Interdistrict Migration in Great Britain 1980–81: A Multistream Model with a Commuting option

Abstract

Migrational flows as recorded in the census are a heterogeneous mixture of sets of movements responding in quite different ways to area characteristics and to the friction of distance. To model such flows requires a multistream approach reflecting the principal options in the decision tree facing prospective residential or workplace movers. In this paper an existing three-stream model of migration is adopted and extended to provide a first representation of district—district flows within Great Britain in 1980–81. The extended model incorporates an option for prospective migrants to choose commuting rather than a residential move after finding a new workplace, and employs a logistic function of distance in the regional or environmental stream where migrational opportunities tend not to be independent. Results are presented for the distribution of flows between local, regional, and national streams and for the geographical pattern of pushes and pulls in each.