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on Economics of Human Migration |
| By: | Dawson Chris (University of Bath); Veliziotis Michail (University of the West of England, Bristol); Hopkins Benjamin (University of Aberystwyth) |
| Abstract: | Over the last decade the UK has experienced unprecedented increases in migration associated with the 2004 A8 expansion of the EU. This paper studies the work ethic of these recent migrants by analysing worker absence data from the Labour Force Survey for the period 2005-2012. The results show that when A8 migrant workers first arrive in the UK they have substantially lower absenteeism than native workers, but importantly migrant absence levels assimilate within 4-7 years. If UK employers use this information to make hiring decisions, then unusually productive native workers will suffer, this is however only likely to occur in the short term. |
| Keywords: | Migration, assimilation, absenteeism |
| JEL: | J61 |
| Date: | 2014–01–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uwe:wpaper:20141407&r=mig |
| By: | Nollenberger, Natalia (Queen Mary, University of London); Rodríguez-Planas, Núria (Queens College, CUNY); Sevilla, Almudena (Queen Mary, University of London) |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the role of cultural attitudes towards women in determining math educational gender gaps using the epidemiological approach. To identify whether culture matters, we estimate whether the math gender gap for each immigrant group living in a particular host country (and exposed to the same host country's laws and institutions) is explained by measures of gender equality in the parents' country of ancestry. We find that the higher the degree of gender equality in the country of ancestry, the higher the performance of second-generation immigrant girls relative to boys. This result is robust to alternative specifications, measures of gender equality and the inclusion of other human development indicators in the country of ancestry. The transmission of culture is higher among those in schools with a higher proportion of immigrants or in co-educational schools. Our results suggest that policies aimed at changing beliefs can prove effective in reducing the gender gap in mathematics. |
| Keywords: | gender gap in math, immigrants, gender identity |
| JEL: | I21 I24 J16 Z13 |
| Date: | 2014–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8379&r=mig |
| By: | Zhou, Yexin (Stockholm China Economic Research Institute); Chen, Mo; Ye, Jingyi |
| Abstract: | In Chinese cities, rural migrants on average are less educated and poorer than the urban locals. Migration is costly, especially for those who choose to move to provinces faraway from their hometowns. A larger fraction of the rural migrants are self-employed than that of the urban locals. The social contacts of migrants in the host cities often help them to find jobs or to start businesses. We studied the choice of self-employment of rural migrants in Beijing, using a migrant dataset collected from 2007 to 2012. The result shows that the self-employed rural migrants in Beijing tend to be females, migrating from faraway provinces, with more social contacts, and either having the highest education or the lowest. Education and social capital are positively correlated with earning for both wage-earners and self-employed, with different magnitudes. We use a search model to explain this. |
| Keywords: | Self-employmen; Rural Migrants; Social Network |
| JEL: | J61 R23 Z13 |
| Date: | 2014–08–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:hascer:2014-031&r=mig |
| By: | Tom Frere-Smith (Ipsos MORI); Renee Luthra (University of Essex); Lucinda Platt (London School of Economics and Political Science) |
| Abstract: | Surveying recently arrived immigrants in countries lacking a population register poses many challenges. We describe our adaptation of Respondent Driven Sampling, a chain-referral technique, to sample migrants from Pakistan and Poland who had arrived in the UK within the previous 18 months. Specifically, we discuss issues around connectedness, privacy, clustering, and motivation, central to the implementation of RDS. We outline techniques adopted and evaluate their success. We conclude that RDS is unlikely to be suitable for accessing newly arrived migrants. However, in the absence of registers which can capture populations at point of entry there are no obvious alternatives. |
| Keywords: | new immigrants, surveys, RDS, immigrant networks, integration, non-response |
| JEL: | F22 J15 |
| Date: | 2014–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:1432&r=mig |
| By: | Mitrut, Andreea (Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University); Wolff, François-Charles (LEMNA, Université de Nantes and INED Paris) |
| Abstract: | We examine the impact of the 2004 Indian tsunami on international remittance transfers using aggregate country data and synthetic control methodology. This procedure implies identifying the causal impact of the disaster by comparing the share of remittances to GDP in Indonesia, the country most affected by the shock, with a counterfactual group constructed using synthetic controls of countries that were not affected by the tsunami but that had a very similar pre-shock trend in international remittance flows. Our results indicate a large impact on remittances in Indonesia just after the tsunami, with 1.35 additional points in share of remittances to GDP in 2005 (compared to the synthetic control group). However, the gap in remittances observed between Indonesia and the synthetic control decreased steadily over the succeeding years and amounted to 0.5 percentage points in 2011. |
| Keywords: | natural disasters; remittances; synthetic control; Indonesia |
| JEL: | F24 Q54 |
| Date: | 2014–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:gunwpe:0604&r=mig |
| By: | Giulia Bettin (Universit… Politecnica delle Marche, MoFiR); Riccardo Lucchetti (Universit… Politecnica delle Marche, Dipartimento di Scienze economiche e sociali) |
| Abstract: | This paper is the first systematic attempt to investigate the factors affecting time persistence in remittance behaviour at the individual level. We argue that the time profile of remittance ows from individual migrants is of considerable theoretical relevance and also has very important policy implications. By using micro-level data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) we apply a wide variety of discrete choice (static and dynamic) panel models and show that persistence occurs at the individual level due to observable characteristics (individual income, household characteristics, etc.) but also to time-invariant unobserved individual characteristics. In addition, remittance decisions seem to be signicantly infl uenced by "true state dependence", namely correlation between past actual behaviour and future propensity to remit. |
| Keywords: | Discrete panel data models, Migration, Persistence, Remittances, State dependence |
| JEL: | C23 C25 F22 F24 |
| Date: | 2014–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:anc:wmofir:97&r=mig |
| By: | Hussain, Mushahid (Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India) |
| Abstract: | The study of labour migration and remittances is voluminous both in terms of content as well as contesting results. Characteristic of the economics profession, the literature can be put on a scale ranging from ecstatic optimism to morbid disillusionment as far as the effect of migration and remittances on economic development is concerned, which is partly an outcome of the complexity of the subject matter, but also a result of an approach analogous to the proverbial ‘blind men and the elephant’ parable. Micro studies on the impact of remittances have been both numerous and insightful, but have lacked the essential link in understanding the macro effects in any meaningful way, which is unsurprising given the dominance of neoclassical theory over the last few decades. In instances where macroeconomic implications were arrived at, they were strongly informed by a neoliberal agenda as institutionalized under the Washington consensus by the Bretton Woods organizations. This agenda can be summarized as a receding role for the State and an increasing role for the market in mediating economic relationships in a society, where both these institutions operate in a dichotomous fashion, the former yielding results that are inherently less desirable, and hence ‘inefficient’ to the outcomes generated by the latter (Saad-Filho,2003). Given the general disenchantment with neoliberalism’s insensitivity and inefficacy vis-à-vis poverty eradication, macroeconomic instability and widening income disparity, and the increasing perception of remittances as being an important source of relief on account of these problems in some of the poorest countries, the paper re-examines some of the important issues regarding remittances from a macro-theoretic perspective. As the title suggests, the scope is limited to the examining of implications regarding changes in State functioning with the advent of neoliberalism, and the part remittances play in it. |
| Keywords: | international migration, remittance, neoliberal state, developing countries |
| JEL: | B5 F2 F5 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eyd:cp2013:227&r=mig |
| By: | Krause, Annabelle (IZA); Rinne, Ulf (IZA); Zimmermann, Klaus F. (IZA and University of Bonn) |
| Abstract: | A Single European Labor Market, particularly involving the free movement of workers within Europe, has been a goal of the European community since the 1950s. Whereas it may entail opportunities and drawbacks alike, the benefits – such as greater economic welfare for most citizens – are supposed to outweigh the losses. However, over fifty years after the aim was first established, a Single European Labor Market has not yet been achieved. This paper gives an overview of current European macroeconomic trends, with a particular focus on the Great Recession, and also explores the drivers of and obstacles to labor mobility. Complementarily, it analyzes the results of a unique opinion survey among labor market experts, as well as formulates policy recommendations to enhance mobility. The development of a Single European Labor Market is also discussed in relation to the German model. |
| Keywords: | European labor market integration, worker mobility, economic crisis, economic migration, German model |
| JEL: | J40 J61 J68 |
| Date: | 2014–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8383&r=mig |