Migratory flows from centrality of cities perspective: an investigation for families’ head (2000-2010)

Abstract

This paper investigates how the choice of migration made by the head of the household is related with the hierarchical structure of Brazilian cities. We combine data from the Brazilian Census of 2000 and 2010 related to migration of fixed date with the Brazilian urban network proposed by REGIC (2008), using multinomial logistic models to analyze how the choice of migratory between hierarchies is correlated with individual and regional characteristics of migrants. The results show that migrations towards the Southeast region tend to have to cities of higher hierarchy as destiny. Also, more qualified workers are more likely to migrate to cities of lower hierarchy. These results suggest that although the Southeast region is still a dominant center, there is a change in the migration profile towards cities of intermediate hierarchy, corroborating the idea that these centers are now playing a new role in the Brazilian network of cities.