The EUI Widening Europe Programme initiative, backed by contributions from the European Union and EUI Contracting States, is designed to strengthen internationalisation, competitiveness, and quality in research in the so-called Widening countries, and thus foster a more cohesive European Higher Education and Research area.
Why do some people migrate while others do not? Why are only some willing to do so irregularly? Extant explanations focus on socio-demographics, political and economic contexts, and migrant networks. This project proposes a new psychological model to be tested by collecting survey data in Montenegro – an ideal case, as an origin, transit, and destination country undergoing rapid changes including Europeanisation.
The project will try to answer the following research questions:
- What causes variation in propensity to migrate?
- How do causes vary according to type of migration behaviour, including by regularity, destination, and status (work, study, family reunification, etc.)?
- How does variation in psychological predispositions – in terms of Basic Human Values and beyond – affect migration behaviour?
- How does the causal role of psychological predispositions interact with socio-demographics, political and economic context, access to migration networks, and other psychological factors (e.g. social trust)?
- How do such psychological predispositions relate to political attitudes to issues such as immigration, EU accession, democracy, etc. and party support?
PSYMIG will contribute to our broader understanding of the link between psychological motivations, issue prioritisation, and behaviour with interdisciplinary ramifications. Moreover, the rich nature of the data measuring attitudes to a broad range of issues offers the opportunity for use across a range of topics relevant to social scientists looking at Montenegro, Europe, and beyond.