Migration decision making as complex choice: Eliciting decision weights under conditions of imperfect and complex information through experimental methods

Migration decisions are complex, involving both economic and non-economic considerations, and are often made in conditions that depart significantly from the idealised information assumptions of many models. This paper uses a three-stage experimental research design to analyse migrant decision making in the face of complexity and varying information conditions (complete, imperfect, and overloading). It pays particular attention to differences based on previous migration experiences. It focuses on four main issues: (a) the balance between monetary and non-monetary factors; (b) the computation, via a range of methods, of relative decision weights attached to different factors; (c) the impact of country image in relation to information; and (d) the role of preferences in dealing with missing information. The research examines the decision weights for eight attributes of potential destination countries for a sample of 157 young, educated individuals in Slovakia. The relative advantages and challenges of utilising experimental methods in migration research are illustrated. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd