Abstract

This article explores the relationships between person-centred, competence-based, and culturally-determined risk-taking on the one hand and attitudes to international travel and migration on the other. We based the research on a sample of 540 young people, aged nineteen to thirty-five years, from nine European countries. This study firstly examines attitudes to risk about international travel. Eight deterrents to travel are looked at: poor hygiene, health concerns, weather, crime/terrorism, poor accommodation, political unrest, local customs/religion and natural disasters. Next, we explore self-assessed competence about international migration. Finally, the relationships between the perceived costs/benefits of international migration on the one hand and attitudes to the risks involved in international migration, on the other hand, are analysed. Non-parametric tests and the ANOVA procedure indicate that gender-based “risk traits” may influence the willingness of individuals to take risks in about international travel and migration. Attitudes to risk, however, may also be informed by self-perceived competence regarding international travel and migration. The importance of cross-cultural differences (proxied by region of origin) to attitudes towards risk represents perhaps the most interesting result of this research. Differences in attitudes to risk by participants from the North and South/East of Europe were robust and pervasive across most domains of international travel and migration.