Inter-regional Migration: The UK experience

Abstract

This paper looks at the scenario of intra-UK migration amongst its four regions. The level of intra-UK migration is significant and is increasing over time. Using several measures of the balance in migration we observe that, broadly speaking, the balance is improving. We also examine the impact of changes in the regional per capita GDPs and unemployment levels on regional migration using panel analysis. Several authors find these to be significant factors in international migration. However, it seems that neither regional per capita GDP nor the unemployment level has a significant effect on regional migration in the UK (although the regression coefficients have the correct signs). In the case of regional migration in the UK, it is other characteristics of the source and destination regions which appear to matter most