Early Propensity to Migrate: A Descriptive Analysis from A Survey of Schooled Teenagers in a Southern Italian City

Abstract

The brain drain from the south of Italy is a well-known and unfortunately increasingly alarming phenomenon. In recent times, the demographic decline due to migration has been coupled by a worrying decrease in the average age at which this process starts. While most of the existing literature has looked at the problem looking at migrant workers, especially in relation to their level of schooling or education, here we look at the propensity to migrate at an earlier stage of life while people are still in their secondary school studies. Using a unique field survey conducted over a large sample of students in the city of Palermo we uncover that more than three quarters of the interviewed sample would consider moving far away from the family after completing their studies. We perform a simple descriptive analysis to look at how this propensity to migrate changes depending on some individual and family characteristics of the respondents.