<https://www.oeaw.ac.at/fileadmin/subsites/Institute/VID/ICAL-files/Colloqui um/20250623-WIC-Colloquium.ics> Monday, 23 June 2025 14:00-15:00 Location: IIASA - Schlossplatz 1, Laxenburg Please register <https://www.oeaw.ac.at/vid/events/wic-colloquium/wic-colloquium-registratio n> here. Overlap and Interrelations Between (Im)mobility Motivations Fernando Riosmena, University of Texas - San Antonio Abstract: Scholars recognize that migration and immobility can be the result of various, mixed motivations. However, efforts to conceptualize and theorize on how and why motivations overlap or are interrelated are more scant, less explicit, and less systematic. I provide a broad systematic taxonomy of migration and immobility motivation overlap and interrelation. First, I describe the six main (im)mobility motivations invoked in the literature-namely economic, labor-related, safety-related, environmental, family-related, and related to self-fulfillment-organizing them around whether they are driven by extrinsic and/or intrinsic rewards and costs. Second, I provide a typology of possible ways in (im)mobility motivations become "alternative" to and/or concurrent with each other, and how these instances operate at individual and/or population levels. Third, I examine how the different motivations overlap/interrelate within 3 important theories of micro-level decision-making in the literature. About the presenter: Fernando Riosmena is Professor of Sociology at UT - San Antonio (USA). His work aims at improving understanding of theories, drivers, empirical measurement, and analytical strategies to analyze migration and immobility, focusing on the social, economic, environmental, and policy factors influencing Mesoamerica-US (im)mobility. Riosmena's research also examines immigrant health, aging, and wellbeing, using counterfactuals in sending areas and destinations to assess the likely impacts of migration, immigrant adaptation, and the processes driving race-ethnic disparities.
