Immigrants’ Legal Status and Return Intentions: The Case of the Madrid Region.

Abstract

The main aim of this paper is to analyze the underlying variables of return intention of migrants in Spain’s Madrid Region, who are segmented by their legal status. The microdata source is the Regional Immigration Survey 2011–2012. Using a sample of 563 individuals, we formulated two research questions to determine the importance of legal status in return intentions and to find the main explanatory variables of return intention for both legal and illegal immigrants, such as personal factors, job market success, and social and contextual factors. To answer these research questions, we developed a binomial logit model.