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on Economics of Human Migration |
| By: | Auriol, Emmanuelle (TSE, ARQADE and IDEI); Demonsant, Jean-Luc (Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon) |
| Abstract: | The paper aims at studying determinants of schooling in traditional hierarchical societies confronted with an established history of outmigration. In the village, a ruling caste controls local political and religious institutions. For children who do not belong to the ruling caste, migration is a social mobility factor that is enhanced by formal schooling. Since formally educated children tend not to return, the ruling caste seeks to develop family loyalty by choosing religious education instead. The theory hence predicts that the social status of the family has a signicant impact on educational choice. Children from the ruling caste who are sent abroad have a lower probability of being sent to formal school. They are more likely to be sent to Koranic schools that emphasize religious and family values. The theoretical predictions are tested on data from Matam region in Senegal, a region where roughly one of every two children have ever attended school. |
| Keywords: | Schooling, Migration, Social Status, Haalpulaar |
| JEL: | I21 O12 O15 O17 Z13 |
| Date: | 2011–03–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tse:wpaper:24586&r=mig |
| By: | Nuno, Carlos Leitão; Muhammad, Shahbaz |
| Abstract: | This study considers the relationship between immigration and Portuguese tourism demand for the period 1995-2008, using a dynamic panel data approach. The findings indicate that Portuguese tourism increased significantly during the period in accordance with the values expected for a developed country. The regression results show that income, shock of immigration, population, and geographical distance between Portugal and countries of origin are the main determinants of Portuguese tourism. |
| Keywords: | Tourism demand; panel data; immigration and Portugal |
| JEL: | F22 |
| Date: | 2011–11–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:34905&r=mig |
| By: | Ethan G. Lewis |
| Abstract: | Wage evidence suggests that immigrant workers are imperfectly substitutable for native-born workers with similar education and experience. Using U.S. Censuses and recent American Community Survey data, I ask to what extent differences in language skills drive this. I find they are important. I estimate that the response of immigrants’ relative wages to immigration is concentrated among immigrants with poor English skills. Similarly, immigrants who arrive at young ages, as adults, both have stronger English skills and exhibit greater substitutability for native-born workers than immigrants who arrive older. In U.S. markets where Spanish speakers are concentrated, I find a “Spanish-speaking” labor market emerges: in such markets, the return to speaking English is low, and the wages of Spanish and non-Spanish speakers respond most strongly to skill ratios in their own language group. Finally, in Puerto Rico, where almost all workers speak Spanish, I find immigrants and natives are perfect substitutes. The implications for immigrant poverty and regional settlement patterns are analyzed. |
| JEL: | J24 J31 J61 |
| Date: | 2011–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:17609&r=mig |
| By: | Hugo Benítez-Silva (SUNY-Stony Brook); Eva Cárceles-Poveda (SUNY-Stony Brook); Selçuk Eren (Levy Economics Institute of Bard College) |
| Abstract: | Immigration is having an increasingly important effect on the social insurance system in the United States. On the one hand, eligible legal immigrants have the right to eventually receive pension benefits, but also rely on other aspects of the social insurance system such as health care, disability, unemployment insurance, and welfare programs, while most of their savings have direct positive effects on the domestic economy. On the other hand, most undocumented immigrants contribute to the system through taxed wages, but they are not eligible for these programs unless they attain legal status, and a large proportion of their savings translates into remittances, which have no direct effects on the domestic economy. Moreover, a significant percentage of immigrants migrate back to their countries of origin after a relatively short period of time, and their savings while in the US are predominantly in the form of remittances. Therefore, any analysis that tries to understand the impact of immigrant workers on the overall system has to take into account the decisions and events these individuals face throughout their lives, as well as the use of the government programs they are entitled to. We propose a life-cycle OLG model in a General Equilibrium framework of legal and undocumented immigrants’ decisions regarding consumption, savings, labor supply and program participation to analyze their role in the financial sustainability of the system. Our analysis of the effects of potential policy changes, such as giving some undocumented immigrants legal status, shows increases in capital stock, output, consumption, labor productivity, and overall welfare. The effects are relatively small in percentage terms, but considerable given the size of our economy. |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mrr:papers:wp250&r=mig |
| By: | Verena Dill; Uwe Jirjahn; Georgi Tsertvadze |
| Abstract: | Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, this study examines the relationship between immigrant residential segregation and immigrants’ satisfaction with the neighborhood. The estimates show that immigrants living in segregated areas are less satisfied with the neighborhood. This is consistent with the hypothesis that housing discrimination rather than self-selection plays an important role in immigrant residential segregation. Our result holds true even when controlling for other influences such as household income and quality of the dwelling. It also holds true in fixed effects estimates that account for unobserved time-invariant influences. |
| Keywords: | Immigrant Residential Segregation, Housing Discrimination, Self-Segregation, Neighborhood Satisfaction |
| JEL: | J15 J61 R23 R30 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp410&r=mig |
| By: | Guido Friebel; Juan Miguel Gallego; Mariapia Mendola |
| Abstract: | We investigate how emigration flows from a developing region are affected by xenophobic violence at destination. Our empirical analysis is based on a unique survey among more than 1000 households collected in Mozambique in summe 2008, a few months after a series of xenophobic attacks in South Africa killed dozens and displaced thousands of immigrants from neighbouring countries. We estimate migration intentions of Mozambicans before and after the attacks, controlling for the characteristics of households and previous migration behaviour. Using a placebo period, we show that other things equal, the migration intention of household heads decreases from 37 to 33 percent. The sensitivity of migration intentions to violence is larger for household heads with many children younger than 15 years, decreasing the migration intention by 11 percentage points. Most importantly, the sensitivity of migration intentions is highest for those household heads with many young children whose families have no access to social networks. For these household heads, the intention falls by 15 percentage points. Social networks provide insurance against the consequences young children suffer in case the household head would be harmed by xenophobic violence and consequently could not provide for the family. |
| Keywords: | violence, risk, migration, household behaviour, Mozambique |
| JEL: | O1 R2 J6 D1 |
| Date: | 2011–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mib:wpaper:213&r=mig |
| By: | Albornoz-Crespo, Facundo; Cabrales, Antonio; Hauk, Esther |
| Abstract: | Immigration is an important problem in many societies, and it has wide-ranging eects on the educational systems of host countries. There is a now a large empirical literature, but very little theoretical work on this topic. We introduce a model of family immigration in a framework where school quality and student outcomes are determined endogenously. This allows us to explain the selection of immigrants in terms of parental motivation and the policies which favor a positive selection. Also, we can study the eect of immigration on the school system and how school quality may self-reinforce immigrants' and natives' choices. |
| Keywords: | education; immigrant sorting; immigration; parental involvement; school resources |
| JEL: | I20 I21 I28 J24 J61 |
| Date: | 2011–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:8653&r=mig |
| By: | Elena AMBROSETTI (Universir… La Sapienza, Roma); Eralba CELA (Universit… Politecnica delle Marche, Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Sociali); Tineke FOKKEMA (Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI)) |
| Abstract: | Whereas most research on remittances focuses on first-generation migrants, the aim of this paper is to investigate the remitting behaviour of the host country-born children of migrants - the second generation - in various European cities. Some important studies found that migrant transnationalism is not only a phenomenon for the first generation, but also apply to the second and higher generations, through, among other things, family visits, elder care, and remittances. At the same time, the maintenance of a strong ethnic identity in the 'host' society does not necessarily mean that second-generation migrants have strong transnational ties to their 'home' country. ;;The data used in this paper is from "The Integration of the European Second Generation" (TIES) project. The survey collected information on approximately 6,250 individuals aged 18-35 with at least one migrant parent from Morocco, Turkey or former Yugoslavia, in 15 European cities, regrouped in 8 'countries'. For the purpose of this paper, only analyses for Austria (Linz and Vienna) Switzerland (Basle and Zurich); Germany (Berlin and Frankfurt); France (Paris and Strasbourg); the Netherlands (Amsterdam and Rotterdam) Spain (Barcelona and Madrid); and Sweden (Stockholm) will be presented.;;To study the remitting behaviour of the second-generation Moroccans, Turks and former Yugoslavs residing in these 13 European cities, we will start with descriptive analyses (prevalence, amount), followed by logistic (multinomial) regression on the likelihood and amount of remittance. We are particularly interested in the following question: Are the second-generation remitters more driven by altruism or by self-interest? If altruism is the main driving force, we can expect that 'emotional attachment' factors (e.g., presence of parents in 'home' country, strong feelings to the country of origin or ethnic group of the parents, high intensity of cultural orientation towards the country of origin of the parents) will be the main predictors of the remitting behaviour, while factors like 'investment in parents' country of birth' and 'return intention' will be more central if second-generation migrants remit for self-interested reasons. |
| Keywords: | European countries, migration, remittances, second generation |
| JEL: | F22 F24 |
| Date: | 2011–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:anc:wpaper:368&r=mig |
| By: | Marina Murat |
| Abstract: | This paper uses data from PISA 2006 on science, mathematics and reading to analyse immigrant school gaps – negative difference between immigrants’ and natives’ scores - and the structural features of educational systems in two adjacent countries, Italy and France, with similar migration inflows and with similar schooling institutions, based on tracking. Our results show that tracking and school specific programs matter; in both countries, the school system upholds a separation between students with different backgrounds and ethnicities. Residential segregation or discrimination seem also to be at work, especially in France. Given the existing school model, a teaching support in mathematics and science in France and in reading in Italy would help immigrant students to converge to natives’ standards. |
| Keywords: | International migration; educational systems; PISA |
| JEL: | F22 I21 |
| Date: | 2011–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mod:recent:074&r=mig |
| By: | Rickard Sandell (IMDEA Social Sciences Institute) |
| Abstract: | This paper introduces the idea that the network structure that emerges from a foreign-born population's internal migration process changes the conditions for international immigration. The idea is tested by using data from the period between 1998 and 2008 about virtually all internal and international migration events in Spain. The findings show that internal migration changes the intensity and the quality content of immigrant social capital transfers, with both positive and negative ramifications for subsequent network-driven international migration. The effect of internal migration was particularly influential in localities with no prior direct international immigration experience. The findings also revealed a synergistic effect between the two migration processes - high levels of internal migration lead to elevated overall international immigration levels. Almost all research focusing on network-driven migration treats the causal mechanism producing the network effect in an endogenous way. For example, it is commonly claimed that increasing international immigration is the result of an expansion of the immigrant network due to past international immigration. My findings constitute explicit evidence that network-driven international migration is also determined by exogenous factors such as the second-order migration of past migrants in the destination. |
| Keywords: | international; internal; domestic; migration; immigration; cumulative causation; chain migration; social networks |
| Date: | 2011–11–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imd:wpaper:wp2011-20&r=mig |
| By: | Barbara Dietz (Osteuropa-Institut, Regensburg (Institut for East European Studies)); Kseniia Gatskova (Osteuropa-Institut, Regensburg (Institut for East European Studies)); Achim Schmillen (Osteuropa-Institut, Regensburg (Institut for East European Studies)) |
| Abstract: | Internal migration flows in Kazakhstan are of high social and political relevance but political and public attention has primarily been devoted to external movements. This paper presents the main descriptive results of a new household survey on migration and remittances in Kazakhstan which was conducted in four cities (Almaty, Astana, Karaganda and Pavlodar) between October and December 2010. It summarizes the survey’s methodology, gives an overview over the basic characteristics of respondents, illustrates migration experiences on the individual and the household level and compares migrants and non-migrants. Furthermore, the prevalence of remittances and attitudes towards migration are discussed. |
| Keywords: | Kazakhstan, data analysis, regional migration, remittances |
| JEL: | C81 F24 R23 |
| Date: | 2011–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ost:wpaper:304&r=mig |
| By: | Cremer, Helmuth (Toulouse School of Economics); Goulão, Catarina (Toulouse School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | A wide variety of social protection systems coexist within the EU. Some member states provide social insurance that is of Beveridgean inspiration (with universal and more or less flat benefits), while others offer a system that is mainly Bismarckian (with benefits related to past contributions). Labor mobility raises concerns about the sustainability of the most generous and redistributive (Beveridgean) insurance systems. We address this issue in a two-country setting, where individuals differ in mobility cost (attachment to their native country). A Bismarckian insurance system is not affected by migration while a Beveridgean one is. Our results suggest that the race-to-the-bottom affecting tax rates may be more important under Beveridge-Beveridge competition than under Beveridge-Bismarck competition. Finally, we study the strategic choice of the type of social protection. We show that Bismarckian governments may find it beneficial to adopt a Beveridgean insurance system. |
| JEL: | H23 H70 |
| Date: | 2011–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tse:wpaper:24008&r=mig |
| By: | Aslihan Arslan; J. Edward Taylor |
| Abstract: | Whole-household migration potentially can alter the results of studies on income inequality based on panel data if it selects on household income. We model whole-household migration and its impacts on income inequality and poverty using a unique, nationally representative household panel data set from rural Mexico. Households that participate in whole-household migration and those who do not differ significantly in terms of observable characteristics; however, analyses of income and poverty based on the remaining sample are not necessarily biased. This finding is similar to those in previous research on the effects of attrition on panel data studies. We also analyze the changes in inequality and poverty due to whole-household migration and over time correcting for the effects of attrition. Our results support the migration diffusion hypothesis and underline the importance of paying attention to selective attrition in panel data studies on income distribution and poverty – especially in countries and regions with high migration rates |
| Keywords: | Attrition, panel data, income inequality, poverty, joint migration, Mexico |
| JEL: | C23 O15 |
| Date: | 2011–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kie:kieliw:1742&r=mig |
| By: | Kangni Kpodar; Maelan Le Goff |
| Abstract: | Aid has been for decades an important source of financing for developing countries, but more recently remittance flows have increased rapidly and are beginning to dwarf aid flows. This paper investigates how remittances affect aid flows, and how this relationship varies depending on the channel of transmission from remittances to aid. Buoyant remittances could reduce aid needs when human capital improves and private investment takes off. Absent these, aid flows could still drop as remittances may dampen donors’ incentive to scale up aid. Concurrently, remittances could be positively associated with aid if migrants can influence aid policy in donor countries. Using an instrumental variable approach with panel data for a sample of developing countries from 1975-2005, the baseline results show that remittances actually increase aid dependency. However, a refined model controlling for the channels of transmission from remittances to aid reveals that remittances lead to lower aid dependency when they are invested in human and physical capital rather than consumed. |
| Keywords: | Aid flows , Capital accumulation , Developing countries , Development assistance , Economic models , Human capital , Workers remittances , |
| Date: | 2011–10–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:11/246&r=mig |
| By: | Luisa Gagliardi |
| Abstract: | What is the effect of an increase in the stock of human capital on the innovative performance of a local economy? This paper tests the hypothesis of a causal link between an increase in the average stock of human capital, due to skilled migration inflows, and the innovative performance of local areas using British data. The paper examines the role of human capital externalities as crucial determinant of local productivity and innovative performance, suggesting that the geographically bound nature of these valuable knowledge externalities can be challenged by the mobility of skilled individuals. Skilled migration becomes a crucial channel of knowledge diffusion broadening the geographical scope of human capital externalities and fostering local innovative performance. |
| Keywords: | Innovation, migration, education, externalities |
| JEL: | O15 O31 I2 H22 |
| Date: | 2011–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:sercdp:0097&r=mig |
| By: | Deborah A. Cobb-Clarke; Mathias Sinning; Steven Stillman |
| Abstract: | We use 2009 Programme of International Student Assessment (PISA) data to link institutional arrangements in OECD countries to the disparity in reading, math, and science test scores for migrant and native-born students. We find that achievement gaps are larger for those migrant youths who arrive later and for those who do not speak the test language at home. Institutional arrangements often serve to mitigate the achievement gaps of some migrant students while leaving unaffected or exacerbating those of others. For example, earlier school starting ages help migrant youths in some cases, but by no means in all. Limited tracking on ability appears beneficial for migrants' relative chievement, while complete tracking and a large private school sector appear detrimental. Migrant students' achievement relative to their native-born peers suffers as educational spending and teachers' salaries increase, but is improved when examination is a component of the process for evaluating teachers. |
| JEL: | F22 |
| Date: | 2011–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:acb:cbeeco:2011-565&r=mig |
| By: | Christian Dustmann (University College London and CReAM); Ian Preston (University College London and CReAM) |
| Abstract: | We discuss approaches to estimating the effect that immigration has on wages of native workers which assume a three-level CES model, where immigrants and natives are allowed to be imperfect substitutes within an age-education cell, and predict the wage impact based on estimates of the elasticities of substitution at each level. We argue that this approach is sensitive to immigrants downgrading at arrival, and we illustrate the possible bias in estimating the elasticity of substitution between immigrants and natives. |
| Date: | 2011–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:1121&r=mig |
| By: | Murat Genc (University of Otago, New Zealand); Masood Gheasi (VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands); Peter Nijkamp (VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands); Jacques Poot (University of Waikato, New Zealand) |
| Abstract: | Since the early 1990s many empirical studies have been conducted on the impact of international migration on international trade, predominantly from the host country perspective. Because most studies have adopted broadly the same specification, namely a log-linear gravity model of export and import flows augmented with the logarithm of the stock of immigrants from specific source countries as an additional explanatory variable, the resulting elasticities are broadly comparable and yield a set of estimates that is well suited to meta-analysis. We therefore compile and analyze in this paper the distribution of immigration elasticities of imports and exports across 48 studies that yielded 300 observations. The results show that immigration complements rather than substitutes for trade flows between host and origin countries. Correcting for heterogeneity and publication bias, an increase in the number of immigrants by 10 percent may be expected to increase the volume of trade on average by about 1.5 percent. However, the impact is lower for trade in homogeneous goods. Over time, the growing stock of immigrants decreases the elasticities. The estimates are affected by the choice of some covariates, the nature of the data (cross-section or panel) and the estimation technique. Elasticities vary between countries in ways that cannot be fully explained by study characteristics; trade restrictions and immigration policies matter for the impact of immigration on trade. The migrant elasticity of imports is larger than that of exports in about half the countries considered, but the publication bias and heterogeneity-corrected elasticity is slightly larger for exports than for imports. |
| Keywords: | international trade, imports, exports, immigration, gravity model, meta-analysis |
| JEL: | F16 F22 |
| Date: | 2011–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nor:wpaper:2011020&r=mig |
| By: | Katsushi S. Imai (Department of Economics, School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester, UK); Raghav Gaiha (Faculty of Management Studies, University of Delhi, India); Abdilahi Ali (School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester, UK); Nidhi Kaicker (Faculty of Management Studies, University of Delhi, India) |
| Abstract: | The present study re-examines the effects of remittances on growth of GDP per capita using annual panel data for 24 Asia and Pacific countries. The results generally confirm that remittance flows have been beneficial to economic growth. However, our analysis also shows that the volatility of capital inflows such as remittances and FDI is harmful to economic growth. This means that, while remittances contribute to better economic performance, they are also a source of output shocks. Finally, remittances contribute to poverty reduction – especially through their direct effects. Migration and remittances are thus potentially a valuable complement to broad-based development efforts. |
| Keywords: | remittance, economic growth, volatility, poverty, Asia |
| JEL: | C23 F24 I32 O15 O47 O53 |
| Date: | 2011–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kob:dpaper:dp2011-30&r=mig |