Knowledge and understanding of people's decision to migrate is critical for policymakers' ability to develop migration policies. The EU-funded PACES project – Making migration and migration policy decisions amidst societal transformations focuses on two parallel research components: the factors shaping migration decision- making and the mechanisms supporting migration policies. The project will combine theoretical and empirical knowledge from several academic disciplines and methodological paradigms to systematically investigate the interactions between migration decisions, policies, and broader social transformation. PACES will draw on data collected in Algeria, Ethiopia, Italy, Libya, Nigeria, Slovakia, and Spain to elaborate a heuristic model that identifies different constellations of conditions that influence decisions to stay and migrate at various stages of individual life trajectories and migrant journeys. This report presents three scoping studies carried out to examine and select the six research locations (secondary cities) in Algeria, Ethiopia and Nigeria. The scoping studies considered nine locations from which the six research areas are selected at the end of this report. These scoping studies were conducted for the research component, also referred to as work package (WP), that studies how people make decisions to stay and migrate to/in/from Algeria, Ethiopia, and Nigeria. Within this component, we explore how people’s decisions to stay and migrate are influenced by societal changes, individual life experiences and migration policies over time and as people move across different locations. We pay particular attention to the role of people's perceptions of their social and personal situation, as well as their values and expectations, as determining factors in decisions to stay or emigrate. 1 Algeria, Ethiopia and Nigeria are countries of origin, transit and destination, which makes it possible to study the factors that determine decisions to stay and migrate among different populations: 1) residents who decide to stay or who may aspire to migrate, 2) migrants on the move and 3) people settled in these countries. The combination of all these characteristics makes these three countries suitable for exploring the links between long-term social transformations and migration decision-making processes before the onset of migration and throughout the migratory journey. Although the characteristics of these three countries at national level are important, this project moves from the national context to the regional and municipal context. To do this, it focuses on specific secondary cities, their historical development, including their migration history and their role in the national mobility dynamics. In sum, this WP seeks to highlight how long-term societal changes in the selected secondary cities shapes the perceptions, values, personal expectations and life and migration aspirations of residents and migrants.