Network analysis of internal migration in Croatia

Abstract

AbstractMigration, and urbanization as its consequence, is among the most intricate political and scientific topics, predicted to have huge effects on human lives in the near future. Thus being said, previous works have mainly focused on international migration, and the research on internal migration outside of the US is scarce, and in the case of Europe—the ubiquitous center of migration affairs—only in its infancy. Observing migration between settlements, especially using network analysis indicators and models, can help to explain and predict migration, as well as urbanization originating from internal migration. We therefore conducted a network analysis of internal migration in Croatia, providing insights into the size of internal migration in population, and relative sizes between intra-settlement migration, inter-settlement migration and population. Through centrality analysis, we provide insights into hierarchy of importance, especially, in terms of the overall flow and overall attractiveness of particular settlements in the network. The analysis of the network structure reveals high presence of reciprocity and thus the importance of internal migration to urbanization, as well as the systematic abandonment of large cities in the east of the country. The application of three different community detection algorithms provides insights for the policy domain in terms of the compatibility of the current country administrative subdivision schemes and the subdivision implied by migration patterns. For network scholars, the analysis at hand reveals the status quo in applied network analysis to migration, the works published, the measures used, and potential metrics outside those applied which may be used to better explain and predict the intricate phenomenon of human migration.