I thought when watching the movie it was basically avoidance.
But I have since read the book and you get a sense of his opinions a bit more (even though it's from Alice's perspective). In particular, she overhears a conversation he has with the kids about the move (they are against it) and he basically says 1) it's a big chance for his work...basically heading towards improvements re cancer, potentially a big deal for the world in general and 2) "old' Alice i.e. pre-dementia would in other circumstances have been very much in favour of him pursuing this opportunity for his career and cancer treatment.
However, as the book is from Alice's perspective, you can tell even before her Alzheimer's symptoms get bad that she regrets her and John being so career-focussed and wishes to spend more time with him, so it's possible she would actually have secretly been upset about such a move even without Alzheimer's.
I also think John had basically already checked out as there was clearly no hope of stopping the disease progression and returning her to normal so he was essentially choosing this work to escape his mourning or had already gone through the mourning period and essentially saw Alice as past it such that he was focusing on other things.
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