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on Economics of Human Migration |
| By: | James Ted McDonald; Jeremiah Neily |
| Abstract: | This study examines differences in the prevalence of various forms of cancer among American women identified by both ethnicity and immigrant status. Our focus is on four types of cancer – breast, cervical, ovarian, and uterine – that afflict adult working-age women. We analyse the extent to which the prevalence of these cancers among immigrants changes with years in the United States, after controlling for age and socio- economic influences. The paper also examines the extent to which use of preventative health screening and/or lifestyle behaviors might help to explain any observed differences. Data are drawn from the U.S. National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) over the period 1998 to 2005. We find significant evidence of differences in cancer occurrence among immigrants by ethnicity that change with years spent in the USA, as well as pronounced differences by race. The results confirm that the healthy immigrant effect is present in terms of the prevalence of certain forms of cancer in comparison with both US born whites and with US born ethnic minority groups. The result appears not to be due to differences in health behaviors or in the utilization of general health services. |
| Keywords: | cancer, immigrants, ethnic minorities, women's health |
| JEL: | I18 I19 |
| Date: | 2007–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mcm:sedapp:206&r=mig |
| By: | Karen M. Kobayashi; Steven Prus |
| Abstract: | Previous research (Gee, Kobayashi, Prus, 2004) indicates that foreign- born older adults (65 years and older) have poorer health than their Canadian-born counterparts. Using data from the 2000/2001 Canadian Community Health Survey, the current study tests two hypotheses to explain the health gap between these two groups. Findings indicate support for the differential vulnerability hypothesis but not for the differential exposure hypothesis in explaining the health gap between Canadian- and foreign-born older adults. What this suggests is that differences in health status between these two groups, rather than being the result of different social locations and/or lifestyle behaviours, can instead be attributed to the different “reactions” of Canadian- and foreign- born older adults to various social and lifestyle determinants of health. |
| Keywords: | health, immigrants, aging |
| JEL: | I18 I19 |
| Date: | 2007–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mcm:sedapp:211&r=mig |
| By: | Algan, Yann; Cahuc, Pierre |
| Abstract: | In this paper we develop a new empirical approach to uncovering the impact of social attitudes on economic development. We first show that trust of second-generation Americans is significantly influenced by the country of origin of their forebears. In the spirit of the epidemiology literature, we interpret this phenomenon as the consequence of inherited social attitudes. We show that trust inherited by second-generation Americans from their country of origins has changed over time. This result allows us to use the inherited trust of second-generation Americans as a time-varying instrument to track back the evolution of trust in the home country of their parents. This strategy enables us to identify the specific impact of inherited trust on economic development relative to other traditional candidates, such as institutions and geography, by controlling for country fixed effects. We find that inherited trust has explained a substantial share of economic development on a sample of 30 countries during the post-war period, by improving total factor productivity and the accumulation of human and physical capital. |
| Keywords: | economic development; growth; social capital; trust |
| JEL: | F10 N13 O10 P10 |
| Date: | 2007–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6403&r=mig |
| By: | Annemarie Steidl (University of Vienna, Department of Economic and Social History); Engelbert Stockhammer (Department of Economics, Vienna University of Economics & B.A.) |
| Abstract: | The paper investigates the determinants of internal migration within late imperial Austria. In contrast to the modernization paradigm which studies onedirectional migration flows from rural to urban areas, our approach highlights that spatial mobility consisted of movements in both directions. Using data on all districts of the Austrian part of the Hapsburg Monarchy, we find that in- and outmigration rates are positively correlated, and that the modernization paradigm in migration research is consistent with our results for net-migration rates, but inconsistent with those for out-migration. |
| JEL: | N30 F22 |
| Date: | 2007–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwwuw:wuwp107&r=mig |
| By: | Xiaomeng Ma; Kao-Lee Liaw |
| Abstract: | The main purpose of this paper is to study the roles of ethnicity and language acculturation in determining the propensities to make interprovincial migration in Canada in 1976-81, 1981-86, and 1996-2001, based on the micro data of the 1981, 1986 and 2001 censuses. Since these propensities are also subject to the strong effects of other explanatory factors, a multivariate analysis using a binomial logit model is conducted. An important methodological contribution of this paper is the clarification of the interpretational mistakes in the previous multivariate analyses of Trovato and Halli (1983 and 1990) that depended on the widely used log linear models. Our empirical findings turn out to be substantively more sensible than the earlier findings in the literature. With respect to the less complicated case of non-French minority ethnic groups, the empirical data are found to be mostly supportive of the following two hypotheses. H1: The propensities to make inter- provincial migration are lower for minority ethnic groups than for the mainstream ethnic group. H2: The use of English as home language, which represents an important cultural shift towards the mainstream, increases the inter-provincial migration propensities of minority ethnic groups. The very strong support for these two hypotheses by the Italian ethnic group and the lack of support for H2 by the Jewish ethnic group are highlighted and explained. With respect to the more complicated case of the French ethnic group, our findings are supportive of the following two hypotheses. H3: Among those residing outside Quebec, the propensities to make inter-provincial migration are greater for the French ethnic group than for the mainstream ethnic group. H4: This difference is greater for the French ethnic group that continues to use French as the home language than for the French ethnic group that has shifted the home language to English. It is unfortunate that the support for H4, which could aggravate the spatial polarization of the French and Non-French populations between Quebec and the rest of Canada, became successively stronger towards the late 1990s. Fortunately, this trend was countered by a mild narrowing of the extremely wide gap in the propensities to leave Quebec between the English-speaking British and the French-speaking French. |
| Keywords: | Interprovincial Migration, Ethnic Selectivity, Language Acculturation, Canada |
| JEL: | J61 |
| Date: | 2007–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mcm:sedapp:208&r=mig |
| By: | Mehmet Kucukmehmetoglu; Abdurrahman Geymen |
| Abstract: | In the second half of the 20th Century, during which Turkey has experienced rapid industrialization and urbanization, Istanbul has been the destination of influx of large scale rural to urban migrants. Between 1950 and 2000, the city has grown by an average of 4.5% annually. The city has been the preferred destination not only by large numbers of low skilled rural migrants who seek employment in various informal sectors, but also by capital owners looking for a large scale cheap labor source and an extensive local market. Besides, Istanbul provides a relatively well established basic infrastructure (e.g. transportation and services) compared to the rest of Turkey. Given the scale of the growth, neither local nor the central governments have shown capability of controlling the influx of migration, most of which settled illegally on public lands creating low quality low cost housing and industrial environments. Most of the settlements lack the basic sewerage facilities, and a significant portion of which are on the major water resources basins. As of today, the Municipality of Istanbul not only has to cope with the infrastructure problems, but also has to find ways of solving the problem of illegal occupations of public lands and water resource basins. This paper presents the land use changes in the water resources basins providing water to the Istanbul Metropolitan Area. Using four consecutive Landsat images between 1990 and 2005, the changes in 12 different land use categories are obtained via overlay operations by GIS for 12 major water resources basins surrounding the city of Istanbul. It has been observed that the most critical land use changes are in the nearest basins to the city. It has also been observed that large public capital improvement projects such as Trans-European Motorway (TEM) triggered the trend of illegal occupation of these public lands most of which is in the water resources basins. The capability of Landsat images in determining the alterations in the macro form of the city are also discussed. Finally, possible policy implications are put forward for the preservation of water resources basins in Istanbul. |
| Date: | 2006–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa06p740&r=mig |
| By: | Raven E. Saks; Abigail Wozniak |
| Abstract: | This paper establishes the cyclical properties of a novel measure of worker reallocation: long-distance migration rates within the U.S. This internal migration offers a bird's eye view of worker reallocation in the economy, as long-distance migrants often change jobs or employment status. We examine gross migration patterns during the entire postwar era using historical reports of the Current Population Survey, and supplement this analysis with statistics compiled by the Internal Revenue Service on inter-state and inter-metropolitan population flows since 1975. We find that internal migration within the U.S. is strongly procyclical, even after accounting for variation in relative local economic conditions. This procyclicality is common across most major demographic and labor force groups, although it is strongest for younger workers. Our findings suggest that cyclical fluctuations in internal migration are driven by economy-wide changes in the net cost to worker reallocation with a major role for the job finding rate of young workers. |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedgfe:2007-32&r=mig |
| By: | Jan Fidrmuc; Peter Huber (WIFO) |
| Abstract: | Given the low levels of migration in the CEECs found in the literature, this paper raises the issue of who is willing to migrate in these countries. Using data on the willingness to migrate in the Czech Republic we show that variables measuring regional labour market conditions and amenities contribute little to explaining willingness to migrate, but that personal and household characteristics are more important. The least willing to migrate are the family-house owners, the less educated and the elderly as well as persons residing in regions with above-average unemployment rates. Improving the efficiency of the housing market and focusing on the problems of peripheral regions should thus be primary foci of a policy aimed at improving labour-market adjustment through migration. These policies are, however, unlikely to yield rapid returns, since the willingness to migrate of all subgroups analysed (except for the less educated) reacts only weakly to regional labour market incentives and amenities. |
| Keywords: | Willingness to Migrate, Regional Labour Market Adjustment |
| Date: | 2007–01–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wfo:wpaper:y:2007:i:286&r=mig |
| By: | Rod Tyers; Iain Bain; Jahnvi Vedi |
| Abstract: | One consequence of the trade and technology driven increases in skill premia in the older industrial regions since the 1980s has been a perceived “skill shortage” in those regions, along with freer migration of skilled and professional workers from developing regions. While skilled migration flows remain too small to have large short-run effects on labour markets, a further opening to skilled migrants by the industrialised North could see substantial changes in labour markets and overall growth performance. The links between demographic change, migration flows and economic growth are here explored using a new demographic sub-model that is integrated with an adaptation of the GTAP-Dynamic global economic model in which regional households are disaggregated by age and gender. Skilled migration flows are assumed to be motivated by real wage differences to an extent that is variably constrained by immigration policies. A uniform relaxation of these constraints has most effect on labour markets in the traditional migrant destinations, Australia, Western Europe and North America, where it restrains the skill premium and substantially enhances GDP growth. Skill premia are raised, however, in regions of origin, and particularly in South Asia, although the extent of this is shown to depend sensitively on the responsiveness of skill acquisition to regional skill premia. |
| Keywords: | Demographic change, skilled migration, labour markets and economic growth |
| Date: | 2007–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:deg:conpap:c012_028&r=mig |
| By: | Ben Dolman |
| Abstract: | Previous studies have shown that countries trade and invest more with partner countries from which they have received more migrants, presumably because migrant networks provide information on financial opportunities abroad. This literature focusing on migrants within individual countries is extended by constructing a dataset covering 28 OECD countries and up to 162 trading partners and the results confirm these bilateral correlations. The effect of migrants on trade flows is also found to be smaller where countries exchange greater direct investment, suggesting that more formal business networks partly displace the effects of migrant networks. The data set also allows analysis of whether migrants increase the aggregate trade and investment of their country-of-residence, a question not previously addressed in the literature. This paper shows that migrants have a much larger effect on the directions of international trade and investment than on aggregate volumes. In the case of trade, this is shown to be consistent with the theory underpinning the gravity equation. |
| Date: | 2007–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:deg:conpap:c012_030&r=mig |
| By: | Alvin P. Ang |
| Abstract: | This paper considers the present issues surrounding the role of workers remittances and its contribution/effect on economic growth and development. In particular, this paper focuses on how such remittances have been able to spur development and growth. As a case study, the paper focuses on the Philippines, one of the countries in the world with a long history of sending workers abroad. In 2005, the Philippines received approximately US$11Bn of remittances, almost 10% of its GDP. It ranks as the 3rd largest recipient of remittances in the world after India and Mexico. Along this line, the paper looks into the following areas: (a) remittance and overall growth, (b) linkages between remittances and microfinance, (c) tracing the contribution of remittances to countryside development, and (d) relationship between worker remittances and structural reform policies. We are also concerned at how these remittances have impacted the poor in general. This is important as the expected benefits have generally been unfelt at the level of the poor. We hypothesize that workers’ remittance have not been properly utilized into productive and investment uses in the Philippines. There are strong anecdotal evidences that show that most of these resources are being used to fund conspicuous consumption. Hence, we would like to find ways where these resources can be harnessed into funding development needs of the country. |
| Keywords: | Remittances, Development, Migrant Workers |
| JEL: | E21 F2 G21 J61 O16 |
| Date: | 2007–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:deg:conpap:c012_029&r=mig |
| By: | Yamagata, Tatsufumi |
| Abstract: | A shortage of medical personnel has become a critical problem for developing countries attempting to expand the provision of medical services for the poor. In order to highlight the driving forces determining the international allocation of medical personnel, the cases of four countries, namely the Philippines and South Africa as source countries and Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom as destination countries, are examined. The paper concludes that changes in demand generated in major destination countries determine the international allocation of medical personnel at least in the short run. Major destination countries often alter their policies on how many medical staff they can accept, and from where, while source countries are required to make appropriate responses to the changes in demand. |
| Keywords: | Medical personnel, Brain drain, Philippines, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom, Medical care |
| JEL: | F22 I19 J61 O52 O53 O55 |
| Date: | 2007–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jet:dpaper:dpaper105&r=mig |