What is it about?
A study of two centuries of Quebec records finds that internal migration runs in families: descendants of mobile ancestors are significantly more likely to relocate themselves. Moreover, a wife's family history proves equally influential as her husband's in shaping couples' decisions.
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Why is it important?
This study, made possible by an exceptional dataset linking two centuries of population-wide records, demonstrates the multigenerational persistence of migration decisions. It also challenges a long-standing historical assumption by showing that women played an equal role in shaping their family's mobility.
Perspectives
I hope this paper can help rethink the social influences on migration behaviors, as well as make this great dataset more accessible to researchers.
Marielle Côté-Gendreau
Princeton University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Multigenerational and gender-symmetric transmission of migration behaviors in historical Quebec, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, March 2026, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2522792123.
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