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on Economics of Human Migration |
| By: | Benjamin Elsner (Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)); Gaia Narciso (Trinity College Dublin); Jacco J. J. � Thijssen (University of York) |
| Abstract: | Diaspora networks provide information to future migrants and influence both their decision to migrate and their success in the host country. While the existing literature explains the effect of networks on migration decisions through the size of the migrant community, we show that the quality of the network is an equally important determinant. We argue that networks that are more integrated in the society of the host country can give more accurate information about job prospects to future migrants. In a decision model with imperfect signalling we show that migrants with access to a better network are more likely to make the right decision - they migrate only if they gain - and they migrate earlier. We test these predictions empirically using data on recent Mexican migrants to the US, and exploit the geographic diffusion of Mexicans since the 1980s as well as the settlement of immigrants that came during the Bracero program in the 1950s to instrument for the quality of networks. The results provide strong evidence that connections to a better-integrated network lead to better outcomes after migration. Yet we find no evidence that the quality of the network affects the timing of migration. |
| JEL: | F22 J15 J61 |
| Date: | 2014–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:1403&r=mig |
| By: | Taha, N.; Messkoub, M.; Siegmann, K.A. |
| Abstract: | This paper reviews the literature on the portability of social security entitlements for migrant workers, who moved along North-North, South- North, and South-South migration flows. Portability of social security entitlements is the ability of migrant workers to preserve, maintain, and transfer benefits of social security programmes spatially and socially, among their families. The paper uses a gender perspective where possible as part of an intersectional approach. We find that North-North migrants have the best access to social protection and portability, due to generally higher income of migrants, the inter-governmental agreements and developed administrative capacities in the North. There is limited coordination between South/origin and North/destination countries on the portability of social entitlements (such as pensions) of South-North migrants. In general, these migrants are dealing with immigration discourses and discriminatory policies that treat them as second class citizens, even as they are providing much-needed labour to their host countries and contribute to their economy. This hinders bilateral agreements on social security portability. South-South migrants are seeing new regional mechanisms addressing portability. However, beyond legal agreements, many of the impacts of these mechanisms are not yet known. Knowledge gaps in the landscape of research on the portability of social security entitlements for migrant workers that future research should address relate to internal migration and South-South migration, the role of gender and other social identities, migrants' occupations as well as the legality of workers' immigration status. |
| Keywords: | Portability, migrant workers, migration, social security, social protection, research gaps, gender |
| Date: | 2013–11–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ems:euriss:50162&r=mig |
| By: | Voorend, K. |
| Abstract: | When the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social (CCSS), the flagship institution of Costa Rica’s ‘exceptional’ -solidary and universal- social policy regime, entered in financial crisis in 2011, the already difficult social integration of Nicaraguan immigrants in Costa Rica became even more critical. Faced with a general deterioration of social services, a perception that immigrants are threatening the availability of jobs and social services for the national population, and voices that advocate the creation of limits to social rights and access to social benefits, this essay analyzes the political reaction of the State, specifically whether it chooses to limit immigrants’ access to healthcare. In a discussion on state sovereignty, universalism and social rights, this article argues that immigration control responsibilities are transferred to social policy institutions, “shifting in” migration control and that the principle of universalism of Costa Rica’s social policy regime does not necessarily apply to parts of the immigrant population, both irregular and regular. |
| Keywords: | citizenship, migration, migration control, social policy, universalismo |
| Date: | 2013–09–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ems:euriss:41448&r=mig |
| By: | Magnus Hatlebakk |
| Abstract: | We study the deep determinants of occupational choice, with a focus on what appears to be a particularly profitable pathway out of poverty, overseas labor migration. To what extent is this choice constrained by access to economic resources, in contrast to variation in preferences, or perceived costs of migration? We use previous migration choices as an indicator of preferences for migration. We find that early in-migrants to the frontier area we study have more labor migrants today. This indicates that in-migrants need a generation to settle in the new location. Present occupational choice is also restricted by predetermined landholdings. |
| Keywords: | Livelihood strategies, poverty trap |
| JEL: | J24 J61 O15 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:chm:wpaper:wp2013-2&r=mig |
| By: | Amandine AUBRY (UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES)); Michal BURZYŃSKI (UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES) and Poznan University of Economics) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we investigate the impact of global migration on the welfare of native workers in the OECD countries. We develop a multi-country, general equilibrium model with trade and migration. Labor is assumed to be heterogeneous, whereas the wages, prices, trade flows, the mass of varieties of goods and the TFP levels are endogenized. The issue of the redistribution is also examined. The main result of this paper is the quantification of the welfare effects of migration for different groups of workers. These outcomes depend substantially on the size and the structure of migration in the OECD countries, and vary with educational levels of migrants. We consider the overall effect as a sum of three channels: the market size, wage and TFP effects. The key finding is that the market size effect plays a vital role in determining the benefits and costs of migration. Its consequences are prone to spillovers due to the international trade. Analyzing the shocks on the stock and the 1990-2000 flow of migrants, we discuss different patterns of the macroeconomic and welfare impacts of non-OECD (South-North) and OECD (North-North) migration. Nearly all the OECD countries benefit from the South-North migration. On the contrary, there are only few economies which are gaining from the North-North migration. Finally, we confirm a common belief that migration increases inequality between poor and wealthy citizens of the OECD countries, although this effect is mainly due to the intra-OECD emigration. |
| Keywords: | migration, market size, inequalities, general equilibrium, brain drain |
| JEL: | C68 F22 J24 |
| Date: | 2013–12–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctl:louvir:2013035&r=mig |
| By: | Ehrhart, Helene; Le Goff, Maelan; Rocher?, Emmanuel; Singh, Raju Jan |
| Abstract: | This paper aims at assessing the impact of migration on export performance and more particularly the effect of African migrants on African trade. Relying on a new data set on international bilateral migration recently released by the World Bank spanning from 1980 to 2010, the authors estimate a gravity model that deals satisfactorily with endogeneity. The results first indicate that the pro-trade effect of migration is higher for African countries, a finding that can be partly explained by the substitution between migrants and institutions (the existence of migrant networks compensating for weak contract enforcement, for instance). This positive association is particularly important for the exports of differentiated products, suggesting that migrants also play an important role in reducing information costs. Moreover, focusing on intra-African trade, the pro-trade effect of African migrants is larger when migrants are established in a more geographically and ethnically distant country. All these findings highlight the ability of African migrants to help overcome some of the main barriers to African trade: the weakness of institutions, information costs, cultural differences, and lack of trust. |
| Keywords: | Economic Theory&Research,Population Policies,Free Trade,Trade Policy,Emerging Markets |
| Date: | 2014–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6739&r=mig |
| By: | Dekker, Bram (UNU-MERIT / MGSoG); Siegel, Melissa (UNU-MERIT / MGSoG) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the relationship between transnational practices and integration by testing whether they are substitutes or complements. For this purpose, we use a multidimensional transnationalism index. The index includes three dimensions of transnational practices, including migrants' economic, political, and socio-cultural transnational practices. These three dimensions and their aggregated index are then compared to both structural and socio-cultural integration. The analysis is based on data from 815 migrant households in the Netherlands, gathered among first generation migrants from Morocco, Burundi, Ethiopia and Afghanistan. Our results show that both structural and socio-cultural integration provides tentative support for the complementary typology. Lack of resources is significantly associated with transnationalism, but does not act as a moderator of the integration-transnationalism relationship. Among the four migrant groups studied in this paper, being multi-dimensionally transnational is associated with better structural and socio-cultural integration showing a complementary relationship. Implications for policy are discussed. |
| Keywords: | migration, transnational migrants, integration, the Netherlands, transnational practices |
| JEL: | F22 Z1 |
| Date: | 2013–12–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:unumer:2013071&r=mig |
| By: | Campillo Carrete, B. |
| Abstract: | The objective of this paper is to provide an overview and a preliminary discussion of policy and academic works addressing South-South Migration (SSM) in depth. In the first part, three development categorizations used by international agencies to estimate migration flows (provided by the World Bank, UN Population Division and the UNDP) are addressed, discussing differences in definitions, classification criteria and the resulting country groupings of the South and the North. In the second part, the most salient debates and their alleged relation to development are presented, in relation to the main features of South-South Migration so far identified by academic literature. Given that much of SSM research is expected to represent no more than an extension of former international migration research, and given the former neglect of the significance of South-South Migration, this study stresses the opportunity to rethink the relation between inequality and migration, as well as the need to rethink concepts which were developed under assumptions underlying the study of South-North Migration. It concludes that cross fertilization between approaches based on agency and structure can provide more complex and nuanced interpretations in the study of South-South Migration. |
| Keywords: | South-South migration, women migrants, migration definitions, migration measurement, migration and development, China-Africa migrations |
| Date: | 2013–11–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ems:euriss:50156&r=mig |
| By: | Joakim Ruist (Centre for European Research and University of Gothenburg) |
| Abstract: | When Romania and Bulgaria joined the EU in 2007 Sweden was one of two EU15 countries that did not restrict access to its labor market and welfare systems for Romanian and Bulgarian citizens. This article evaluates the net fiscal contribution in 2011 of Romanian and Bulgarian migrants who arrived in Sweden under this migration regime in 2007-2010. The average net contribution is found to be substantially positive: around 30,000 kronor, or one-sixth of public sector turnover per capita. This result is used to discuss expected corresponding net contributions in other EU15 countries, several of which lifted their restrictions on January 1st, 2014. The United Kingdom and Ireland stand out as two countries that unambiguously have reason to expect even more positive contributions. |
| Keywords: | immigration, welfare benefits, public finances, Romania, Bulgaria, EU |
| JEL: | H20 H50 J61 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:1404&r=mig |
| By: | McGregor, Elaine (UNU-MERIT / MGSoG); Siegel, Melissa (UNU-MERIT / MGSoG) |
| Abstract: | The use of internet technologies in daily life has risen dramatically in recent years, increasing researchers' interest in how social media such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are changing social realities and potentially facilitating innovative research methodologies. As technology and migration are considered prominent drivers of the globalization processes, the increasing interest of migration researchers is unsurprising. Nevertheless, given the relative youth of research in this field, approaches to the topic differ. By taking a step back and viewing the literature from a wide range of disciplines, this paper provides a broad overview of the current state of research on migration and social media in four key areas: 1) the use of social media to trigger and facilitate migration in both positive (networks) and negative ways (human trafficking); 2) the role of social media and migrant integration; 3) the use of social media in diaspora engagement; and 4) the use of social media in conducting migration research. This paper adds to the literature by being the first systematic review of the topic. |
| Keywords: | Social Media, Migration Research, Social Networking Sites, Diaspora Engagement, Integration, Facilitation of Migration |
| JEL: | F22 O15 O33 L86 L82 Q55 |
| Date: | 2013–12–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:unumer:2013068&r=mig |
| By: | Christian Dustmann (University College London) |
| Abstract: | This chapter begins by documenting that temporary migrations are not only very common, but that outmigration of immigrants is selective both in terms of migrants’ individual characteristics and their economic outcomes. We then examine the problems that arise when estimating immigrants’ earnings profiles when outmigration is selective, and discuss the identifying assumptions needed to answer three different questions on immigrants’ earnings careers. We show how better data can help to relax these assumptions, suggest appropriate estimators, and provide an illustration using simulated data. We finally provide an overview of existing papers that use different types of data to address selective outmigration when estimating immigrants’ earnings profiles. |
| Keywords: | migrant selection, outmigration, return migration, earnings profiles |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:1402&r=mig |
| By: | Chakraborty, M. |
| Abstract: | In recent time Delhi has revealed its ambitions as a global city. The consequent need for cheap, casual, migrant labour for maintaining its world-scale ambitions has been highlighted in a lot of literature, particularly in the post Commonwealth Games (CWG) period. The migrant labourers in the informal economy of Delhi are seen as oppressed, particularly if they belong to a subordinated social group, like the Muslim male migrants. However, there is need to examine the homogenization implied by ‘Muslim male migrants’. This research aims to challenge the one-dimensional depiction of Muslim male migrants as ‘victims’. Analysing the narratives of two groups of Muslim migrant men in a South Delhi neighbourhood, this research tries to critically look at stable markers of identity such as ethnicity, gender and class. The research reveals identities as fluid, multiple and relational. The men emerge as complex subjects—not just passive ‘victims’ but capable of asserting agency, often through the strategic mobilisation of their multiple identities. |
| Keywords: | Afghan migrants, Bengali migrants, Delhi, Delhi Master Plan 2021, Muslim men, Right to the City, ethnicity, feminist methodology, informal economy, masculinities, men, migrants, multiple identities, rickshaw-pullers, urban citizenship |
| Date: | 2013–02–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ems:euriss:39089&r=mig |
| By: | Gómez, O. |
| Abstract: | The present literature review aims to provide a panoramic view of the different ways in which the link between climate change and migration has been addressed in the existing literature, building on the recent non-annotated bibliography issued by the International Organization for Migration in December 2012. After a brief introduction of the background and the plurality of methodologies behind academic studies about the connection of the two phenomena, the review identifies four main themes and debates ongoing in the literature, namely: (1) scale and location of the climate induced migration, (2) mechanisms behind its occurrence, (3) emerging recognition of migration as adaptation, not only as an impact, and (4) measures for its management. Gaps in need of further work are divided into areas for analysis and areas for advocacy. Included among the former are more in situ knowledge production, focus on cities and additional research following a differentiated approach— e.g., gendered. Advocacy approaches need to motivate further research, maintaining advances against the stigmatization of migrants. The review is informed by human security ideas, which are presented as buttressing analyses at levels different from the national, facilitating joined-up thinking and providing a flexible framework to accommodate multiple layers of climate- migration interaction. |
| Keywords: | Global environmental change, human mobility, adaptation, environmental refugees, displacement, human security, human security methodology |
| Date: | 2013–11–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ems:euriss:50161&r=mig |
| By: | Chrysovalantis VASILAKIS (UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES)) |
| Abstract: | This paper takes advantage of the availability of rich panel data on the mobility of talented football players, and the performances of national leagues and teams to quantify the effect of the reduction in mobility restrictions, the 1995 Bosman rule, on global efficiency and cross-country inequality in football. I built a micro-founded model endogenizing migration decisions, inequality and training; I estimated its structural parameters; and I used numerical simulations to compare actual data with a counterfactual no-Bosman trajectory. I found that the Bosman rule (i) increased global efficiency in football by 20% (ii) increased cross-leagues inequality in performance by 25% in terms of output, and (iii) decreased inequality across national teams by 70% .Countries from Africa, South (except Argentina and Brazil) and Central America have produced more talents and benefitted from brain-gain type effects. My results also show that this brain-gain mechanism is the major source of efficiency gains. However, it plays only a minor role in explaining the rising inequality. |
| Keywords: | International Migration, Brain Drain, Globalization, Inequality, European Football |
| JEL: | F22 J61 |
| Date: | 2014–01–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctl:louvir:2014001&r=mig |
| By: | Donzelli, S. |
| Abstract: | In the last two decades, a novel interdisciplinary field of inquiry has emerged under the label of Border Studies. This area of research has mainly reflected on the nature and functionalities of borders and boundaries, bringing up discussions on space, politics, economics, and culture. In particular, Border Studies have significantly contributed to the understanding of the role of borders in shaping migratory movements. In order to map this very large field of investigation, numerous state of the art reviews have been published. However, none of the reviews encountered has addressed the following issues: first, the main assumptions informing different theoretical perspectives in Border Studies; second, the application of Border Studies to analyse human mobility in the Global South. Thus, in order to participate in producing a more complete understanding of the knowledge produced in this field, the present paper pursues a pair of objectives. One objective is to critically present the main theoretical approaches employed in the field of Border Studies, reflecting on their heuristic possibilities and limitations as well as their political implications. The other objective is to explore the intertwining of Border and Migration Studies with a specific focus on Africa, Asia and Latin America, devoting particular attention to the way this body of research has analysed the condition of migrant women workers. Overall, the essay generates suggestions for future significant investigations. |
| Keywords: | Borders, boundaries, migration, Global South, migrant women workers |
| Date: | 2013–11–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ems:euriss:50160&r=mig |
| By: | Nguyen, Cuong Viet; Vu, Linh Hoang |
| Abstract: | Working away from home might bring higher earnings than working near home. However, the absence of parents due to work can have unexpected effects on children. This paper examines the effects of the temporary absence of parents on the well-being of children aged 5–8 years old in Vietnam, using indicators of household poverty, per capita consumption expenditure, and child time allocation. The paper relies on OLS and fixed-effects regression and panel data from the Young Lives surveys in 2007 and 2009. It finds a positive correlation between parental absence and per capita expenditure. Parental absence tends to increase per capita food expenditure instead of per capita non-food expenditure. Regarding the way children spend their time, there are no statistically significant effects of parental absence. |
| Keywords: | Parental migration, child poverty, remittances, impact evaluation, Vietnam. |
| JEL: | I3 O15 R23 |
| Date: | 2014–01–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:52877&r=mig |
| By: | Abella, Manolo I |
| Keywords: | Social and Behavioral Sciences |
| Date: | 2014–01–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:bineur:qt73g7c2rk&r=mig |
| By: | Friedrich Schneider; Alexandra Rudolph (Ruprecht-Karl-University Heidelberg) |
| Abstract: | Worldwide human trafficking (HT) is the third most often registered international criminal activity, ranked only after drug and weapon trafficking. The aim of the paper is to measure the extent of HT inflows to destination countries. It proposes the application of the Multiple Indicators Multiple Causes (MIMIC) structural equation model in order to include potential causes and indicators in one model and generate an index of the intensity of HT in destination countries. Thus, we account for the unobservable nature of the crime as well as for visible aspects that both shape the extent of it. By including both dimensions of the trafficking process the model is applied over a period of ten years. The resulting measure orders 142 countries between 2000 and 2010 according to their potential of being a destination country based on characteristics of the trafficking process. The results are that OECD countries are the most likely destination countries while developing countries are less likely. |
| Keywords: | Human trafficking, MIMIC models, latent variable, structural equation models |
| JEL: | C39 F22 K42 K49 |
| Date: | 2013–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jku:econwp:2013_25&r=mig |