Abstract
The empirical base for understanding how cultural and linguistic proximity shape international migration remains limited. Here, we assess how individuals’ migration and return migration behavior differs by own and parental ethnolinguistic affiliation, using Finnish longitudinal population register data that cover the years 1987–2020 (N=1,822,484). Information on two generations allows us to distinguish between Finnish-born individuals with uniform and mixed backgrounds. Finnish and Swedish speakers with mixed backgrounds are particularly informative, because they have similar observable characteristics but differ in mother tongue and thus often attend distinct school systems (either the Finnish-speaking or the Swedish-speaking school system). Results from piecewise constant exponential models reveal a clear ethnolinguistic gradient in the likelihood of migrating, which is magnified for migration to linguistically and/or culturally proximate countries. Swedish speakers with Swedish-speaking parents are the most likely to migrate to Sweden and the other Nordic countries, followed by those with mixed backgrounds. Finnish speakers with Finnish-speaking parents are the least likely to migrate. Patterns for return migration provide the mirror image. The findings remain largely consistent when we control for socioeconomic characteristics and the ethnolinguistic composition of the municipality. These results underscore the important role of ethnolinguistic affiliation in migration behavior.
