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on Economics of Human Migration |
| By: | Aslan Zorlu (University of Amsterdam and IZA); Clara H. Mulder (University of Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | The initial settlement behaviour and the subsequent mobility of immigrants who arrived in the Netherlands in 1999 are examined using rich administrative individual data. The study considers the settlement patterns of immigrants from various countries of origin who entered the country as labour, family or asylum migrants. The evidence suggests distinct settlement trajectories for asylum and other non-western immigrants. The presence of co-ethnics and members of other ethnic minorities, but also socioeconomic neighbourhood characteristics, appear to play an important role in determining location choice. Differences in the settlement and spatial mobility patterns of immigrants with various degrees of distance from the native Dutch in terms of human and financial capital, proficiency in the relevant language(s), and religion confirm the main predictions of spatial assimilation theory. |
| Keywords: | location choice, immigrants and ethnic residential segregation |
| JEL: | F22 J15 R23 |
| Date: | 2007–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3036&r=mig |
| By: | Carole Roan Gresenz; Jeannette Rogowski; José J. Escarce |
| Abstract: | This research explores social networks and their relationship to access to health care among adult Mexican-Americans. We use data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) linked to data from the 2000 U.S. Census and other data sources. We analyze multiple measures of access to health care. Measures of social networks are constructed at the ZCTA level and include percent of the population that is Hispanic, percent of the population that speaks Spanish, and percent of the population that is foreign-born and Spanish-speaking. Regressions are stratified by insurance status and social network measures are interacted with individual-level measures of acculturation. For insured Mexican-American immigrants, living in an area populated by relatively more Hispanics, more immigrants, or more Spanish-speakers increases access to care. The social network effects are generally stronger for more recent immigrants compared to those who are better established. We find no effects of these characteristics of the local population on access to care for U.S. born Mexican-Americans, suggesting that similarities in race and language may contribute more to the formation of social ties among individuals who are less acculturated to the U.S. Among the uninsured, we find evidence suggesting that social networks defined by ethnicity improve access to care among recent immigrants. A finding particular to the uninsured is the negative influence of percent of the population that is Hispanic and the percent that is Spanish-speaking on access to care among U.S. born Mexican-Americans. The results provide evidence that social networks play an important role in access to health care among Mexican-Americans. The results also suggest the need for further study using additional measures of social networks, analyzing other racial and ethnic groups, and exploring social networks defined by characteristics other than race, language and ethnicity. |
| JEL: | I11 |
| Date: | 2007–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13460&r=mig |
| By: | Andrén, Thomas (Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University) |
| Abstract: | Welfare persistence is estimated in and compared between Swedish-born and foreignborn households. This is done within the framework of a time-stationary dynamic discrete choice model controlling for the initial condition and unobserved heterogeneity. Three different types of persistence are controlled for in terms of observed and unobserved heterogeneity, serial correlation, and structural state dependence, the focus being on the latter measure. In a second step we analyze the long-run effects of receiving social assistance on future household earnings and disposable income. The results show that state dependence in Swedish welfare participation is strong in both Swedish-born and foreign-born. However, the size of the effect is three times as large for the latter group. When the effect is distributed over time, it disappears after three years for both groups. The effect of structural state dependence is decomposed into a number of observed explanatory factors. Surprisingly small effects are found from typical foreign-born factors such as time in the country and country of origin, both important determinants for welfare participation in general. When investigating the effect of social assistance participation on future earnings, we find a strong and persistent effect over the whole observation window, while no such effect could be found for disposable income. This indicates that the economic incentives to leave the dependency are very weak. The picture is similar for both Swedish-born and foreign-born, even though the negative earnings effect is somewhat larger for the latter.<p> |
| Keywords: | welfare participation; immigrants; dynamic probit model; persistence; state dependence; unobserved heterogeneity; initial condition; GHK simulator; earnings; disposable income |
| JEL: | I30 I38 J18 |
| Date: | 2007–09–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:gunwpe:0266&r=mig |
| By: | Zaiceva, Anzelika; Zimmermann, Klaus F |
| Abstract: | Gender role attitudes are well-known determinants of female labour supply. This paper examines the strength of those attitudes using time diaries on childcare, food management and religious activities provided by the British Time Use Survey. Given the low labour force participation of females from ethnic minorities, the role of ethnicity in forming those attitudes and influencing time spent for "traditional" female activities is of particular interest. The paper finds that white females in the UK have a higher probability to participate in the labour force than non-white females. Non-white females spend more time for religious activities and, to some extent, for food management than white females, while there are no ethnic differences for time spent on childcare. The ethnicity effect is also heterogenous across different socio-economic groups. Hence, cultural differences across ethnicities are significant, and do affect work behaviour. |
| Keywords: | ethnic minorities; gender; time use; UK |
| JEL: | J15 J16 J22 |
| Date: | 2007–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6491&r=mig |
| By: | Amelie Constant (Georgetown University, DIW DC and IZA); Rowan Roberts (IZA); Klaus F. Zimmermann (IZA, Bonn University and DIW Berlin) |
| Abstract: | Immigrants are much less likely to own their homes than natives, even after controlling for a broad range of life-cycle and socio-economic characteristics and housing market conditions. This paper extends the analysis of immigrant housing tenure choice by explicitly accounting for ethnic identity as a potential influence on the homeownership decision, using a twodimensional model of ethnic identity that incorporates attachments to both origin and host cultures. The evidence suggests that immigrants with a stronger commitment to the host country are more likely to achieve homeownership for a given set of socioeconomic and demographic characteristics, regardless of their level of attachment to their home country. |
| Keywords: | ethnicity, ethnic identity, immigration, immigrant integration, homeownership |
| JEL: | R21 F22 J15 Z10 |
| Date: | 2007–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3050&r=mig |
| By: | Klaus F. Zimmermann (IZA, Bonn University and DIW Berlin) |
| Abstract: | With globalization, the size of migration and the value of ethnicity is rising. Also Cyprus undergoes a strong process of change while experiencing large inflows of migration. The paper investigates the challenges and the potentials of migration from a European Union perspective. It advocates for a new concept to measure the ethnic identity of migrants, models its determinants and explores its explanatory power for various types of economic performance. The ethnosizer, a measure of ethnic identity, classifies migrants into four states: integration, assimilation, separation and marginalization. Empirical evidence supports its relevance for economic outcomes. |
| Keywords: | ethnic identity, acculturation, migrant assimilation, migrant integration, cultural economics |
| JEL: | F22 J15 J16 Z10 |
| Date: | 2007–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3056&r=mig |
| By: | Teresa Casey (University College London, CReAM and CEP); Christian Dustmann (University College London, CReAM, CEP and IZA) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the intergenerational transmission of language capital amongst immigrants, and the effect of language deficiencies on the economic performance of second generation immigrants. Using a long panel that oversamples immigrants, we can follow their children after they have left the parental home. Our results show a sizeable significant association between parents’ and children’s fluency, conditional on parental and family characteristics. We find that language deficiencies of the second generation are associated with poorer labour market outcomes for females only. Finally, we find a strong relationship between parental fluency and female labour market outcomes, which works through the child’s language proficiency. |
| Keywords: | intergenerational transmission, human capital, language proficiency of immigrants |
| JEL: | J15 J24 J62 |
| Date: | 2007–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3074&r=mig |
| By: | Maite Blázquez (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid); Sílvio Rendon (Stony Brook University and IZA) |
| Abstract: | Catalonia’s economy is characterized by linguistic diversity and provides a unique opportunity to measure the incidence of language proficiency on over-education, particularly, whether individuals with deficient language skills tend to acquire more formal skills or, on the contrary, become discouraged to attend school. Descriptive evidence suggests the latter, that individuals with better language knowledge are more likely to be over-educated. However, estimating a model that controls for individuals’ socio-demographic characteristics reveals the opposite: better language knowledge decreases over-education. This effect, although robust to accounting for endogeneity of language knowledge and significant at the individual level, is mostly non-significant on average. |
| Keywords: | over-education, language, immigration, skill premium |
| JEL: | J24 J41 I20 J61 J70 |
| Date: | 2007–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3061&r=mig |
| By: | Jiong Tu |
| Abstract: | Although immigration has become a major growth factor for Canadian labour force, there is little economic research on the effect of immigration on native-born Canadians' labour market performance. This paper examines the relationship between changes in the share of immigrants by sub-labour markets (categorized by skill types and geographic areas) and changes in native wage growth by a two-stage regression analysis, using 1991, 1996 and 2001 Canadian Census microdata. After accounting for biases due to native mobility, endogenous location of immigrants and labour demand shifts, the estimated effects of immigration are consistently insignificant or significantly positive. The results are robust over various specifications of sub-labour markets at city, provincial and national levels, suggesting no evidence for a negative impact on native wage growth rate from the large immigrant influx during the 1990s. |
| Keywords: | immigration, labour supply, labour mobility, wage |
| JEL: | J31 J61 |
| Date: | 2007–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mcm:sedapp:216&r=mig |
| By: | Martyn Andrews (University of Manchester); Ken Clark (University of Manchester and IZA); William Whittaker (University of Manchester) |
| Abstract: | Using nationally representative, longitudinal data from the first 14 waves of the British Household Panel Survey we examine the labour market returns to inter-regional migration in Great Britain. Controlling for endogeneity, heterogeneity and self-selection, we find substantial long-run wage premiums associated with migration for both males and females who move for job-related reasons. There is, however, no evidence that moving across regions increases the probability of employment for males and females; in fact, some female movers experience a long-run employment penalty. |
| Keywords: | migration, wages, employment, sample selection |
| JEL: | C33 J31 J61 J64 R23 |
| Date: | 2007–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3068&r=mig |
| By: | Todd Sorensen (University of California, Riverside and IZA); Price Fishback (University of Arizona); Samuel Allen (Virginia Military Institute); Shawn Kantor (University of California, Merced) |
| Abstract: | During the 1930s the federal government embarked upon an ambitious series of grant programs designed to counteract the Great Depression. Public works and relief programs combated unemployment by hiring workers and building social overhead capital while the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) sought to raise farm incomes by paying farmers not to produce. The amounts distributed varied widely across the country and potentially contributed to population shifts. We examine the extent to which New Deal spending affected domestic migration patterns in the second half of the 1930s. We estimate an aggregate discrete choice model, in which household heads choose among 466 economic subregions. The structural model allows us to decompose the effects of program spending on migration into three categories: the effect of spending on keeping households in their origin (retention), the effect of pulling non-migrants out of their origin (creation), and the effect of causing migrants to substitute away from an alternative destination (diversion). An additional dollar of public works and relief spending increased net migration into an area primarily by retaining the existing population and creating new migration into the county. Only a small share of the increase in net migration rate was caused by diversion of people who had already chosen to migrate. AAA spending contributed to net out migration, primarily by creating new out migrants and repelling potential in migrants. A counterfactual analysis that examines what would have happened had there been no New Deal spending during the 1930s suggests that the uneven distribution of New Deal public works and relief spending explains about twelve percent of the internal migration flows in the United States between 1935 and 1940. The uneven distribution of AAA spending accounted for about one percent. |
| Keywords: | migration, New Deal, discrete choice |
| JEL: | J10 N32 O15 R23 |
| Date: | 2007–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3060&r=mig |
| By: | Robert C. Feenstra (University of California at Davis) |
| Abstract: | This is the text of Professor Robert Feenstra's 'Global Economy Lecture' which he delivered in February 2007. It is part of a lecture series organized jointly by the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (wiiw) and the Austrian National Bank (OeNB). In this lecture, Professor Feenstra covers a wide range of issues related to the ongoing discussion of the impact of global economic integration upon labour markets: the impact of outsourcing upon wage structures and upon productivity, the effects of NAFTA upon the US, Mexican and Canadian economies, the issue of outsourcing in services, the impact of international migration flows, etc. |
| Keywords: | globalization and labour markets, outsourcing, trade vs. technology, outsourcing in services, migration, production-nonproduction workers |
| JEL: | F16 F21 F22 F15 |
| Date: | 2007–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wii:wpaper:44&r=mig |