Why do Europeans Migrate to Berlin? SocialStructural Differences ...

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14 Verwiebe Social and cultural reasons 11% Economic and cultural reasons 10% Economic and social reasons 11% Cultural reasons 19% FIGURE 1 REASONS FOR MIGRATION TO BERLIN (1980–2002) Source: BSTME 2002, n = 1040, our own calculation. Social, cultural, economic reasons 5% Social reasons 30% Economic reasons 14% reasons for migration. It is evident that economic reasons are not paramount for European nationals who migrated to Berlin between 1980 and 2002. For 26 per cent of the individuals, economic reasons play a role in the decision to migrate, since the decision is based on a broad set of motives, including economic motives. However, only one in seven of the respondents mentioned economic reasons as the only or paramount factor. A noticeably higher importance is assigned to family and marriage-related and personal reasons, or to the respondent’s network, which, according to the data used here, constitute the most important reasons for migration within Europe (compare Braun and Recchi, 2008; Kofman, 2004). Lundholm (2007: 32), for example, also concludes that ‘‘the most frequent motive for migrants … is social (40%)’’. King (2002: 99) attaches great importance to the social factor in migration as well, which he beliefs is especially important for migration to major European cities. Furthermore, the cultural aspect plays an important role in intra- European migration, as in Scott’s (2006) study on Paris, regardless of whether it is based on an interest in a different language and culture or upon institutional migration established in order to enhance European integration (Castles, 2004; Findlay et al., 2006; King and Ruiz-Gelices, 2003; Lundholm, 2007). This result indicates, as assumed earlier in the Ó 2011 The Author International Migration Ó 2011 IOM
European migration to Berlin 15 paper, that when Berlin is selected as a migration destination, cultural ⁄ lifestyle-based migration is quite important. These general trends are likely to vary with respect to national origin and social status variables. This will be tested below using three different multinomial logistic regression analyses (Greene, 2000). The results of multinomial regressions are not easy to read because there is a reference category for the dependent variable (unlike, for example, in linear regression) as well as reference categories for the independent variables (as in other regression methods). For example, mathematically, the findings in the first model show that Italian, French and British respondents are less likely to give solely social reasons for migration compared to the reference category of mixed reasons than the Polish respondents (which is the reference group). In order to make it easier to read the findings, odds ratios (which refer to relative risks ⁄ chances of an event occurring) will be presented as trend results. Turning now to the results, according to the first model, there are evident differences between national groups. Solely social reasons for migration, that is, based on integration into networks or on familyrelated ⁄ personal motives, are mentioned significantly less often by the Italian, French and British migrants than by those from the Polish reference group. Results of another recent study also reveal that Polish migrants – as well as other groups migrating from Eastern Europe to Germany (Kofman, 2004: 252) – have strong migration-related networks and are often married to German partners (Haug, 2005), which possibly influences the formation of reasons for migration. As expected on the basis of the literature (Bender and Seifert, 1998; Del Boca and Venturini, 2003), Italians are more likely to migrate for solely economic reasons (+60%). The British migrants are approximately 50 per cent less likely to migrate for solely cultural reasons than the Polish reference group. The results of the second regression model are shown in the middle column of Table 1. They indicate that differences in national origin carry less weight in reasons for migrating than the social status of the respondents of this study on migration to Berlin: most of the significant effects of nationality disappear in the second model and the fit of the model increases markedly once social status variables are included. Moreover, the results reveal a number of interesting social-structural differences in the respondents’ reasons for migration. The regression analyses indicate, for example, a special role for the group aged between Ó 2011 The Author International Migration Ó 2011 IOM
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