nep-mig New Economics Papers
on Economics of Human Migration
Issue of 2009‒05‒02
four papers chosen by
Yuji Tamura
Australian National University

  1. The Economic Return on New Immigrants' Human Capital: the Impact of Occupational Matching By Goldmann, Gustave; Sweetman, Arthur; Warman, Casey
  2. The Pursuit of Post-Secondary Education: A Comparison of First Nations, African, Asian and European Canadian Youth By Thiessen, Victor
  3. International Trade Agreements and International Migration By Jacques Poot; Anna Strutt
  4. Exchange Rates and Wages in an Integrated World By Prachi Mishra; Antonio Spilimbergo

  1. By: Goldmann, Gustave; Sweetman, Arthur; Warman, Casey
    Abstract: Using a data set that provides information on source country employment, we examine the effect of source and host country occupational matching on earnings and the economic rate of return to the foreign human capital of immigrants in Canada. Examining occupational distributions we find that immigrants converge very quickly to the skill distribution of the Canadian population in terms of the main job worked, although four years after landing they are still below the source country distribution. We also find that for a large proportion of immigrants, their intended occupation differs from their source country occupation. Although immigrants who are able to match their source and host country occupations obtain higher earnings, successful occupational matching does not have any impact on the return to foreign potential work experience. However, immigrants who match their source and host country occupations do have a higher return to schooling, particularly for females.
    Keywords: Immigrants, Occupational Matching, Human Capital, Canada
    JEL: J24 J31 J61
    Date: 2009–04–22
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ubc:clssrn:clsrn_admin-2009-30&r=mig
  2. By: Thiessen, Victor
    Abstract: Using the nationally representative longitudinal Youth in Transition Survey, this paper examines the argument that inferior educational outcomes of various visible minorities and immigrants can be attributed to their socio-economic disadvantages, while superior outcomes of other visible minorities is due to their cultural supports. The analyses document sizable inequalities in educational pathways of First Nations, visible minorities, and immigrants. However, neither structural location nor cultural attributes (nor both in conjunction) totally account for differences in their educational pathways nor can they be reduced to a simple pattern whereby structural disadvantages account for inferior pathways and cultural factors for superior ones.
    Keywords: Aboriginals, Visible Minorities, Immigrants, Academic Performance, Educational Attainment, Post-Secondary Education
    JEL: I20 I21 I29
    Date: 2009–04–22
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ubc:clssrn:clsrn_admin-2009-28&r=mig
  3. By: Jacques Poot (University of Waikato); Anna Strutt (University of Waikato)
    Abstract: Despite large potential economic gains to the countries concerned, bilateral and multilateral negotiations regarding liberalization of migration have not had the high profile of trade negotiations and agreements. Migration and trade have been traditionally the prerogative of different ministries, yet there are many interdependencies between international trade, foreign investment and migration. The relevance of these interdependencies for trade negotiations has been remarkably ignored in the literature. In this paper we therefore focus on the two-way interaction between international migration and agreements designed to enhance cross-border trade or investment. Liberalization of international trade in services and the movement of people are likely to offer much more significant economic gains than liberalization of remaining barriers to goods trade. However, progress within multilateral frameworks is fraught with difficulty. Mode IV of GATS is restricted to temporary movement of service employees and has yielded little progress so far. Negotiations within more flexible unilateral and bilateral frameworks are likely to be more successful in liberalizing the movement of labour. We discuss several specific examples and conclude that trade negotiations are increasingly accommodating migration policies that favour temporary migration over permanent migration and that the migration regulatory framework is likely to be further linked to trade and investment over time.
    Keywords: international trade; migration; outsourcing; temporary workers; GATS; negotiation
    JEL: F15 F16 F22
    Date: 2009–04–24
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wai:econwp:09/06&r=mig
  4. By: Prachi Mishra; Antonio Spilimbergo
    Abstract: We analyze how the pass-through from exchange rate to domestic wages depends on the degree of integration between domestic and foreign labor markets. Using data from 66 countries over the period 1981–2005, we find that the elasticity of domestic wages to real exchange rate is 0.1 after a year for countries with high barriers to external labor mobility, but about 0.4 in countries with low barriers to mobility. The results are robust to the inclusion of various controls, different measures of exchange rates, and concepts of labor market integration. These findings call for including labor mobility in macro models of external adjustment.
    Keywords: Labor markets , Migration , Exchange rates , Wages , Economic integration , Time series , Cross country analysis , Economic models ,
    Date: 2009–03–17
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:09/44&r=mig

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