Internal migration of young adults and social mobility

Young adulthood is the period of life when rates of residential mobility are the highest. Understanding migration patterns and how they change in response to economic opportunities is crucial to capture the full consequences of labour demand shocks for young adults. Most of the evidence about internal migration of young adults comes from US studies.

It is not clear whether the same results would apply to the UK context, given obvious geographical and institutional differences. I propose an innovative programme of research to study the residential mobility of young adults in England, how it is affected by economic opportunities and how it affects social mobility. The research will use the Longitudinal Education Outcomes (LEO) dataset in every phase.

The project will have three main aims. 1) Producing a descriptive study of the migration flows of young adults across local labour markets by using information available in LEO data about their location in the last year of secondary school and then again at the age of 25. The results will be delivered through interactive maps published on a website that will be developed for this project. 2) Providing a comprehensive study of the out-migration and in-migration decisions of young adults in England.

The analysis of LEO data in this study will evaluate whether young adults respond to economic opportunities in their decision to out-migrate the local labour market where they were at the end of secondary school and in the choice of their destination. Additionally it will investigate whether the decision to out-migrate and the choice of the destinations, as responses to economic opportunities, are heterogeneous by ability, by higher education status and across socio-demographic groups. 3) Investigating to what extent internal migration in early adulthood affects social mobility at individual level and how it can account for spatial differences in social mobility that are not accounted for by education other local labour market characteristics.

This is an important and ambitious project that will maximise the impact and value of the LEO dataset by delivering important findings for academics, policy makers and other parties that are active in the public policy debate. The project will also fill a gap in the literature on labour market outcomes of young adults in England. Finally it will inform the debate on person- versus place-based policies to tackle local downturns in economic opportunities, and on policies that promote residential mobility showing how such interventions can support and favour social mobility among groups of young adults.

The project will be undertaken at the Social Research Institute (SRI), a Department of the Institute of Education at UCL. SRI is a leading centre in the field of labour markets and social mobility and it will be the perfect research environment where this project can be developed, with the support and feedback of several experienced LEO data users. An advisory board will be set up with representatives from the ONS, government departments and charities.

The advisory board will meet twice but will be otherwise involved with the research throughout the duration of the project. The project will deliver four outputs: an interactive website with visual representations of the first descriptive findings about young adults' patterns of migration; two academic papers; and a non-technical report that will summarise the main results of the research undertaken in a way and that will be accessible for the general public.

The results will be disseminated through international conferences, blogs, and press releases to impactful media. The project will help the principal investigator to develop important skills in quantitative analysis, project management and media communication and will support her transition to become an independent investigator.