|
on Economics of Human Migration |
| By: | Gibson,John; Mckenzie,David J.; Rohorua,Halahingano; Stillman,Steven |
| Abstract: | This study examines the long-term impacts of international migration by comparing immigrants who had successful ballot entries in a migration lottery program, and first moved almost a decade ago, with people who had unsuccessful entries into those same ballots. The long-term gain in income is found to be similar in magnitude to the gain in the first year, despite migrants upgrading their education and changing their locations and occupations. This results in large, sustained benefits to the migrants? immediate family, who have substantially higher consumption, durable asset ownership, savings, and dietary diversity. In contrast, the study finds no measureable impact on extended family. |
| Keywords: | Voluntary and Involuntary Resettlement,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Population Policies,Remittances,Anthropology |
| Date: | 2015–11–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:7495&r=mig |
| By: | Evgeniya Polyakova (National Research University Higher School of Economics); Larisa Smirnykh (National Research University Higher School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | Using nationally representative data (RMLS-NRU HSE) from 2004-2012, this paper examines sectoral segregation between immigrant (persons with an immigration background) and native workers and its impact on the earning differential in Russia. This is the first micro-level study in Russia about sectoral segregation and the earning gap between natives and immigrants under its influence. In this study we analyze the determinants of the choice of sector, estimate earning differences between natives and immigrants, define the Duncan index of dissimilarity and measure the impact of sectoral segregation on the earning differential between natives and immigrants using Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition.Our results show that sectoral segregation in the Russian labor market gradually increased from 2004 to 2012. We find there are significant earning differences between immigrants and natives. Most of this difference cannot be explained by productivity-related differences between the two groups. This implies that immigrants can experience labor market discrimination. After partly assessing the self-selection of worker’s using the extended decomposition method (Brown et al., 1980) our empirical results demonstrate that the sectoral segregation (or voluntary distribution across sectors) plays a considerable role in the earning differential between natives and migrants in Russia. |
| Keywords: | immigrant workers, sectoral segregation, employment, earning differentials, labor demand, Russia |
| JEL: | J61 J15 J21 J31 J23 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:110/ec/2015&r=mig |
| By: | Giovanni Facchini (University of Nottingham); Cecilia Testa (Royal Holloway University of London) |
| Abstract: | We study migration policy enforcement by an elected government. The policy-maker faces uncer-tainty on the supply of migrants, but has more information than the public on its preferences and the extent and effectiveness of its enforcement activities. We show that a utilitarian government prefer-ring more migrants than the majority may find it optimal to set a restrictive target to please the me-dian voter, while relaxing its enforcement to admit more foreigners in a concealed way. Lax en-forcement may be achieved either by deploying inadequate resources on cost–effective activities (domestic enforcement) or by allocating a larger budget on less effective tools (border enforcement). The attractiveness of one instrument over the other depends on the size of the immigrant flow: if the supply is large, border enforcement might be preferred because, although more costly, it brings the number of migrants closer to the utilitarian optimum. Hence, re–election concerns might provide a rationale for the widespread use of less a effective enforcement tool, such as border control. |
| Keywords: | Illegal immigration, Immigration Policy, Political Economy |
| JEL: | F22 J61 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csl:devewp:371&r=mig |
| By: | Alícia Adserà (Princeton University); Ana Ferrer (University of Waterloo) |
| Abstract: | This paper contributes to the analysis of the integration of immigrants in the Canadian labour market by focusing in two relatively new dimensions. We combine the large samples of the restricted version of the Canadian Census (1991-2006) with both a new measure of linguistic proximity of the immigrant’s mother tongue to that of the destination country, and with information of the occupational skills embodied in the jobs immigrants hold. This allows us to assess the role that language plays in the labour market performance of immigrants and to better study their career progression relative to the native born. Weekly wage differences between immigrants and the native born are driven mostly by penalties associated with immigrants’ lower returns to social skills, but not to analytical or manual skills. Interestingly, low linguistic proximity between origin and destination language imposes larger wage penalties to the university-educated, and significantly affects the status of the jobs they hold. The influence of linguistic proximity on the skill content of jobs immigrants hold over time also varies by the educational level of the migrant. We also show that immigrants settling in Quebec and whose mother tongue is close to French have similar or better labour market outcomes (relative to native-born residents in Quebec) than immigrants with close linguistic proximity to English settling outside Quebec (relative to native born residents in the rest of Canada). However, since wages in Quebec are lower than elsewhere, immigrants in Quebec earn less in absolute terms than those residing elsewhere. |
| Date: | 2015–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:1517&r=mig |
| By: | Alireza Naghavi (University of Bologna and Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano); Chiara Strozzi (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies mechanism through which intellectual property rights (IPR) protection can influ-ence the impact of skilled migration on innovation activities in developing countries. We argue that knowledge acquired by emigrants abroad can flow back to their country of origin through diaspora networks. IPR protection in the sending country magnifies this effect by increasing the size of the innovation sector, thereby allowing diaspora gains to fall on a larger range of workers. Strong IPR enforcement therefore makes it more likely for brain drain to be transformed into brain gain. |
| JEL: | O30 F22 J24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csl:devewp:380&r=mig |
| By: | Alireza Naghavi (University of Bologna); Chiara Strozzi (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, IZA) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the interaction between international migration and intellectual property rights (IPR) in determining innovation performance of developing countries. Although emigration may di-rectly cause brain drain, it generates a flow of knowledge acquired by emigrants abroad back to their home countries, which could be better absorbed under sound IPR institutions. IPRs thus work as a moderating factor to overcome brain drain by creating the conditions to better absorb potential gains from migration. Using a panel dataset of emerging and developing countries, we establish a positive correlation between emigration and innovation when IPRs are sufficiently strong. |
| Keywords: | Intellectual property rights, International migration, Innovation, Knowledge flows, Brain gain, Diaspora. |
| JEL: | O30 F22 J24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csl:devewp:374&r=mig |
| By: | Anastasia Litina; Simone Moriconi (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore; Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore); Skerdilajda Zanaj |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates both theoretically and empirically the hypothesis that individual environmental attitudes can be partly accounted for by a cultural component. To empirically identify this component, we exploit variation associated with international migration ows. We find that the environmental attitudes of migrants, while being resilient to environmental conditions, also embed a cultural component, which persists till the second generation migrants. Our results suggest that, in the presence of multiple environmental problems that require collective action, comprehending the driving forces behind the formation of an environmental culture is critical to design effective policies. |
| Keywords: | Cultural Transmission, Migration, Environmental Preferences. |
| JEL: | Q50 Q58 R23 |
| Date: | 2015–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctc:serie1:def033&r=mig |
| By: | Panu Poutvaara; Max Friedrich Steinhardt |
| Abstract: | Integration of immigrants is a two-way process, the success of which depends both on immigrants and on natives. We provide new evidence on the determinants of individual attitudes towards immigration, using data from the 2005 and 2010 waves of the German Socio-Economic Panel. In particular, we show that bitterness in life is strongly associated with worries about immigration. This effect cannot be explained just by concerns that immigrants are competing with oneself in thelabor market. Instead, it appears that people who feel that they have not got what they deserve in life oppose immigration for spiteful reasons. |
| Keywords: | Immigration, bitterness, native attitudes |
| JEL: | D72 F22 J61 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp800&r=mig |
| By: | Larsen, Nicholas (Eastern Washington University); Chiswick, Barry R. (George Washington University) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the impact of missionary activity on English language proficiency and labor market earnings of all immigrants to the United States by using the pooled files of the American Community Survey (2005-09). We consider the colonial heritage of the origin country to determine if it is a missionary effect or an effect of colonial rule. Our results suggest immigrants from countries with a high concentration of Protestant missionaries tend to exhibit higher levels of English proficiency and earnings compared to Catholic missionaries. Furthermore, a higher proficiency in English enhances earnings. One of the important implications of the findings in this paper is that a "missionary variable" often used in other studies is too aggregate and may mask important findings because of strikingly different effects of Protestant and Catholic activities. |
| Keywords: | immigrants, Protestant, Catholic, missionaries, earnings, schooling, English language, proficiency, American Community Survey |
| JEL: | F22 J61 J31 J24 Z12 |
| Date: | 2015–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9500&r=mig |
| By: | Matthew Calver; Roland Tusz; Erika Rodrigues |
| Abstract: | There were slightly more than 300,000 interprovincial migrants in Canadain 2014, representing 0.85 per cent of the population. Interprovincial migrationprovidessignificant economic benefits by reallocating labour from low-productivity regions with high unemployment to high productivity regions with low unemployment.A previous report released by the Centre for the Study of Living Standards estimated the impact of net interprovincial migration on aggregate output and productivity between 1987 and 2006.This study uses the same basicmethodology to provide updated estimates, which is extendedto estimatethe long-term effects.We estimatethat interprovincial migration raised GDP by $1.23 billion (chained 2007 dollars) in 2014, or 0.071 per cent of GDP. This may seem like a small amount, but migration flows are often persistent. We estimate that cumulative net migration flows over the 1987-2014 period increased GDP by $15.8 billion dollars(0.9 per cent of GDP) in 2014and generatedcumulative benefits of $146 billionover the 1987-2014 period.Mostof these gains can be attributed tomigration toAlbertaand British Columbia, which areby far the largest destinationsof net interprovincial migration. |
| Keywords: | Migration, Interprovincial Migration, Canada, Output, Productivity, Output Growth, Productivity Growth |
| JEL: | O15 R23 D24 J24 N32 |
| Date: | 2015–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sls:resrep:1519&r=mig |
| By: | Dumludag D.; Gokdemir O.; Vendrik M.C.M. (GSBE) |
| Abstract: | This study examines the effects of social comparison with a wide range of reference groups on the life satisfaction of Turkish immigrants in the Netherlands. For two sets of ethnic and life-domain reference groups, results are obtained that deviate from the findings of recent studies and that suggest the impact of the collectivistic subculture of the Turkish immigrants. Perceived importance of income comparison with Dutch natives is positively correlated to life satisfaction, supporting an interpretation of this comparison as a positive emancipatory stimulus in the pursuit of self-improvement of the Turkish immigrants. Perceived importance of income comparison with relatives in the Netherlands is positively correlated to life satisfaction as well, which can be interpreted in terms of an underlying feeling of connectedness with ones relatives. On the other hand, Turkish immigrants who have a higher household income than relatives are significantly less satisfied with their life, suggesting the unattractiveness of deviating too much from ones relatives. For other reference groups some interesting results are obtained as well. |
| Keywords: | General Welfare; Economics of Minorities, Races, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination; Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Social and Economic Stratification; |
| JEL: | I31 Z13 J15 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:umagsb:2015024&r=mig |
| By: | OECD |
| Abstract: | Only in some countries is a larger proportion of immigrant students in schools related to lower student performance – and this relationship is mostly explained by the concentration of disadvantaged students in these schools. Immigrant students from the same country of origin and similar socio-economic background often perform differently in different school systems. There is a strong connection between the performance of immigrants at school and their education and labour market outcomes as young adults. |
| Date: | 2015–11–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:eduddd:57-en&r=mig |
| By: | Franklin Amuakwa-Mensah (Department of Economics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences) |
| Abstract: | The debate about how environmental or climate factors affect migration decisions has generated a lot of interest in recent times, however empirical studies about the subject are limited and fragmented. This paper investigates the effect of climate factors on migration decisions by comparing the 2005/06 and 2012/13 rounds of Ghana Living Standards Survey (GLSS5 and GLSS6), using Heckman two-stage method to account for selectivity bias. The climate condition in various ecological zones of Ghana is used as a proxy to investigate the effect of climate elements on migration decision. Results show that socio-economic factors such as anticipated welfare gains, household size, education, the sector of employment and others, together with climatic element do significantly affect an individual’s migration decision. Findings further suggest a positive effect of climate element on migration decisions. The coastal savannah and forest ecological zones have a greater probability of accommodating more in-migrants relative to the northern savannah ecological zone. In addition, marginal effects reveal that the probability to migrate to coastal savannah zone relative to northern zones is higher than the probability to migrate to forest zones relative to northern zone. Moreover, anticipated welfare gains reinforce the effect of climate elements and also entrenches the divergence between the probability of migrating to coastal and forest zones relative to the northern zones. With the current climate change of high temperature and low rainfall, migration may be considered as one of the several adaptation strategies in response to changes in the environment. |
| Keywords: | Climate; environment; migration; Heckman two-stage; Ghana. |
| JEL: | Q54 O15 R23 Q57 |
| Date: | 2015–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fae:wpaper:2015.18&r=mig |
| By: | Muzaffar Ahunov; Jakhongir Kakhkharov; Ziyodullo Parpiev; Inna Wolfson |
| Keywords: | Migration, Remittances, Uzbekistan |
| JEL: | J61 J68 |
| Date: | 2015–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gri:epaper:economics:201507&r=mig |
| By: | Grady, Patrick; Grubel, Herbert |
| Abstract: | This paper provides an updated estimate for 2010 for the net fiscal transfer to the recent immigrants who came to Canada between 1985 and 2009. At $5,329 per capita per year, it is significantly lower than the over $6,000 per capita of our earlier estimates. This reflects the Conservative Federal Government’s ambitious efforts to reform immigration policy since taking office in 2006 to better select immigrants who are more prepared to succeed in Canada’s labour market and to refocus immigration policy more on economic class immigrants. This included the elimination of a backlog of around a million immigrants selected under an old dysfunctional system who were judged to be likely to encounter labour-market difficulties and the introduction of the Canada Experience Class. Nevertheless, it should be of concern that in spite of the improvement in the net fiscal cost of recent immigration the overall fiscal cost of fiscal transfers to recent immigrants has continued to grow to $20 to 28 billion as of 2010, up from our earlier estimate of $16 to 24 billion in 2005. The fiscal cost of immigration will probably continue to grow in the future as high levels of immigrants are admitted unless the new Express Entry Program for economic class immigrants is more successful at eliminating the income gap between new immigrants and other Canadians than the measures introduced so far and the mix of immigrants is shifted towards more economic class. At an estimated per-capita net fiscal cost of $5,329, the fiscal cost of immigration can be estimated to have risen to the $27 to $35 billion range in 2014. And the 260,000 to 285,000 planned immigrant admissions recently announced by the Immigration Minister for 2015 should add another $1.4 billion to $1.5 billion to the cost with a similar increment coming every year thereafter as long as the high targeted level of immigration is maintained and achieved. |
| Keywords: | taxes, benefits, fiscal cost of immigration, recent immigrants to Canada |
| JEL: | H24 J61 |
| Date: | 2015–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:67944&r=mig |
| By: | Gérard-François Dumont (ENEC - Espaces, Nature et Culture - UP4 - Université Paris-Sorbonne - CNRS) |
| Abstract: | The European Union is generally an immigration area, for two reasons: firstly, many people live in countries that prove repellents political causes and / or economic; on the other hand, the EU is attractive. However, the European Union argues, relying on accounting arguments for a unified migration policy. But it is difficult to implement given the demographic, economic and historical situations of the Member States differentiated strong and safe and societal issues. |
| Abstract: | L’Union européenne est globalement un espace d’immigration, pour deux raisons : d’une part, nombre de personnes vivent dans des pays qui s’avèrent répulsifs pour des causes politiques et/ou économiques ; d’autre part, l’UE est attractive. Or, l’Union européenne plaide, en s’appuyant sur des arguments comptables, pour une politique migra-toire unifiée. Mais celle-ci est difficile à mettre en œuvre compte tenu des situations démographiques, économiques et historiques fort différenciées des États membres ainsi que des questions sécuritaires et sociétales. |
| Keywords: | European Union , migration, immigration, geopolitical, economy, security , cultural, geography,Union européenne , géopolitique , économie , sécurité , culture |
| Date: | 2015–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-01225931&r=mig |
| By: | Monte, Ferdinando; Redding, Stephen J.; Rossi-Hansberg, Esteban |
| Abstract: | Many changes in the economic environment are local, including policy changes and infrastructure investments. The effect of these changes depends crucially on the ability of factors to move in response. Therefore a key object of interest for policy evaluation and design is the elasticity of local employment to these changes in the economic environment. We develop a quantitative general equilibrium model that incorporates spatial linkages between locations in goods markets (trade) and factor markets (commuting and migration). We find substantial heterogeneity across locations in local employment elasticities. We show that this heterogeneity can be well explained with theoretically motivated measures of commuting flows. Without taking into account this dependence, estimates of the local employment elasticity for one location are not generalizable to other locations. We also find that commuting flows and their importance cannot be accounted for with standard measures of size or wages at the county or commuting zone levels. |
| Keywords: | local impact; mobility; productivity shocks; Ricardian models; trade |
| JEL: | F10 J21 J61 R12 R23 |
| Date: | 2015–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:10933&r=mig |
| By: | Ouyang, Alice; Paul, Saumik |
| Abstract: | Building on a simple analytical model, we provide cross-country empirical evidence from 67 countries that the net skilled emigration appreciates bilateral real exchange rates in source countries. Channels of causality, when Law of One Price (LOOP) holds, are through "spending effect" and "resource allocation effect", analogous to the remittance-based Dutch disease effect. Pricing-to-market model allows pass-through for both tradable and nontradable prices when LOOP is violated. Internal (relative price of tradable to nontradable) price explains about 60% of the RER appreciation, which is mostly driven by the outcomes on developing countries. The outcomes are robust across different levels of skilled emigration, alternative model specifications and withstand placebo tests with unskilled emigration. |
| Keywords: | Emigration, Exchange Rate, the Dutch Disease |
| JEL: | F22 F31 |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hit:hitcei:2014-11&r=mig |