Psychosocial factors influencing behaviour play a central role in health research but seem under-explored in migration research. This is unfortunate because these factors, which include knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, intentions and personality traits, provide essential and potentially effective handles for linking migration and migrant-integration policies. We demonstrate that the health belief model (HBM) conceptualization of behavioural intentions contributes constructs that can further our understanding of migration intentions, thereby broadening the foundations for migration policies. We adapt the HBM to migration behaviour and then test it empirically by using survey data on international migration from West Africa and the Mediterranean region to the European Union. The results confirm that indicators of "perceived threat to living conditions", "perceived benefits" and "perceived barriers to migration", "cues to action" and "self-efficacy" contribute considerably to the explanation of migration intentions. We conclude that psychosocial factors deserve greater prominence in migration theories and empirical research, and we recommend that migration surveys consider this framework to identify relevant indicators of psychosocial factors of international migration and develop appropriate survey questions to measure them.

It is crucial to dispose of reliable methods for estimating mortality in regions of the world where statistics are limited or defective. Various direct and indirect methods are available, though the mortality estimates obtained for the Solomon Islands using these techniques produce results that do not correlate with levels recorded elsewhere in the region. In this article, GeorGe Groenewold, Jeroen Van Ginneken, Bart de BruiJn and Joop de Beer propose a new Intercensus Cohort Component Method whose results are more consistent with the island's level of socioeconomic development. The method is presented and explained in detail then applied to New Zealand to confirm its robustness.

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about unplanned pregnancies and abortion among women and men in Morocco and Senegal: Influence of norms, practices, and institutional contexts", Working paper prepared for the seminar on "Decision-making regarding abortion-determinants and consequences", 3-5 June, Nanyuki, Kenya.