That international borders limit migration is obvious. But why should provincial or state borders prevent people from moving within a country? After all, most countries do not impose restrictions on mobility like the “hukou” system in China. Yet, in an article forthcoming in the Journal of Economic Geography, we find evidence of “invisible walls” between Indian states. Indians, particularly men seeking education and jobs, display a puzzling reluctance to cross state borders.

Interestingly, state borders were found to be a bigger hindrance to the migration of men than for women, and for younger men of working age. The negative effect was also linked to education levels—the more educated were more reluctant to cross state lines.

In our analysis, we accounted for barriers to internal mobility, such as physical distance and linguistic differences between districts. We also considered differences in economic and social features. Even after controlling for these other influences, state borders still emerged as critical impediments to mobility. We found that migration between neighboring districts in the same state is at least 50 percent larger than migration between neighboring districts in different states.

Read the full article on internal migration in India by Zovanga Kone, Maggie Y. Liu, Aaditya Mattoo, Çağlar Özden, and Siddharth Sharmaa at Brookings