Abstract

The phenomenon of human migration is certainly not new and it has been studied from a variety of perspectives. Yet, the attention on human migration and its determinant has not been fading over time as confirmed by recent contributions (see for instance Cushing and Poot 2004 and Rebhun and Raveh 2006). In this paper we combine the recent theoretical contributions by Douglas (1997) and Wall (2001) with the methodological advancements of Guimarães et al. (2000, 2003) to model inter-municipal migration flows in the Barcelona area. In order to do that, we employ two different types of count models, i.e. the Poisson and negative binomial and compare the estimations obtained. Our results show that, even after controlling for the traditional migration factors, QoL (measured with a Composite Index which includes numerous aspects and also using a list of individual variables) is an important determinant of short distance migration movements in the Barcelona area.

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Notes

  1. See Michalos (1996) for a review

  2. Such as college graduates, e.g. Faggian and McCann 2006, 2009a, b and c, Faggian et al. 2006, 2007a and b

  3. Following Wall (2001) any individual-specific cost of moving is included in the idiosyncratic term.

  4. Equations 2 and 3 imply that if a location (let us call it l) is getting worse, there will be an increase in the probability of moving from i to j, not because of an increase in the ‘absolute’ utility associated with location j, but rather the ‘relative’ increase in utility of this location compared to l.

  5. NUTS II in the European administrative classification.

  6. These systems and subsystems are defined in Artís et al. (1999). These territorial aggregations were developed using two main criteria: commuting patterns and types of services available.

  7. The Gini index for the distribution of population in the different areas of the Barcelona province is equal to 0.54 confirming the fact that the population is highly concentrated in few areas.

  8. Data of 1996.

  9. In Muñiz et al. (2003) the Barcelona area has been defined as a Mediterranean polycentric city, where polycentricity comes from the large urban centre expanded its commuting area, incorporating medium sized cities that had previously been self-sufficient.

  10. In our analysis we have no information regarding individual characteristics.

  11. O’Sullivan et al. (2004) for instance proposes a 5-year period.

  12. For a review of this literature see for instance Lambiri et al. (2007).

  13. This definition is in line with the work of Smith (1977) and Liu (1978), and also with other definitions of QoL from a more economic perspective (Mulligan et al, 2004).

  14. This definition is better suited to the study of local contexts such as small cities or municipalities.

  15. A municipality is head of an urban system if it is the commuting centre of an area, has a sufficient amounts of education and health facilities, and is bigger than certain size threshold (as defined in Artís et al., 1999).

  16. The network city paradigm (Camagni 1993; Camagni and Di Blasio 1993) helps explain why small and/or medium-sized cities may have higher-order functions.

  17. In a linear regression, \( {\hbox{y}} = {\hbox{a}} + {\hbox{bx}} \), the usual estimation of b is: \( {\hbox{b}} = {\hbox{COVAR}}\left( {{\hbox{x}},{\hbox{y}}} \right)/{\hbox{VAR}}\left( {\hbox{y}} \right) \). As in the Poisson and negative binomial regressions the endogenous variable is the log of the count variable, the %StdX coefficient is a transformation of the coefficient: \( \% StdX = {\hbox{b}} * {\hbox{S}}\left( {\hbox{x}} \right) \).

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Acknowledgements

This work has the support of CICYT SEJ2006-07665 project and of the Ref PR2005-0253 mobility grant of the Education and Science Ministry of Spain.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Geography, University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton, SO17 1BJ, England, UK

    Alessandra Faggian

  2. Grup d’Anàlisi Quantitativa Regional (AQR-IREA), Departament d’Econometria, Estadística i Economia Espanyola, Universitat de Barcelona, Avda. Diagonal, 690, 08034, Barcelona, Spain

    Vicente Royuela

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  1. Alessandra Faggian
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  2. Vicente Royuela
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Correspondence to Vicente Royuela.

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Faggian, A., Royuela, V. Migration Flows and Quality of Life in a Metropolitan Area: the Case of Barcelona-Spain. Applied Research Quality Life 5, 241–259 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-010-9108-4

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