Substitution between Internal Migration, Long-Distance Commuting, and Teleworking: Do Past Migration Experiences Matter?

Sunganani Kalemba , The University of Queensland
Aude Bernard , University of Queensland

One of the explanations for the decline in the level of internal migration in developed countries has been a possible substitution with teleworking and long-distance commuting. To shed new light on this process and better understand why some individuals are immobile, this paper draws on the idea that migrants ‘learn by doing’ and establishes whether past migrants are more likely to migrate internally for employment purposes while individuals with no or limited migration experience are comparatively more likely to engage in long-distance commuting or teleworking. We empirical test this hypothesis by drawing on longitudinal microdata from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics Australia (HILDA) survey, and run a series of random-effect multinomial regression models. Preliminary results lend support to our hypothesis. This finding suggests that the current downward trend in the level of internal migration may have a snowball effect that perpetuates a decline in internal migration with corresponding increases in teleworking and long-distance commuting

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 Presented in Session P1. Postercafe