The role of awareness space in urban residential preferences: A case study of Venezuelan youth

Empirical studies of inter-urban and interregional migration have most often assumed that objective place or personal characteristics affect the migration decision directly. Such studies tend to disregard the roles of awareness of opportunities at potential destinations, and of the preferences for these destinations which are a function of this awareness. In this study, the presence of six different types of direct and indirect contact with three potential destinations (large cities in Venezuela) is shown to be related to a potential migrant's preferences for these destinations. These results- -based on a sample of 260 high school seniors at six different sites in Venezuela in 1974--underline the importance ofawareness space and ofurban residential preferences as intervening variables in the migration process in a developing country.