Employment-housing paradigm on internal migration: Evidence from Norway

In a previous article (Portnov, 1999), the employment-housing paradigm of interregional migration was introduced. According to this paradigm, different patterns of employment-housing change in various geographic areas are likely to result in three different migration events - predominant immigration, out-migration or "migration neutrality". The latter is considered as a state of equilibrium in which a region or community neither gains nor loses its population in migration exchanges with other areas. Using preconditions for such migration neutrality as a "reference line", planners and decision-makers can determine regional policies aimed at a more balanced distribution of a country's population through generating a "migration push" in overpopulated regions and encouraging inward migration to development areas in which population growth is desirable. In the present article, the validity of this concept is tested using 1970-89 statistical data for 430 municipalities in Norway. It appeared feasible to separate the band of migration neutrality from other migration cases and establish the quantitative thresholds of employment-housing change that are conducive to the occurrence of different migration events - migration neutrality, in-migration and out-migration.