Ali Soltani

By relating to recorded internal migration patterns, this collaborative project between Universities of Orléans (UO), and Flinders (Australia), aims to recognizing and to understanding the changing spatial pattern of domestic migrations in France and in Australia, two comparable highly developed countries, and investigates how the interactions of population and activity centres can become an integral measure of successful policy-making.

COVID-19 decreased net interstate migration, although it began to rebound after lifting the restrictions showing that the effect of COVID‐ 19 on internal migration is likely to be short‐lived. This study is one of the few to examine how amenities and the labour market interact and how that affects internal migration using hybrid behavioural and spatial techniques. The Greater Melbourne Area (GMA) in Australia was selected as the case study due to the high percentage of internal migrants (over 40 percent), the availability of open-source census data, and the study's complete feasibility for a six-month fellowship without any ethical concerns. This research would contribute to the current body of knowledge by considering a wide range of internal migration push and pull forces as well as their local implications. This study will be using an advanced set of covariance-based structural equation models (CB-SEM) based on novel exogenous latent, followed by developing an innovative technique of hybrid PLS-GWR (Geographically Weighted Regression) and PLS-GTWR (Geographically and Temporally Weighted Regression) methodologies to capture the locality implications of the latent. This research is to use the “COVID-19” experiment to identify the drivers of decision-making by internal migrants, including the scope to working from home but also the impact of amenities and the economies of agglomeration.

The findings of this study will discuss the importance of utility maximization in migration decision- making, and will investigate the role of high skilled workers living in an area in attracting other migrants. On the basis of this study, local governments might clarify their position in terms of amenity supply and offering an appealing environment for employees, particularly skilled workers.