Motives for economic migration: a review

Abstract

The present paper sheds light on the motives of economic migrants―an aspect that has not been discussed at a general level so far. Previous work has only focused on specific fields of interest and used different terminologies, hence impeding comparison and the synthesis of findings across studies. Derived from theoretical, empirical, and analytical research outcomes, the paper concludes that economic migrants’ movements are influenced by the socio-demographic factors of ‘age’ and ‘education’ and are motivated by both the economic motives of ‘expected income’ and ‘employment’ and the economic-related motives of ‘corruption’, ‘amenities’ and ‘happiness’. Furthermore, these motives reveal a typical profile of economic migrants: a typical economic migrant is characterized by being of working age, highly educated and male, and by wishing to migrate to developed countries to achieve a fulfilling life.