Austria’s population has been increasing despite sustained low birth rates, mainly due to international migration and this trend is projected to continue into the next decades (Statistik Austria 2023a). As a result, over 20% of Austria’s population has been born outside the country as of 2020 and the share of persons with migration background is estimated at 26% (Statistik Austria 2023b).

At subnational level, however, this picture is more diversified. Population declines occur typically in more remote areas, mainly in Styria and Carinthia, while cities have growing tendency. Although international immigration is often seen by policy-makers as means of counteracting population declines, not all regions and municipalities are attractive to immigrants as most immigrants settle in cities or regional centers with better services and opportunities. Therefore, we quantify what is the contribution immigrants to population declines or increases in Austria’s regions and municipalities.

We analyse time series of Statistics Austria data on population stocks by place of birth, life events by place of birth, international migration flows by place of birth and internal migration beyond municipality borders from 2002-2022. Normally such analyses are performed for overall population but we are interested to identify where population declines are shared by native-born and foreign-born and where the trends for the two groups diverge.

We have already produced initial analyses at national and NUTS-3 level and are working on harmonizing data for municipalities as to provide a granular picture of diversified population change across time and space. Our results will include a typology of regions and municipalities along three dimensions: natural change, international migration and internal migration (decomposed by native-born and foreign-born). We will analyze temporal and special patterns in order to better understand the significance of international migration to population change. Were there any shifts in spatial patterns after the large migration wave of 2015-2016? Did the covid-19 pandemic bring any turnaround to previously depopulating regions and municipalities and was it due to internal or international immigration of foreigners or change in residential preferences native-born? Our analysis will illuminate these research questions. We use demographic accounting methods and we extend the method proposed by Billari (2022) to include internal migration in the analysis of population turnover and analyse separately native-born and foreign-born population trends.

This study is being conducted within the scope of the Horizon Europe project PREMIUM-EU (https://premium-eu.org/).

Billari, F. (2022) Demography: Fast and Slow. Population and Development Review 48: 9-30.

DOI:10.1111/padr.12464

Statistik Austria (2022a) Immigration leads to further population growth. Press release: 13 203-231/2. https://www.statistik.at/fileadmin/announcement/2023/11/20231122BPR2023EN.pdf

Statistik Austria (2022b) Statistisches Jahrbuch: Migratyion & Integration 2023. https://www.statistik.at/fileadmin/user_upload/MIG2023.pdf

Like countries, regions within countries face the challenges of demographic change to varying degrees. In order to cushion the consequences of demographic change, they compete for the influx of international as well as internal (labour) migration. At the same time, there has been a sharp rise in right-wing populist and right-wing extremist movements in most European countries in recent years. Again, there are large spatial differences in support for such trends within countries. If right-wing attitudes send a repellent signal to potential immigrants, they hinder socially and economically desirable immigration. There is currently no information on this question below the state level. Using Germany as an example, we examine the effects of hostile attitudes, measured by xenophobic violence and election results in a region, on its migration balance. Our focus is on migration from abroad as well as on the internal migration behavior of Germans and non-Germans.

We use a unique panel data set and apply fixed effects regression models and instrumental variable or entropy adjustment estimates to account for unobserved regional characteristics. Initial results suggest that xenophobic behavior reduces regional immigration. This applies to both immigration from abroad and internal migration. The impact of supporting right-wing parties appears to be stronger than that of xenophobic violence. Social well-being therefore appears to play an important role in the choice of location, alongside economic and labor market factors as well as local amenities. At the regional level, right-wing radicalism appears to be a locational disadvantage in the competition for immigration.

Migration and integration require more than just data on population development or immigration and emigration; they are also an expression of subjective assessments and perspectives. The migration survey is a sample survey carried out annually by Statistics Austria. The focus is on various dimensions of migration and integration. Participants are asked about topics such as living together, discrimination, contacts and social environment, value orientations (on family images, gender roles, politics and religion), belonging, education, language skills and language use as well as work and professional activities. The annual implementation of the migration survey enables time series that can show development or change processes relating to migration and integration issues.

A sample of 4,900 people were questioned in the migration survey in 2024. This includes people in Austria without a migration background as well as immigrants from the selected countries of birth Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turkey, Serbia, Afghanistan, Iran, the Russian Federation, Syria, Romania and Ukraine. The participants were drawn from the Central Register of Residents (ZMR) according to a multi-stratified procedure, whereby in addition to the country of birth, a restriction was also made to persons aged 16 and over. In the case of immigrants, they must have been resident in Austria for at least twelve months. The survey was conducted as an online survey and could be answered in German, Arabic, Bosnian, English, Farsi, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Turkish or Ukrainian.

The presentation introduces the migration survey and provides insights into the composition of the sample, the challenges of a multilingual questionnaire, the response rate as well as the correspondence and handling of incentives. Selected findings and results on experiences of discrimination, belonging, attitudes towards minorities and value orientations will also be discussed. The presentation will also look at the potential of the migration survey to provide facts and starting points for post-migrant research approaches and questions. Examples are used to illustrate time series that can provide insights into processes of change in the subjective views of the immigrant population or into the development of post-migrant perspectives. Finally, the possibility for interested researchers to use the data set of the migration survey as a scientific use file for scientific purposes will be outlined.

The enduring well-being benefits of greater socio-cultural integration and the low social cohesion between natives and immigrants make immigrants’ limited integration among the leading policy issues in immigrant-receiving countries. Governments around the world are increasingly complementing objective welfare metrics with subjective well-being outcomes such as life satisfaction and happiness to guide policy-making. If a country receives immigrants, it should be interested in getting a high proportion of happy people among them. Happier and, hence, more productive, healthy and sociable migrants will, arguably, put less pressure on the welfare state and integrate more successfully into the host society. However, the flip side of any ‘happiness gain’ for the migrant-receiving countries is a ‘happiness drain’ for the migrant-sending countries. Based on this theoretical background, our research focuses on a specific and very popular migration channel, i.e. emigration from Hungary to Austria. The research primarily seeks to answer the question of how the subjective well-being of those who have already emigrated to Austria has changed compared to their retrospectively assessed well-being situation before migration. Is there a change in all aspects of subjective well-being, or for example only in happiness, optimism, or even only in certain domains of satisfaction? How homogeneous is this change, or are there differences between those who moved with their family and those monthly commuters, who take advantage of the proximity of the two countries and left their family behind? Furthermore, to what extent does the subjective well-being of Hungarians living in Austria differ from that of Hungarian residents who plan to emigrate and those who would stay in Hungary? Finally, how is the change in subjective or material well-being related to the intention of the migrant to remain in Austria or to move back to Hungary? Data for the survey will be provided by questionnaire surveys conducted in December 2023 and early 2024 in Austria (300 persons who have emigrated from Hungary) and Hungary (a representative sample of 1000 persons and a complementary sample of about 350 persons with an intention to emigrate). This is complemented by the experience of narrative and cognitive interviews from the two countries under study. Due to the nature of the data source, the research is carried out using a mixed-method approach, with the results of the descriptive and inferential quantitative methods and models being further refined and enhanced by the interviews. The researchers involved in the project come from different fields of social sciences (e.g. sociology, human geography) and from several countries, thus ensuring the interdisciplinary and multinational character of the project.