Connecting the dots: Using social network analysis to disentangle the factors driving international migration

Abstract

Migration scholars and policymakers continue to question why international migration corridors develop. In the current project, I argue that there is value in applying a social network approach to disentangle the processes that drive international migration. Using data on migration between 173 countries from 2010 to 2015, I construct a migration network where nodes are countries and edges are flows weighted by the number of people making an international move. Then, I apply valued exponential random graph models to determine whether multiple factors govern the global movement of people. I find that the international migration network is defined by an overrepresentation of transitive triads and unreciprocated dyads, even when multiple economic, migrant network, macro-level and environmental factors are also considered. Results suggest that after accounting for the volume of migration flows and various, theoretically-informed drivers of international migration, the network continues to resemble a stratified ranking of destinations.