Migration’s impact spans various social dimensions, including demography, sustainability, politics, economy, and gender disparities. We are dedicated to advancing research in migration. We aim to create insights into questions such as: at what pace of immigration can countries sustain the delivery of critical public services? How well-integrated are migrant populations in their destination communities? How should the delivery of public services be adjusted to meet the needs of a changing population? Can migration help sustain the welfare systems of ageing economies?

Our work

How do migrants choose their destinations?

Existing migration models usually rely on population size and travel distance to explain and predict the spatial patterns of migration flows. “Interestingly, however, people often migrate over long distances and to smaller destinations if their diaspora is present in these places. So if there are already people somewhere, others will follow”. What we can observe …

Refugees Face Particularly High Housing Instability

Around 20 percent of people living in Austria today are international migrants, states the study. Around 276,800 of those are refugees and asylum seekers. In comparison, Germany has around 15.7 percent and the UK and France 14 percent. The researchers decided to look at the housing situation of refugees in particular because they felt that this area …

About us

We are an interdisciplinary research group at the Complexity Science Hub. We study the dynamics of human migration and analyse the forces that lead to people’s movement and its societal implications.

Group Leader

Rafael Prieto-Curiel

PhD Candidates

Ola Ali
Carsten Källner
Andrea Vismara
Guillermo Prieto Viertel

Academic team

Elma Dervic
Rainer Stütz
Ljubica Nedelkoska

Advisory Board

Publications

Quantifying the stability of refugee populations: a case study in Austria

Ola Ali, Elma Dervić, Rainer Stütz, Ljubica Nedelkoska and Rafael Prieto-Curiel

Genus, 2024

Healthcare Utilization Patterns Among Migrant Populations: Increased Readmissions Suggest Poorer Access. A Population-Wide Retrospective Cohort Study

Elma Dervić, Ola Ali, Carola Deischinger, Rafael Prieto-Curiel, Rainer Stütz, Ellenor Mittendorfer-Rutz, Peter Klimek

ArXiv, 2024

The diaspora model for human migration

Rafael Prieto-Curiel, Ola Ali, Elma Dervić, Fariba Karimi, Elisa Omodei, Rainer Stütz, Georg Heiler and Yurij Holovatch

PNAS Nexus, 2024


Mobility between Colombian cities is predominantly repeat and return migration

Rafael Prieto-Curiel, Mauricio Quinones Dominguez, Eduardo Lora and Neave O’Clery

Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, 2022


Commuting times and the mobilisation of skills in emergent cities

Neave O’Clery, Rafael Prieto-Curiel and Eduardo Lora

Applied Network Science, 2020


Gravity and scaling laws of city to city migration

Rafael Prieto-Curiel, Luca Pappalardo, Lorenzo Gabrielli, Steven Richard Bishop

PloS One, 2018


Join us for a research stay

The Society Moving research group and the Complexity Science Hub offer the possibility to host researchers for a period of time. If you are interested in joining us, submit a request below.


Contact us

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Address

Complexity Science Hub

Palais Springer-Rothschild

Metternichgasse 8

1080 Vienna, Austria