Positive Peace - A Driver of Migration? A Quantitative Study of the Relationship between Positive Peace and Intra-European Migration

Abstract: Migration studies have generally focused either on broad drivers that are difficult to operationalize, such as quality of life and standard of living, or a few specific, predominantly economic, drivers. Hence, broader explanations for migration have been understudied, especially quantitively. Similarly, peace studies have traditionally favored narrow conceptualizations of peace. This study aims to widen the scope of peace studies through exploring the explanatory value of positive peace as a driver of migration. Thus, the study tests if and how positive peace, or the absence thereof, can be seen as a pull- or push-factor of migration. This is conducted through a quantitative examination of the relationship between positive peace, operationalized as the Positive Peace Index, and intra-European migration in the period 2013-2019. The results show a statistically significant relationship between positive peace and intra-European immigration, as well as between positive peace and intra-European net migration. However, the results do not find support for a statistically significant relationship between positive peace and intra-European emigration.