Abstract
Rural communities in the Upper-Midwest are essential for contributions to agriculture, oil and development of economic networks to larger towns and cities. Concerning rural population stability and transitions, this research study aims to discover complex migration flows by constructing specified groups of Upper-Midwest regions (i.e., Bakken oil, Taconite iron, high agriculture, developing area of rural depopulation and Interstate 94). Research questions on migrant distributions will be answered by investigating (in-) and (out-) flow data by demographic characteristics (e.g., age, gender and ethnicity) on a county-to-county level. By weighing total demographic populations, a more accurate representation of migration trends called Crude Net-Migration Rates (CNMR) are utilized as the primary variables with desired spatial statistical methods (Global and Local Moran’s I index). Global and Local Moran’s I Index detects the strength of spatial patterns (i.e., cluster, dispersed or random) and reveals areas of statistical significance related to human mobility all within a Geographic Information System (GIS) context. Results show a connection of pertinent demographic attributes with certain regional migrations: (a) young adults and males generally move to the Taconite iron region or agricultural areas to attain jobs in demand, and (b) higher percentages of females, college-aged and Asian migrants, frequently move to counties with a sizeable university or larger metropolitan. This examination of regional migration flows in a geographical perception identifies types of current migration events and leads to speculation of causes and effects. This research can be further applied to investigate additional findings by limiting the scope to a smaller area with defined spatial units and correlation of new or past time-series data to indicate potential migration flows.
Advisor
Woo Jang
Committee Member
Fei Yuan
Committee Member
Forrest Wilkerson
Date of Degree
2015
Language
english
Document Type
Thesis
Degree
Master of Science (MS)
College
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Recommended Citation
Brick, A. (2015). A Migration Analysis of Demographic Transitions in the Upper-Midwest from 2006-2010 [Master’s thesis, Minnesota State University, Mankato]. Cornerstone: A Collection of Scholarly and Creative Works for Minnesota State University, Mankato. https://cornerstone.lib.mnsu.edu/etds/512/
Creative Commons License
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Included in
Demography, Population, and Ecology Commons, Geographic Information Sciences Commons, Human Geography Commons
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