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on Economics of Human Migration |
| By: | Luca MARCHIORI (Central Bank of Luxembourg, Luxembourg, and IRES, Université catholique de Louvain); Jean-François MAYSTADT (International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Washington); Ingmar SCHUMACHER (Central Bank of Luxembourg, Luxembourg, and Department of Economics, École Polytechnique, Paris) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the effects of weather anomalies on migration in sub-Saharan Africa. Theoretically, we show how weather anomalies induce rural-urban migration that subsequently triggers international migration. We distinguish two transmission channels, an amenity and an economic geography channel. Empirically, based on annual, cross-country panel data for sub-Saharan Africa, our results suggest that weather anomalies increased internal and international migration through both channels. We estimate that temperature and rainfall anomalies caused a total displacement of 5 million people in net terms during the period 1960-2000, i.e. a minimum of 130’000 people every year. Further weather anomalies, based on IPCC projections on climate change, could lead to an additional annual displacement of 11 million people by the end of the 21st century. |
| Keywords: | International migration, urbanization, rural-urban migration, weather anomalies, sub-Saharan Africa. |
| JEL: | F22 Q54 R13 |
| Date: | 2011–10–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctl:louvir:2011034&r=mig |
| By: | Shonchoy, Abu S |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the relationship between access to micro-credit and temporary seasonal migration, an issue which is largely ignored in the standard rural-urban migration literature. Seasonal migration due to agricultural downturns is a common phenomenon in developing countries. Using primary data from a cross-sectional household survey from the northwest part of Bangladesh, this study quantifies the factors that influence such migration decisions. Among other results, we find that network effects play a significant role in influencing the migration decision, with the presence of kinsmen at the place of destination having considerable impact. Seasonal migration is a natural choice for individual suffering periodic hardship; however the strict weekly loan repayment rules of Micro-credit Institutes can have an adverse effect on this process, reducing the ability of borrowers to react to a shock. Our result suggests that poor individuals prefer the option of not accessing the micro-credit and opt for temporal seasonal migration during the lean period. The results have numerous potential policy implications, including the design of typical micro-credit schemes. |
| Keywords: | Bangladesh, Microfinance, Population movement, Lean period, Seasonal migration, Micro-credit |
| JEL: | J62 J64 J65 O15 O18 R23 G21 |
| Date: | 2011–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jet:dpaper:dpaper294&r=mig |
| By: | Erling Barth (Institute for Social Research, Oslo); Bernt Bratsberg (Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research); Oddbjørn Raaum (Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | Life cycle wages of immigrants from developing countries fall short of catching up with wages of natives. This disparity reflects both lower wages at entry and lower wage growth. Using linked employer-employee data, we show that 40 percent of the native-immigrant wage gap is explained by differential sorting across establishments. Our findings point to differences in job mobility and intermittent spells of unemployment as major sources of the discrepancy in lifetime wages. The inferior wage growth of immigrants primarily results from failure to advance to higher paying establishments over time. This pattern is consistent with statistical discrimination in hiring but not with monopsonistic discrimination due to informational frictions. |
| Date: | 2011–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nor:wpaper:2011019&r=mig |
| By: | Dionissi Aliprantis |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a new perspective on results from the Moving to Opportunity (MTO) housing mobility program. Building on recent developments in the program evaluation literature, this paper defines several treatment effect parameters and then estimates and interprets these parameters using data from MTO. The evaluation framework is used to make a clear distinction between the interpretation of Intent to Treat (ITT) and Treatment on the Treated (TOT) parameters as program effects and Local Average Treatment Effect (LATE) parameters as neighborhood effects. This distinction helps to clarify that results from MTO are only informative about a small subset of neighborhood effects of interest. Tests for instrument strength show that MTO induced large changes in neighborhood poverty rates. However, it is also shown that MTO induced remarkably little variation in many of the other neighborhood and school characteristics believed to influence outcomes and that much of this variation was confined to the tails of these characteristics' national distributions. Consistent with prevailing theories of neighborhood effects, labor market and health outcomes improved when households moved to neighborhoods with characteristics at or above the national median. The evidence suggests housing mobility programs designed to induce moves to neighborhoods with characteristics in addition to or in lieu of low poverty might induce larger effects than MTO, and results point to the investigation of heterogeneity in program effects from MTO as a fruitful direction for future research. |
| Keywords: | Housing policy ; Poverty |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedcwp:1122&r=mig |
| By: | Antje Kroeger; Kathryn Anderson |
| Abstract: | The Kyrgyz Republic is one of the largest recipients of international remittances in the world; from a Balance of Payments measure of remittances, it ranked tenth in the world in 2008 in the ratio of remittances to GDP, a rapid increase from 30th place in 2004. Remittances can be used to maintain the household's standard of living by providing income to families with unemployed and underemployed adult members. Remittances can also be used to promote investment not only in businesses and communities but also in people. In this paper, we examine the role that remittances have played in the Kyrgyz Republic in promoting investments in children. Based on the capabilities approach to well-being initiated by Sen (2010), we look at the impact of remittances and domestic transfer payments primarily from internal migration on children's education and health. Our outcomes include enrollment in school and preschool, expenditures, stunting and wasting of preschool children, and health habits of older children. We use unique panel data from the Kyrgyz Republic for 2005-2008 and thus control for some of the biases inherent in cross-sectional studies of remittances and family outcomes. We find that overall remittances and domestic transfers have not promoted investments in the human capital of children. Specifically, preschool enrollments were higher in the urban north but secondary school enrollments were lower in other regions in remittance receiving households; expenditures were also negatively affected in the south and the mountain areas. These negative enrollment results were larger for girls than for boys. We also found evidence of stunting and wasting among young children and worse health habits among boys in remittance or transfer receiving households. In the long run, Kyrgyzstan needs human capital development for growth; our results suggest that remittances are not providing the boost needed in human capital to promote development in the future. |
| Keywords: | Children's education and health, remittances, Central Asia |
| JEL: | C23 F22 I21 R23 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp1170&r=mig |
| By: | Frédéric Docquier (IRES, Université Catholique de Louvain, and FNRS); Hillel Rapoport (Department of Economics, Bar-Ilan University, EQUIPPE, University of Lille, and Center for International Development, Harvard University); Sara Salomone (IRES, Université Catholique de Louvain, and Tor Vergata University) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the relationship between remittances and migrants' education both theoretically and empirically, using original bilateral remittance data. At a theoretical level we lay out a model of remittances interacting migrants' human capital with two dimensions of immigration policy: restrictiveness, and selectivity. The model predicts that the relationship between remittances and migrants' education is ambiguous and depends on the immigration policy conducted at destination. The effect of education is more likely to be positive when the immigration policy is more restrictive and less skill-selective. These predictions are then tested empirically using bilateral remittance and migration data and proxy measures for the restrictiveness and selectivity of immigration policies at destination. The results strongly support the theoretical analysis, suggesting that immigration policies determine the sign and magnitude of the relationship between remittances and migrants' education. |
| Keywords: | Remittances, Migration, Brain Drain, Immigration Policy |
| JEL: | F24 F22 O15 J61 |
| Date: | 2011–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:1119&r=mig |
| By: | Dulam, T.; Franses, Ph.H.B.F. |
| Abstract: | In this paper we examine two hypotheses concerning emigration. The first hypothesis is that emigration is positively correlated with wage differentials. The second hypothesis concerns a positive correlation between emigration and higher education in the sending country (the so-called brain gain hypothesis). We analyze unique time series data for Suriname for 1972-2009, for which we fit error correction models to disentangle short-run from long-run effects. We document moderate support for the first hypothesis, but we find strong support for the brain drain (and not brain gain) hypothesis. We conclude with implications of our findings for Suriname. |
| Keywords: | education;migration;brain drain |
| Date: | 2011–10–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:eureir:1765026710&r=mig |
| By: | Aysegul KAYAOGLU (UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES)); Ayhan KAYA (Istanbul Bilgi University) |
| Abstract: | There are around 3 million Turkish origin migrants in Germany and 400 thousand in France who have already raised their third generations. Nowadays they are even being named with their hyphenated identities, such as German-Turks and French-Turks. In the meantime, they encounter various obstacles in everyday life due to the stigmatization and securitization of migration and Islam. This is why their integration into the receiving societies is of great importance, as better social cohesion helps nurture the economic, political and social contribution of migrants to their countries of settlement. Using the data derived from a recent micro-level survey on Turkish-origin immigrants residing in Germany and France, the determinants of their social affiliations and employment probability as well as the impact of citizenship acquisition on their socio-economic integration will be analyzed in this article. |
| Keywords: | Turkish migrants, Citizenship, Affiliation, Economic Integration |
| JEL: | F22 O15 Z13 |
| Date: | 2011–07–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctl:louvir:2011033&r=mig |
| By: | Oka, Natsuko |
| Abstract: | The June 2010 conflict between the Kyrgyz and Uzbek communities in southern Kyrgyzstan once again demonstrated the complexity of the ethnic question in Central Asia. Little is known, however, about the Uzbeks in Kazakhstan, whose settlements are concentrated in the south of the republic, in areas adjacent to Uzbekistan. What problems did the Kazakhstani Uzbeks face after the collapse of the Soviet Union and how did they seek to address these issues? This paper examines the attempts of Uzbek leaders to secure their share of power in their compact settlements and how they were co-opted or marginalized under the Nazarbaev administration. This paper shows that loyalty to the regime, not migration to the ethnic homeland or political mobilization, is an option available, and also preferable, for this ethnic minority in Kazakhstan. |
| Keywords: | Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Minority ethnic group problems, Immigrants' community, Ethnic minority, Mobilization, Co-optation, Uzbeks |
| Date: | 2011–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jet:dpaper:dpaper286&r=mig |
| By: | Yamada, Miwa |
| Abstract: | Since the year 2000 when the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, human trafficking has been regarded as one of the egregious violations of human rights, and global efforts have been made to eradicate it. The anti-trafficking framework has multiple dimensions, and the way the anti-trafficking framework is constructed influences its impact on the victims and non-trafficked migrants. This paper will analyze the impact of the anti-trafficking framework on the experiences of Burmese victims and non-trafficked migrants in Thailand. I will question the conventional framework of anti-trafficking, and seek to construct a framework more appropriate for addressing victims' actual needs. In conclusion, the anti-trafficking framework should serve the best interest of the victim; still, it should not be one which might adversely affect the interest of the would-be victim who is not identified as a victim according to the law. |
| Keywords: | Myanmar, Thailand, International crime, Legal system, Human rights, Migration, Human trafficking, Anti-trafficking, Framework, Law |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jet:dpaper:dpaper289&r=mig |
| By: | Sarah Widmaier; Jean-Christophe Dumont |
| Abstract: | Increasing international migration and changing immigrant populations in OECD countries make international comparable data on migrant populations essential. These data should be updated regularly to capture a detailed picture of migrant populations. This document presents the first results of the update of the Database on Immigrants in OECD Countries (DIOC) for the years 2005/06. It describes immigrant and emigrant populations by socio-demographic characteristics and labour market outcomes in the OECD, as well as updated “brain drain” figures.<p> In 2005/06, 10.8% of the population in the OECD was foreign-born, representing 91 million persons. Latin American and African migrant populations increased by more than 30% between 2000 and 2005/06, slightly more than that of Asian migrants (27%). Labour market outcomes of immigrants vary by region and country of origin, but they improved significantly since 2000. In many OECD countries, low-educated foreign-born fare better on the labour market than their native-born counterparts, but high-educated migrants tend to have lower employment rates and higher unemployment rates than their native-born counterparts... |
| Keywords: | education, skills, immigrants, international migration, database, DIOC, migrant stocks, emigration rates, emigrants |
| JEL: | F22 J21 J24 J61 O15 |
| Date: | 2011–10–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:elsaab:126-en&r=mig |