Exploring labour migration from Latvia: geographies of origin

The aim of this study is to explore labour migration geographies in order to reveal peculiar aspects of emigration spatial distributions between core and peripheral sending regions and destination country choices. In this study the term core is considered the capital of Latvia, Rīga, and the term periphery is considered as the remaining statistical regions in Latvia as well as the receiving countries which are identified as the UK, Ireland, Germany, Norway and Sweden. The study is based on a database derived from an online survey and analysed through statistical methods. The findings suggest that the profiles of labour migrants differ sharply in terms of geographic context in Latvia. Migrants from the core part of the country were more educated, skilled and had worked in the tertiary sector of the economy prior moving away from Latvia than their counterparts from peripheral regions. In addition, other findings show that migrants from the core are less likely to be circular migrants, but more often than not, migrants from the periphery use their own efforts to find a job in the destination country. In terms of destination country geographies, emigrants from the core more often choose Germany, Norway and Sweden, but emigrants with lower hierarchy in education and occupation levels engage more in circular movements by repeatedly going to Ireland and the UK. This paper was supported by the project 1.1.1.2/VIAA/1/16/184.