Beyond The Desire to Migrate: A Five-Dimensional Measurement of International Migration Intention among Skilled Workers

International migration intention is widely used to anticipate prospective mobility and skilled-worker emigration, yet its measurement remains conceptually fragmented. Existing studies variously operationalise future migration as desire, aspiration, intention, plan, preparation, expectation, or likelihood of moving. These approaches are useful for particular research purposes, but they can obscure the difference between wanting to migrate and having a more developed, actionable orientation toward migration. Using an integrative conceptual review, this paper synthesises migration survey practices, aspirations-capabilities scholarship, and migration decision-making research to derive and delimit five proposed dimensions of international migration intention. The paper conceptualises international migration intention as a multidimensional pre-migration orientation comprising desire, plan, preparation, timing, and perceived migration control. The proposed International Migration Intention Five-Dimensional Measure (IMI-5D) integrates established distinctions in migration survey research with scholarship on migration decision-making, temporal horizons, and agency. Fifteen candidate items are proposed, with three items representing each dimension. At this conceptual stage, IMI-5D is positioned primarily as a multidimensional profile measure rather than as a validated composite scale, and no overall IMI score is assumed. The dimensions are treated as related components rather than compulsory stages because prospective migrants can display different profiles, such as strong desire but limited preparation, or clear planning but low perceived control. The paper argues that this multidimensional approach can improve construct clarity, cross-study comparability, and the interpretation of skilled-worker mobility intentions. The proposed structure, items, scoring approach, and response format remain provisional and require staged empirical validation before IMI-5D can be described as a validated measurement scale.

international migration intention, skilled workers, multidimensional measurement, perceived migration control, IMI-5D

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