Unrealized geographic mobility in the life path of Russians: motives, obstacles consequences

Modern research shows that every fourth Russian aged 18 and over wants to be geographically mobile, but the motives, barriers to its implementation and consequences of this decision for life – failure to implement geographical mobility – remain poorly understood. The empirical basis of the study is an all-Russian survey of a random probability sample of the population aged 50 and older, conducted by CESSI in 2023–2024 as part of the project “Life Path of the Generation Who Came of Age in the 1990s”. The study data allow us to conclude that the unrealized potential of geographical mobility of the population aged 50 and older is slightly lower than that of the population aged 18 and older – 10%. The group with unrealized potential differs from respondents who deliberately did not implement geographical mobility and from the group implementing geographical mobility by age. The greatest unrealized geographic mobility was found in the age group born in 1964–1973. The motives for unrealized mobility differ from the motives for realized mobility. Realized mobility is most often associated with family motives: moving when starting a new family, when separating from the parental family without forming one’s own family, reuniting a multi-generational family, moving due to professional tasks or interests of family members, their health and other circumstances. Unrealized mobility is associated with the quality of life: respondents wanted to move in order to improve the climatic/ecological and infrastructural living conditions and would also like to simply change their lives and try to live differently. The main barriers to moving for the group of “unrealized geographic mobility” are lack of material resources and family responsibilities, psychological reasons (indecision). The results of the regression analysis showed that unrealized geographic mobility demonstrates a connection with negative consequences for the life course: downward intergenerational occupational mobility, lack of fulfilment in life, low self-esteem of social status and lack of life satisfaction.