This project studies patterns of migration of North American arctic indigenous people between rural communities, larger regional centers, and urban areas over the past several decades. It has four primary research objectives: (1) develop improved methods for analyzing migration decisions of individuals participating in mixed subsistence and cash economies; (2) apply these methods to improve understanding of Inuit migration decisions in a comparative multi-decadal study of Alaska and arctic Canada; (3) develop and make available to other researchers metadata for research and policy applications; and (4) involve arctic local governments in policy-relevant research.
The PIs address questions about the causes and consequences of migration such as the roles of subsistence opportunities and community quality of life amenities, gender differences, and national policies on migration decisions. Comparing the Inupiat regions in Alaska to the Nunavut Territory of Canada, the researchers ask whether Canadian Inuit are less mobile than Alaska Inupiat; and if so, to what extent can this be attributed to differences in policies in the two nations? They also investigate the long-term consequences of migration decisions: is mobility on balance improving living conditions in arctic communities, especially the poorest places, or is it draining leadership to larger settlements and exacerbating inequalities?
Working with local participating organizations, the researchers are developing research protocols for analyzing microdata collected from the late 1970s to the present, including the US Census, the Survey of Living Conditions in the Arctic, North Slope Borough Censuses, Statistics Canada's Aboriginal People's Survey, and other household survey data from Nunavut and Alaska. A key step in the research is the creation of a new large-sample household-level dataset from 1990 and 2000 Decennial Census Long Form data, in cooperation with the US Census Center for Economic Studies.
