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on Economics of Human Migration |
| By: | Jonathan Halket; Santhanagopalan Vasudev |
| Abstract: | In a Bewley model with endogenous price volatility, home ownership and mobility across locations and jobs, we assess the contribution of financial constraints, housing illiquidities and house price risk to home ownership over the life cycle. The model can explain the rise in home ownership and fall in mobility over the life cycle. While some households rent due to borrowing constraints in the mortgage market, factors that effect propensities to save and move, such as risky house values and transactions costs, are more important determinants of the ownership rate. |
| Date: | 2012–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esx:essedp:712&r=mig |
| By: | Russo, Giuseppe; Salsano, Francesco |
| Abstract: | We study the effect of electoral systems on openness to immigration. According to the literature, in our model plurality systems induce a rent-seeking policymaker to get re-election through locally provided public goods rather than through transfers, whereas the opposite occurs under proportional representation. In both systems policymakers can use immigration to enlarge the tax base and retrieve increased rents after compensating the decisive majority. However, this mechanism is more effective when the increased tax base does not flow to non-voting immigrants through transfers. Therefore, plurality electoral systems generate more openness to immigration. We find support for this result on a cross-section of 34 OECD countries. In addition, we show that mass immigration \ might incentivize policymakers to get re-election throug public goods rather than transfers also in proportional electoral systems. |
| Keywords: | electoral systems; rent extraction; immigration |
| JEL: | F22 H40 D78 D72 H00 |
| Date: | 2012–05–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:38497&r=mig |
| By: | Werner Eichhorst (IZA); Corrado Giulietti (IZA); Martin Guzi (IZA); Michael J. Kendzia (IZA) |
| Abstract: | Based on a study conducted for the European Parliament, Bonn 2011 (133 pages) |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izarrs:40&r=mig |
| By: | Binci, Michele (University of Florence); Giannelli, Gianna Claudia (University of Florence) |
| Abstract: | This paper focuses on the effects of domestic and international remittances on children's well-being. Using data from the 1992/93 and 1997/98 Vietnam Living Standards Surveys, we investigate average school attendance and child labour in remittance recipient and non-recipient households. The results of our cross-section and panel analyses indicate that remittances increase schooling and reduce child labour. Although international remittances are found to have a stronger beneficial impact than domestic remittances in the cross-section analysis, the panel analysis reverses this result, showing that the only significant impact stems from domestic remittances. |
| Keywords: | migration, remittances, schooling, child labour, panel data, Vietnam |
| JEL: | F22 I39 J13 O15 |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6523&r=mig |
| By: | Grignon, Michel (McMaster University); Owusu, Yaw (McMaster University); Sweetman, Arthur (McMaster University) |
| Abstract: | Health workforce shortages in developed countries are perceived to be central drivers of health professionals' international migration, one ramification being negative impacts on developing nations' healthcare delivery. After a descriptive international overview, selected economic issues are discussed for developed and developing countries. Health labour markets' unique characteristics imply great complexity in developed economies involving government intervention, licensure, regulation, and (quasi-)union activity. These features affect migrants' decisions, economic integration, and impacts on the receiving nations' health workforce and society. Developing countries sometimes educate citizens in expectation of emigration, while others pursue international treaties in attempts to manage migrant flows. |
| Keywords: | migration, health professionals, international medical graduates |
| JEL: | J61 I15 I18 |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6517&r=mig |
| By: | Amelie Constant (IZA, DIW DC, Georgetown University); Bienvenue N. Tien (DIW DC) |
| Abstract: | Report prepared for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), Bonn 2011 (39 pages) |
| Date: | 2011–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izarrs:41&r=mig |
| By: | Jaap Dronkers (Maastricht University); Manon de Heus |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the scientific literacy of immigrant children in a cross-classified multilevel framework. Using data from the 2006 PISA survey, features of immigrant children's countries of origin, countries of destination, and communities (the specific origin-destination combination) are taken into account in order to explain macro-level differences in immigrants' educational performance. Our sample consists of 9414 15-year-old immigrant children, originating from 46 different countries, living in 16 Western countries of destination. Results show that differences in scientific performance between immigrant children from different origins and between children living in different countries of destination cannot be fully explained by compositional differences. Contextual attributes of origin countries, destination countries, and communities matter as well. It is for instance shown that the better educational performance of immigrant children living in traditional immigration receiving countries cannot be explained by these children's favourable background characteristics. The political and economic features of the origin countries did not influence the science performance, in contrast with the origin countries' prevailing religions. |
| Keywords: | immigration, origin, destination, educational performance, PISA. |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:1213&r=mig |
| By: | McKenzie, David (World Bank); Theoharides, Caroline (University of Michigan); Yang, Dean (University of Michigan) |
| Abstract: | We use an original panel dataset of migrant departures from the Philippines to identify the responsiveness of migrant numbers and wages to GDP shocks in destination countries. We find a large significant elasticity of migrant numbers to GDP shocks at destination, but no significant wage response. This is consistent with binding minimum wages for migrant labor. This result implies that labor market imperfections that make international migration attractive also make migrant flows more sensitive to global business cycles. Difference-in-differences analysis of a minimum wage change for maids confirms that minimum wages bind and demand is price sensitive without these distortions. |
| Keywords: | international migration, migrant demand, labor output elasticity, minimum wages |
| JEL: | O12 J23 F22 |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6498&r=mig |
| By: | Combes, Pierre-Philippe (GREQAM, University of Aix-Marseille); Duranton, Gilles (University of Toronto); Gobillon, Laurent (INED, France); Roux, Sébastien (DARES French Ministry of Labour) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides descriptive evidence about the distribution of wages and skills in denser and less dense employment areas in France. We confirm that on average, workers in denser areas are more skilled. There is also strong over-representation of workers with particularly high and low skills in denser areas. These features are consistent with patterns of migration including negative selection of migrants to less dense areas and positive selection towards denser areas. Nonetheless migration, even in the long run, accounts for little of the skill differences between denser and less dense areas. Finally, we find marked differences across age groups and some suggestions that much of the skill differences across areas can be explained by differences between occupational groups rather than within. |
| Keywords: | skill distribution, wage distribution, sorting |
| JEL: | J31 J61 R12 R23 |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6501&r=mig |
| By: | Jaap Dronkers (Maastricht University); Manon de Heus; Mark Levels (Maastricht University) |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the extent to which educational system features of destination and origin countries can explain differences in immigrant children's educational achievement. Using data from the 2006 PISA survey, we performed cross- classified multilevel analysis on the science performance of 9.279 15-year-old immigrant children, originating from 35 different countries, living in 16 Western countries of destination. We take into account a number of educational system characteristics of the countries of destination and origin, in order to measure the importance of differentiation, standardization, and the availability of resources. Our results show that differences in educational achievement between immigrants cannot be fully attributed to individual characteristics. Educational system characteristics of countries of destination and origin are also meaningful. At the origin level, the length of compulsory education positively influences educational performance. This is especially the case for immigrant pupils who attended education in their countries of origin. Results show that at the destination level, teacher shortage negatively affects immigrant pupil's scientific performance. Moreover, immigrant children perform less in highly stratified systems than they do in moderately differentiated or comprehensive ones. Especially immigrant children with highly educated parents perform worse in highly stratified systems. |
| Keywords: | immigration, origin, destination, educational system, educational performance,PISA. |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:1212&r=mig |
| By: | Tengeh, Robertson Khan /RKT; Ballard, Harry / HB; Slabbert, Andre /AS |
| Abstract: | Drawing a sample of 135 successful African immigrant-owned businesses, this paper sets out to investigate how their owners acquired the necessary capital for start-up and growth thereafter. The paper was designed within the quantitative and qualitative research paradigms, in which a triangulation of three methods was utilised to collect and analyse the data. The paper revealed that although African immigrants are characteristically at the disadvantage when it comes to accessing capital from formal financial institutions, this does not stop them from pursuing entrepreneurial activities. At the start-up stage, they typically resort to personal savings, business credit, family credit, and loans from informal financial institutions. According to the ability to raise capital, we found that a varying range of start-up capital was utilised, which tended to vary across the different ethnic groups studied. Once started, we found that the sources of additional finance available to these immigrants did not change significantly. They conventionally turned to friends, co-ethnics and self-help financial associations to ‘feed’ their need for further funding. |
| Keywords: | business start-up; immigrant-owned businesses; African immigrants; finance; capital; and South Africa |
| JEL: | M1 A10 M13 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:38405&r=mig |
| By: | Chen, Yiu Por (Vincent) (University of Sheffield) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides a systematic analysis of the way shifts in property utilization rights in China induced another sequence of institutional changes that led to the rise of rural-urban labor migration from 1980 to 1984, a critical period in the country's market transition. I show that the 1980s' Household Responsibility System (HRS), which brought family farming back from the communal system, endowed rural households not only with land use rights, but also with de facto labor allocation rights. These shifts in property relations promoted a growth in agricultural market size as well as the emergence of intraprovincial non-hukou rural-urban migration, which may have made labor retention policies such as the small township strategy ineffective, and may have given the government an incentive to deregulate its subsequent labor market policy. |
| Keywords: | rural-urban migration, labor mobility, undocumented labor, institutional change |
| JEL: | J43 J61 R23 R52 R58 |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6521&r=mig |
| By: | Danielle Hay (Development Policy Centre, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University); Stephen Howes (Development Policy Centre, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University) |
| Abstract: | The Australian Government introduced the Pacific Seasonal Worker Pilot Scheme (PSWPS) in 2008 to allow Pacific Islanders to fill seasonal labour shortages in the horticulture industry, and announced in December 2011 that the scheme would be made permanent. Take-up of the scheme is increasing but has been very low. As of the end of March 2012, only 1,100 PSWPS workers have arrived since the scheme's commencement. This study tries to explain why the PSWPS has not employed more Pacific workers. It distinguishes between different hypotheses that could explain the poor outcome, and uses quantitative and qualitative analysis to test each hypothesis, including a survey of growers. The study finds a number of reasons for the low take-up. Growers are largely satisfied with their current labour supply, in terms of both quantity and quality: 93 percent of growers interviewed said they had no trouble finding labour, and 81 percent were satisfied with the quality of their existing labour force. The scheme is not well known: half the growers surveyed had simply not heard of the scheme, and most of those who had lacked information about it. The scheme also suffers from perceptions of high levels of risk and costs, including excessive red tape. Despite its slow start, PSWPS might still succeed on the basis of the productivity gains it has already shown it can deliver. But this is by no means assured: even growers who are unhappy with their current labour supply arrangements are reluctant to try the PSWPS. For the scheme to expand, the Australian Government will need to promote the scheme much more vigorously, and reduce the scheme's financial and compliance costs. The Government also needs to attend to illegal horticultural labour practices, and tackle the booming working holiday visa category. Most growers now rely mainly on backpackers, and their numbers have increased rapidly in recent years: we estimate the number of backpackers working on farms increased from 13,000 in 2001-02 to 37,000 in 2007-08. In particular, the special preference which horticulture receives under the working holiday visa category should be removed. The policy challenges involved in making the PSWPS work should not be underestimated. Other avenues should also be explored for promoting Pacific migration, including adoption of New Zealand's quota-based Pacific permanent migration schemes. |
| Keywords: | migration, Pacific |
| JEL: | F22 N37 O15 R23 |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:een:devpol:1217&r=mig |
| By: | Klaus F. Zimmermann (IZA); Martin Kahanec (IZA); Corrado Giulietti (IZA); Martin Guzi (IZA); Alan Barrett (ESRI); Bertrand Maître (ESRI) |
| Abstract: | Report prepared for the European Commission, Bonn 2012 (216 pages) |
| Date: | 2012–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izarrs:43&r=mig |
| By: | RETAILLE Denis; WALTHER Olivier |
| Abstract: | To date, geographers have conceptualised the increased mobility of contemporary societies in terms of conflicting or complementary relationships between spaces of places and spaces of flows. These approaches are, however, influenced by a “sedentary” vision of geography, in which mobility is conceived of as movement between relatively fixed locations. Building on earlier work, this article offers a conceptual alternative to this view in which places are predominantly defined by the crossing of flows and are defined as mobile as well. Our aim is to show how the model of the mobile space, originally developed in Sahelian Africa, could be possibly applied to the globalized world. Our model is based on a paradigm in which mobility is considered as the primary driving force of the production of geographic space. This allows us to reconsider both the production of space through movement and the control of space through borders. The paper argues that the way Sahelian societies comprehend space shares similarities with new currents in the globalized world, most notably because mobility and uncertainty have become the foundation of contemporary social organization. |
| Keywords: | space; mobility; Sahel; West Africa; geography; flows; networks |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:irs:cepswp:2012-24&r=mig |
| By: | Jellal, Mohamed |
| Abstract: | This paper considers the formation of the urban formal ector wages in the presence of rural migration in a collective bargaining framework. We show in particular that the restoration of full employment in the presence of an informal sector can be implemented through a policy of subsidy depends on the preferences of the union and its bargaining power wage. It also depends on the level of rural sector development. |
| Keywords: | Migration; Informal sector; Formal sector; Collective bargaining ; Unemployment;Policies ;Morocco |
| JEL: | O17 J51 J61 R23 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:38365&r=mig |