The effect of internal migration on regional imbalance: The case of Turkey

Internal migration which refers to the displacement of the population within the country, affects the in-migration regions and the out-migrantion regions from a different perspective; it causes deepening of development differences between regions. Declining labor force, productivity, production and consumption volume in regions of intense out-migration negatively effects economic growth in these regions; increasing population in developed regions brings such as unemployment, housing and cultural conflict problems. This situation affects regional development in many ways and migration policies are important in terms of regional imbalances. In the first part of the study, which aims to investigate the effect of internal migration on regional imbalances, internal migration, socio-economic effects, migration-convergence relationship is discussed; it is given the trends in the world and Turkey. In the second chapter, regional imbalances and their determinants are discussed; regional differences are given with indicators in Turkey; policies for reducing imbalances are discussed. In the third chapter, the effect of internal migration on regional imbalances is analyzed with fixed effects model in Turkey. The study includes the period 2008-2017 NUTS 2 in Turkey; per capita real GDP is used as dependent variables. Regions are categorized as low and high income regions; the effects of migration on real GDP are presented separately for these regions. İnternal migration, education, population, unemployment and public expenditure are used as independent variables. According to the findings, internal migration increases regional imbalances.