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Secular changes in migration between birth and marriage

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 July 2008

Ellen R. Brennan
Ellen R. Brennan
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Texas, Austin, USA
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Summary

Although recent historic studies have shown high rates of population turnover prior to, during and after the demographic transition, little is known about the causes and consequences of migration, particularly during late adolescence when migration rates are highest. This paper assesses the relationship (a) between socio-occupational mobility and premarital migration patterns and (b) between these measures of mobility and family formation. Linked vital data for ever-married cohorts born between 1855 and 1974 on Sanday, Orkney Islands, Scotland, provided an opportunity for evaluation of changes in (1) distance migrated between birth and marriage and (2) age at marriage in a small rural isolate characteristic of other populations undergoing modernization. Measures of socio-occupational mobility indicated a secular increase in upper social classes and in labour force participation, particularly in non-agricultural sectors of the economy. Migration distance between birth and marriage decreased over time, associated with a convergence in the pattern of spatial mobility between population subgroups. Whereas there was little relationship between age at marriage and measures of spatial and socio-occupational mobility, changes in migration were strongly influenced by opportunities which differed between social classes and between agricultural and non-agricultural sectors of the island economy.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 15 , Issue 4 , October 1983 , pp. 391 - 406
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1983

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