Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Analysis of the Influence of Social Relations on Migration Intention: Focusing on Local Social Capital and Subjective Socioeconomic Status

  • Original Research Article
  • Published:
International Journal of Community Well-Being Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Migration intention of residents has become an important issue for the local governments as they have been experiencing an exodus of the residents to other regions topped with the country’s low birthrate that naturally results in the population decrease. Hence, this study explores the determinants of migration intention of residents in South Korea (hereafter Korea), with special focus on the social relationship within the community. In detail, this study attempts to prove if the two aspects of the social relations within the community - local social capital and individual subjective socioeconomic status - have an effect on the migration intention. Furthermore, the study has been conducted by separating urban and rural areas. The results of the analysis reveal that individual subjective SES had a greater influence in rural areas, whereas, it was the local social capital in urban areas. This result can be explained by the difference of the ‘individual anonymity’ between urban and rural areas. In rural areas, where the anonymity of individuals is relatively low due to the active interactions between neighbors, the influence of individual subjective socioeconomic status can have a great effect. On the other hand, in urban areas, where the anonymity of individual is relatively high, the influence of local social capital may have a greater effect on migration intention.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Bourdieu, P. (1986). The forms of capital. In J. Richardson (ed), (trans: Nice R.), Handbook of theory and research for sociology of education (pp. 46–58) New York: Greenwood.

  • Coleman, J. S. (1998). Social capital in the creation of human capital. American Journal of Sociology, 94, S95–S120.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • De Silva, M. J., McKenzie, K., Harpham, T., & Huttly, S. R. (2005). Social capital and mental illness: A systematic review. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, 59(8), 619–627.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gu, Y. Y., & Park, I. K. (2015). The relationship between immigrant social capital and community adaptation. Urban Administration, 28(4), 53–76.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heaton, T., Fredrickson, C., Fuguitt, G. V., & Zuiches, J. J. (1979). Residential preferences, community satisfaction, and the intention to move. Demography, 16(4), 565–573.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hong, S. H., & Yoo, S. Y. (2012). Determinants of interregional migration by age cohort among Korean cities, counties or wards. Seoul City Studies, 13(1), 1–19.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jaccard, J., Wan, C. K., & Turrisi, R. (1990). The detection and interpretation of interaction effects between continuous variables in multiple regression. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 25(4), 467–478.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kan, S. H., & Kim, Y. (1981). Religious affiliation and migration intentions in nonmetropolitan Utah. Rural Sociology, 46(4), 669.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kim, H. Y. (2010). Community inequalities in health : The contextual effect of social capital. Korean Journal of Sociology, 44(2), 59–92.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kim, K. W., & Shin, D. H. (2017). The effect of social capital and socio - economic status on the subjective well - being of middle - aged men and women in rural areas. Rural Society, 27(2), 137–172.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kim, S. L., & Yoo, P. J. (2017). The relationship between perceived subjective socioeconomic status and physical health among late school-aged children – A psychosocial perspective. Korean Child Welfare, 57, 43–82.

    Google Scholar 

  • La Due Lake, R., & Huckfeldt, R. (1998). Social capital, social networks, and political participation. Political Psychology, 19(3), 567–584.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lang, R. E., & Hornburg, S. P. (1998). What is social capital and why is it important to public policy? Housing Policy Debate, 9(1), 1–16.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lansing, J., & Mueller, E. (1967). The geographic mobility of labor.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lee, J. Y. (2006). Community and social capital (pp. 23–49). Korea Society of Social Sciences Symposium.

  • Lee, J. K. (2009). Satisfaction with life and social capital: Centered on the effect of civic participation, trust and social resources. Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences, (22), 5–40.

  • Lee, Y. W. (2013). An exploratory study on regional identity and social capital composition. Korean Journal of Journalism & Communication Studies, 57(6), 636–662.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lee, S. Y. (2016). Rehabilitation plan of local government in response to local disappearance. Urban Problems, 51(577), 24–27.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lee, Y. K. (2018). The relationship between local governments’ policy orientation and population movement: Exploring the possibility of local governments’ redistribution policy. Journal of Korean Public Administration., 52(2), 301–335.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lim, S. L., & Jung, S. H. (2017). The effect of urban to rural migrants’ social capital on the development of rural areas. Korean Resional Sociology, 18(1), 79–99.

  • Lu, N., Jiang, N., Lou, V. W., Zeng, Y., & Liu, M. (2017). Does gender moderate the relationship between social capital and life satisfaction? Evidence from urban China. Research on Aging, 1–22.

  • McGinnis, R. (1968). A stochastic model of social mobility. American Sociological Review, 712–722.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oh, J.-H. (2003). Social bonds and the migration intentions of elderly urban residents: The mediating effect of residential satisfaction. Population Research and Policy Review, 22(2), 127–146.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Portes, A. (1998). Social capital: Its origins and applications in modern sociology. Annual Review of Sociology, 24(1), 1–24.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Putnam, R. D. (2000). Bowling alone: America’s declining social capital. In Culture and politics (pp. 223–234). Springer.

  • Rohe, W. M., & Stewart, L. S. (1996). Homeownership and neighborhood stability. Housing Policy Debate, 7(1), 37–81.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rossi, P. H. (1955). Why families move: A study in the social psychology of urban residential mobility. Free Press.

  • Singh-Manoux, A., Adler, N. E., & Marmot, M. G. (2003). Subjective social status: Its determinants and its association with measures of ill-health in the Whitehall II study. Social Science & Medicine, 56(6), 1321–1333.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Speare, A. (1974). Residential satisfaction as an intervening variable in residential mobility. Demography, 11(2), 173–188.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Speare, A., Jr., Kobrin, F., & Kingkade, W. (1982). The influence of socioeconomic bonds and satisfaction on interstate migration. Social Forces, 61(2), 551–574.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ulrich-Schad, J. D., Henly, M., & Safford, T. G. (2013). The role of community assessments, place, and the great recession in the migration intentions of rural Americans. Rural Sociology, 78(3), 371–398.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Von Reichert, C. (2006). Community evaluation and migration intentions. In Population change and rural society (pp. 333–356). Springer.

  • Winkler, R., Cheng, C., & Golding, S. (2012). Boom or bust? Population dynamics in natural resource-dependent counties. In International handbook of rural demography (pp. 349–367). Springer.

  • Wolpert, J. (1965). Behavioral aspects of the decision to migrate. Papers in Regional Science, 15(1), 159–169.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yoon, S. H., & Han, S. W. (2018). Possible reduction of productive population and potential for local autonomous entrenchment. KRI report issue analysis, 18–21.

Download references

Acknowledgements

This paper was supported by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2016S1A3A2924563).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Community Wellbeing Research Center, Graduate School of Public Administration, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea

    YeonKyeong Lee

  2. Graduate School of Public Administration, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea

    Seung Jong Lee

Authors
  1. YeonKyeong Lee
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Seung Jong Lee
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Seung Jong Lee.

Additional information

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Lee, Y., Lee, S.J. Analysis of the Influence of Social Relations on Migration Intention: Focusing on Local Social Capital and Subjective Socioeconomic Status. Int. Journal of Com. WB 2, 193–211 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42413-019-00035-9

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42413-019-00035-9

Keywords

Search

Navigation