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on Economics of Human Migration |
| By: | Aparicio Fenoll, Ainhoa (Collegio Carlo Alberto); Kuehn, Zoë (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid) |
| Abstract: | Speaking the language of the host country eases migrants' integration and tends to boost their economic success in the country of destination. However, the decision to acquire language skills may in itself be determined by the intention to migrate. In addition, conditional on being a migrant, the relation between language skills and migrants' integration and economic success goes both ways. Using data on the study of foreign languages during compulsory education in European countries, we test whether and how much language proficiency determines migration flows across Europe. The European Union with basically unlimited labor mobility and pronounced differences in youth unemployment rates provides an ideal testing ground for our hypothesis. We find that speaking the language of a country increases the likelihood to migrate to that country almost fivefold. |
| Keywords: | migration, language proficiency, return to skills, education |
| JEL: | J61 I20 F22 |
| Date: | 2014–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8250&r=mig |
| By: | Kahanec, Martin (Central European University); Kureková, Lucia Mytna (Slovak Governance Institute) |
| Abstract: | This paper evaluates the mobility patterns of Slovaks into the rest of the European Union (EU) following Slovakia's EU accession in 2004 and through the Great Recession. Combining information from various data sources including the Slovak Labor Force Survey and conducting our own statistical analysis of selectivity into migration, we study whether and how migration responded to asymmetric economic shocks at home and abroad. We identify a number of shifts in the directionality and composition of migration flows in terms of the destinations, gender, age, educational attainment and occupation, reflecting changing labor market conditions in receiving countries and Slovakia. We show that besides the standard demographic factors, migration propensity was higher among the unemployed and from the more depressed regions of Slovakia. We conclude that labor migration has served as an important adjustment mechanism in the country and more generally in the EU labor market. |
| Keywords: | adjustment, EU enlargement, labor market, migration, Slovakia |
| JEL: | F22 J61 |
| Date: | 2014–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8249&r=mig |
| By: | Hatton, Timothy J. (University of Essex) |
| Abstract: | It is widely believed that the current recession has soured public attitudes towards immigration. But most existing studies are cross sectional and can shed little light on the economy-wide forces that shift public opinion on immigration. In this paper I use the six rounds of the European Social Survey (2002-2012) to test the effects of economic shocks on immigration opinion for 20 countries. The recession that began in 2008 provides a useful test because its severity varied so widely across Europe. For Europe as a whole the shifts in average opinion have been remarkably mild. But trends in opinion have varied across countries, especially in the responses to a question on whether immigrants are good or bad for the economy. At the country level, pro-immigration opinion is negatively related to the share of immigrants in the population and to the share social benefits in GDP, but only weakly to unemployment. These effects differ somewhat across responses to different questions relating to immigration policy and to the desirability of immigrants. The recession also influenced other attitudes and traits that are sometimes linked to opinion on immigration. |
| Keywords: | public opinion, immigration attitudes, immigration policy |
| JEL: | D72 F22 J61 |
| Date: | 2014–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8248&r=mig |
| By: | Asongu, Simplice |
| Abstract: | Abstract Purpose – How do economic prosperity, health expenditure, savings, price-stability, demographic change, democracy, corruption-control, press-freedom, government effectiveness, human development, foreign-aid, physical security, trade openness and financial liberalization play-out in the fight against health-worker crisis when existing emigration levels matter? Despite the acute concern of health-worker crisis in Africa owing to emigration, lack of relevant data has made the subject matter empirically void over the last decades. Design/methodology/approach – A quantile regression approach is used to assess the determinants of health-worker emigration throughout the conditional distributions of health-worker emigration. This provides an assessment of the determinants when existing emigrations levels matter. Findings – Findings provide a broad range of tools for the fight against health-worker brain-drain. As a policy implication, blanket emigration-control policies are unlikely to succeed equally across countries with different levels of emigration. Thus to be effective, immigration policies should be contingent on the prevailing levels of the crisis and tailored differently across countries with the best and worst records on fighting health worker emigration. Originality/value – This paper has examined the theoretical postulations of a WHO report on determinants of health-worker migration. |
| Keywords: | Welfare; Health; Human Capital; Migration; Africa |
| JEL: | D60 F22 I10 J24 O15 |
| Date: | 2013–09–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:56802&r=mig |
| By: | Ousman Gajigo (African Development Bank); Audrey Verdier‐Chouchane |
| Abstract: | Using data from the Household Poverty Surveys in 2003 and 2010, this paper analyzes characteristics of immigrants in The Gambian labor market. The analysis indicates that immigrants are relatively young, low-skilled (though with skill levels comparable to Gambians) and mainly come from neighboring West African countries. While immigrants on average earn more than Gambians, this labor market advantage varies significantly depending on workers’ skill level. For instance, unskilled immigrants have a wage advantage but such an advantage does not exist among the skilled immigrants. Given that The Gambia is a country with high skilled emigration rates, these and other findings in this paper have important policy implications. |
| Date: | 2014–06–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:adb:adbwps:2134&r=mig |
| By: | Daniel Chiquiar; Alejandrina Salcedo |
| Abstract: | In this paper we examine some economic factors that have influenced migration flows from Mexico to the United States since 1990 for the purpose of constructing scenarios on how such flows could evolve in the near term. In particular, we link the behavior of migration to changes in sectoral growth in the US, as well as to a heterogeneous participation of Mexican workers in employment by sector. To forecast future migration flows, we propose and estimate a model of demand for Mexican labor by US sector and use it to construct possible scenarios for migration flows. While the estimation is subject to a high degree of uncertainty, the main conclusion is that net migration flows of Mexicans to the United States over the coming years are likely to increase compared to what was observed during the recent global economic crisis, but that such flows are very unlikely to reach the levels registered during the 1990s. |
| Keywords: | Migration flows, labor demand, US sectoral growth |
| JEL: | O15 J23 J61 J82 |
| Date: | 2013–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdm:wpaper:2013-20&r=mig |
| By: | Michal Bernard Pietrzak, Justyna Wilk (Nicolaus Copernicus University, Wroc³aw University of Economics, Poland) |
| Abstract: | The objective of the paper is to identify subregions (NUTS 3) of the central part of Poland pretending to metropolitan areas, as well as to study their impact on the domestic migration flows. Their social and economic situations in 2008 were determined on the basis of the composite measure values. Their participation in the domestic migration flows in the period 2008-2010, considering the directions, range and intensity of flows, was also examined. Only Warsaw is the completely shaped metropolitan area in Poland. The city demonstrates the highest economic potential and therefore the strongest migration flows and dependences with other subregions. The cities of Poznañ and £ódŸ and also the Bydgosko-Toruñski subregion can be recognized as developing metropolitan areas. These subregions represent significant economic centres; however migration flows related to them demonstrate mainly regional importance. |
| Keywords: | metropolitan areas, migration flows, economic development, central Poland |
| JEL: | J11 O11 R11 R23 |
| Date: | 2014–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pes:wpaper:2014:no6&r=mig |