Network Analysis of Internal Migration in Austria

Abstract

Human migration, and urbanization as its direct consequence, are among the crucial topics in regional and national governance. People’s migration and mobility flows make a network structure, with large cities acting as hubs and smaller settlements as spokes. The essential method by which these phenomena can be analyzed comprehensively is network analysis. With this study, we first contribute to capacity building regarding the analysis of internal (national) migration data by providing a set of network indicators, models, and visualizations tested and argued for in terms of applicability and interpretability for analyzing migration. Second, we contribute to the understanding of the shape and scale of the phenomenon of internal migration, particularly toward urbanization and mobility flows between human settlements (i.e., cities, towns, and villages). Third, we demonstrate the utility of our approach on the example of internal migration flows in Austria on the settlement level and provide a longitudinal analysis for the period from 2002 to 2018. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that the key traits of a network of internal migration are identified for a European country, which, when accompanied by additional country analyses, has the potential to reveal the migration patterns in the region and beyond.