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on Economics of Human Migration |
| By: | Idrissa Diabate (INSTAT, Mali); Sandrine Mesplé-Somps (IRD, UMR DIAL, PSL, Université Paris-Dauphine) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we investigate how powerful a mechanism migration is in the transmission of social norms, taking Mali and Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) as a case study. Mali has a strong FGM culture and a long-standing history of migration. We use an original household-level database coupled with census data to analyze the extent to which girls living in villages with high rates of return migrants are less prone to FGM. Malians migrate predominantly to other African countries where female circumcision is uncommon (e.g. Côte d’Ivoire) and to countries where FGM is totally banned (France and other developed countries) and where anti-FGM information campaigns frequently target African migrants. Taking a two-step instrumental variable approach to control for the endogeneity of migration decisions, we show that return migrants have a negative and significant influence on FGM. We also show that adults living in villages with return migrants are more in favor of legislation against FGM.________________________________ Dans cet article, nous examinons dans quelle mesure la migration est un vecteur de transferts de normes sociales en étudiant le lien entre migration et excision au Mali. Alors que l’excision est fortement répandue au Mali, ce pays a une forte tradition migratoire vers les pays limitrophes et les pays du Nord où l’excision est soit moins pratiquée soit sanctionnée par la loi. Nous testons l’hypothèse que les migrants acquièrent des opinions différentes en la matière dans les pays d’accueil où l’excision est moins fréquente voire interdite et qu’une fois de retour ils induisent un changement de comportement dans leurs villages d’origine. Nous mobilisons une base originale de données sur l’excision des filles de 0 à 14 ans couplée avec des données de recensement qui permettent de mesurer les taux de migration (courante et de retour) des villages de résidence des personnes interrogées et mettons en œuvre une méthode instrumentale pour contrôler de l’endogénéité de la migration. Nous montrons que les migrants de retour ont effectivement une influence négative et significative sur le risque d’excision et que ce résultat provient essentiellement des migrants de Côte d’Ivoire. Nous montrons également que les adultes vivant dans les villages avec des migrants de retour sont plus en faveur de la législation contre les mutilations génitales. |
| Keywords: | Female Genital Excision, social transfers, migration, Mali, Excision, transferts sociaux. |
| JEL: | I15 O55 F22 |
| Date: | 2014–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dia:wpaper:dt201416&r=mig |
| By: | Akgündüz, Yusuf Emre (Utrecht University); van den Berg, Marcel (Statistics Netherlands); Hassink, Wolter (Utrecht University) |
| Abstract: | The civil war in Syria has culminated into major refugee crises in its neighboring countries. By the end of 2013 more than half a million people were seeking shelter in cities and refugee camps in Turkey. We analyze how the Syrian refugee influx in Turkey has affected food and housing prices, employment rates and internal migration patterns in regions of Turkey where refugees are being accommodated. Refugee camps are geographically concentrated near the Syrian border, which enables us to employ the rest of regional Turkey as control group with a difference-in-difference approach to analyze the impact on local economies. Our findings suggest that housing and to a lesser degree food prices increased, but employment rates of natives in various skill groups are largely unaffected. Incumbent natives appear to be staying put considering the limited migration out of the region, but there is a significant decline in internal migration into regions hosting refugees. Nevertheless, the decline in internal in-migration is less than a tenth of the refugee influx, implying that there is little evidence of refugees crowding out natives in local labor markets. |
| Keywords: | refugees, employment, migration, inflation, regional economy, difference-in-difference |
| JEL: | F22 J61 R23 |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8841&r=mig |
| By: | Frijters, Paul (University of Queensland); Kong, Tao Sherry (Peking University); Liu, Elaine M. (University of Houston) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we compare participants in an artefactual field experiment in urban China with the survey population of migrants from which they were recruited. The experimental participants were more educated, more likely to lend money to friends, and worked fewer hours than the general population. They differ significantly from non-participants in terms of regression coefficients, such as the effects of wealth and marital status on the probability of being self-employed and distance migrated. We thus find that there was selection into our experiments on the basis of both observable characteristics and on unobserved differences in behavioral relations. |
| Keywords: | artefactual field experiment, participation bias, rural migrants |
| JEL: | C81 C93 C90 |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8843&r=mig |
| By: | Guzi, Martin (Masaryk University); Kahanec, Martin (Central European University); Kureková, Lucia Mýtna (Slovak Governance Institute) |
| Abstract: | The role of institutions in immigrant integration remains underexplored in spite of its essential significance for integration policies. This paper adopts the Varieties of Capitalism framework to study the institutional determinants of Immigrant-Native gaps in host labor markets. Using the EU LFS we first measure immigrant-native gaps in labor force participation, unemployment, low-skilled employment and temporary employment. We distinguish the gaps that can be explained by immigrant-native differences in characteristics from those that cannot be explained by such differences, as these require different integration policy approaches. In the second stage we measure the effects of institutional and contextual variables on explained and unexplained immigrant-native gaps. Our findings confirm that institutional contexts play a significant role in immigrant integration, and highlight the importance of tailoring policy approaches with regard to the causes of immigrant-native gaps. |
| Keywords: | labor market, discrimination, integration policy, immigrant integration, Varieties of Capitalism |
| JEL: | J15 J18 J61 |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8847&r=mig |
| By: | Lucht, Michael; Haas, Anette (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]) |
| Abstract: | "Empirical evidence for the US shows that migrants increase the productivity of regions. To explain the impact of migrants on the average firm productivity we construct a general equilibrium model with monopolistic competition a la Melitz (2003). We consider heterogeneous firms with different productivity levels and imperfect substitutability between migrants and natives. This gives rise to wage differences between natives and migrants. As a consequence, firms with a higher share of migrants realize wage cost advantages. The heterogeneous distribution of migrants in our model fosters regional disparities. In equilibrium, it depends on the migrant share which kind of firms survives in the market. The only firms to stay in the market are those which are highly productive or able to compensate a lower productivity level through wage cost advantages. We show that a higher migrant share may explain a higher average productivity in a region. The welfare effects for natives are ambiguous." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en)) |
| JEL: | R23 J15 J24 J61 |
| Date: | 2015–02–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iab:iabdpa:201505&r=mig |
| By: | de Coulon, Augustin (King's College London); Radu, Dragos (University College London); Steinhardt, Max (Helmut Schmidt University, Hamburg) |
| Abstract: | This paper addresses the link between native attitudes and return migration. We exploit the variation in xenophobia using information on media consumption by migrants in Italy. A widely documented crime provides a quasi-experimental setting to identify the impact of Italian attitudes on migrants' settlement intentions. Our results suggest a significant effect of anti-immigrant attitudes on the intended duration of stay in the host country. The impact is more pronounced for low-skilled migrants, which has consequences for how migration affects the long run convergence between sending and destination countries. |
| Keywords: | return migration, native attitudes, media consumption |
| JEL: | F22 J61 |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8845&r=mig |
| By: | Wessel Vermeulen; Michel Beine; Serge Coulombe |
| Abstract: | This paper evaluates whether immigration can mitigate the Dutch disease effects associated with booms in natural resource sectors. We derive predicted changes in the size of the non-tradable sector from a small general-equilibrium model a la Obstfeld-Rogoff. Using data for Canadian provinces, we find evidence that aggregate immigration mitigates the increase in the size of the non-tradable sector in booming regions. The mitigation effect is due mostly to interprovincial migration and temporary foreign workers. There is no evidence of such an effect for permenent international immigration. Interprovincial migration also results in a spreading effect of Dutch disease from booming to non-booming provinces. |
| Keywords: | Natural Resources, Dutch Disease, Immigration, Mitigation Effect |
| JEL: | F22 O15 R11 R15 |
| Date: | 2015–01–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oxf:wpaper:oxcarre-research-paper-151&r=mig |