This dissertation centers on long-distance geographic mobility in the United States, i.e., internal migration. Focusing on two key social institutions, the local labor market and the family, the first two chapters investigate the drivers and changing patterns of geographic mobility. The third chapter examines the consequences of geographic mobility, in particular, gender inequality in income trajectories after a long-distance move. Conceptualizing local opportunity structures by occupational compositions in local commuting zones and employing a discrete choice model and data simulations, chapter 1 reveals substantial heterogeneity in migration patterns by education and time period: College graduates increasingly leave areas lacking professional-managerial occupations to move into regions with higher shares of such jobs in 2019 compared with 1980, while non-college workers are increasingly drawn to areas with larger concentrations of less-skilled service employment. The chapter also contributes to understanding of the decline in long-distance internal migration, showing that roughly one-third of this decline is attributable to structural shifts in occupational compositions across local labor markets. The second chapter focuses on the decline of family migration among married heterosexual couples. Using a cohort comparison approach, it highlights demographic shifts, particularly delayed entry into marriage, as a complementary explanation to existing research that has focused primarily on relative resources within families. The third chapter employs an event-study model and longitudinal data to trace income trajectories before and after family migration, revealing that married men gain cumulative migration premiums over the life course, whereas women experience persistent migration penalties. Together, this dissertation advances social stratification literature by showing how major social institutions influence inter-labor market migration and, in turn, produce and reproduce inequalities by education and gender.