Between spaces: Unravelling motives and distances in internal migration

Abstract Distance, economic disparities and housing market conditions are considered key moderators of internal migration. Existing research has used panels and surveys to establish the drivers of and barriers to domestic moves. This research employs administrative data on all Slovak internal migrants in 1997–2022 (2.38 million moves). The individual migrant data are associated with regional characteristics such as wages, unemployment rates, business activity, housing construction, the ethnic composition of the population, and connections to trans‐European transport network (TEN‐T) motorway networks. Zero‐inflated (ZI) regression models help to identify the key moderators of internal moves through reported migration motives and major structural barriers to migration. Gravity models distinguish between long‐distance moves motivated by human capital considerations and short‐distance moves informed by housing and family motives. Motives related to housing, following family, marriage, divorcee and health accounted for 75.4% of the total moves in the 1997–2022 period. Migration distance, followed by education, population mass and housing, proved to be key moderators of internal moves.