This research investigates Stouffer's theory of intervening opportunities applied to disaggregated migration flows. Flows and opportunities are classified into functional categories composed of industrial types. Analysis of 1970 Public Use Sample data indicates that the theory of intervening opportunities does not represent all migration flows. The spatial distribution of opportunities influences more those migrant populations in the later stage of the production sequence, drawn to dense distributions of opportunities. The model's ineffectiveness for migrants engaged in functions more immediately dependent upon resource extraction possibly reflects the failure to consider nonfunctional opportunities and suggests the need for a more meaningful method of operationalizing the opportunities concepts.
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