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on Economics of Human Migration |
| By: | Francine D. Blau |
| Abstract: | This paper examines evidence on the role of assimilation versus source country culture in influencing immigrant women’s behavior in the United States—looking both over time with immigrants’ residence in the United States and across immigrant generations. It focuses particularly on labor supply but, for the second generation, also examines fertility and education. We find considerable evidence that immigrant source country gender roles influence immigrant and second generation women’s behavior in the United States. This conclusion is robust to various efforts to rule out the effect of other unobservables and to distinguish the effect of culture from that of social capital. These results support a growing literature that suggests that culture matters for economic behavior. At the same time, the results suggest considerable evidence of assimilation of immigrants. Immigrant women narrow the labor supply gap with native-born women with time in the United States, and, while our results suggest an important role for intergenerational transmission, they also indicate considerable convergence of immigrants to native levels of schooling, fertility, and labor supply across generations. |
| JEL: | J13 J16 J22 J24 J61 |
| Date: | 2015–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:21756&r=mig |
| By: | Luigi Maria Solivetti |
| Abstract: | This study purpose is to verify if there is an association between foreign immigration and crime. In doing this, the study investigates also some satellite questions revolving around this possible association: the range of offences affected by immigration, the relationship between immigrant and native crime, and whether the immigration impact on crime is direct or indirect. These issues have been addressed through both a cross-sectional and a cross-sectional/time analysis. This double approach intends to find out whether variations over time in immigration and in crime confirm the synchronic analysis results, which could be biased by non-observed factors. The research is based on data of the Italian provinces. Italy represents a critical case for studying the migration-crime relationship, because in this country the rise in foreign immigration has been sudden and its pace feverish. The cross-sectional analysis findings show that crime rates are related to time-invariant factors and only marginally to immigration. On the contrary, the cross-sectional/time analysis shows that variations in immigration have had a positive impact on both the most serious and the most common offences. There is no evidence of indirect effects of immigration on crime or of a link with native crime. In contrast to previous literature regarding the U.S., Canada, and Australia, these results suggest that a tumultuous rise in immigration can affect crime rates. |
| Keywords: | Immigration; natives; crime; crime determinants; longitudinal analysis. |
| JEL: | I25 |
| Date: | 2015–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:saq:wpaper:8/15&r=mig |
| By: | Christian Dustmann (University College London, Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM) and Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)); Francesco Fasani (Queen Mary University of London, CReAM and CEPR); Biagio Speciale (Paris School of Economics, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne) |
| Abstract: | We analyze the effect of immigrants' legal status on their consumption behavior using unique survey data that samples both documented and undocumented immigrants. To address the problem of sorting into legal status, we propose two alternative identification strategies as exogenous source of variation for current legal status: First, transitory income shocks in the home country, measured as rainfall shocks at the time of emigration. Second, amnesty quotas that grant legal residence status to undocumented immigrants. Both sources of variation create a strong first stage, and - although very different in nature - lead to similar estimates of the effects of illegal status on consumption, with undocumented immigrants consuming about 40 percent less than documented immigrants, conditional on background characteristics. Roughly one quarter of this decrease is explained by undocumented immigrants having lower incomes than documented immigrants. Our findings imply that legalization programs may have a potentially important effect on immigrants' consumption behavior, with consequences for both the source and host countries. |
| Keywords: | Legal status, Weather shocks, Consumption behavior |
| JEL: | F22 D12 K42 |
| Date: | 2015–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qmw:qmwecw:wp775&r=mig |
| By: | LIU Yang; KAWATA Keisuke |
| Abstract: | By developing a model based on recent wage theories, we examine workers' wage determination, considering not only human-capital related factors but also the labor market. We also consider the price level using a city-specific consumer price index. Data come from a national survey in China, while unlike previous studies that examine temporary rural-urban migrants in China, we concentrate on permanent rural migrants who have obtained an urban household registration. We find that considering the effects of the labor market is important in examining workers' wage determination. The decomposition result shows that different effects of market tightness and unemployment benefits are the two primary reasons for the wage differential between the two groups, whereas education does not contribute to the wage gap. As a policy implication, our results indicate that supporting the workers' ability to adapt to the labor markets could reduce wage inequality. |
| Date: | 2015–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:15142&r=mig |
| By: | Nickell, Stephen (Nuffield College, University of Oxford); Saleheen, Jumana (Bank of England) |
| Abstract: | This paper asks whether immigration to Britain has had any impact on average wages. There seems to be a broad consensus among academics that the share of immigrants in the workforce has little or no effect on native wages. These studies typically have not refined their analysis by breaking it down into different occupational groups. Our contribution is to extend the existing literature on immigration to include occupations as well. We find that the immigrant to native ratio has a small negative impact on average British wages. This finding is important for monetary policy makers, who are interested in the impact that supply shocks, such as immigration, have on average wages and overall inflation. Our results also reveal that the biggest impact of immigration on wages is within the semi/unskilled services occupational group. We also investigate if there is any differential impact between immigration from the EU and non-EU, and find that there is no additional impact on aggregate UK wages as a result of migrants arriving specifically from EU countries. These findings accord well with intuition and anecdotal evidence, but have not been recorded previously in the empirical literature. |
| Keywords: | Immigration; occupation; wages |
| Date: | 2015–12–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:boe:boeewp:0574&r=mig |
| By: | Isaac Ehrlich; Jinyoung Kim |
| Abstract: | Census data from international sources covering 77% of the world’s migrant population indicate that the skill composition of migrants in major destination countries, including the US, has been rising over the last 4 decades. Moreover, the population share of skilled migrants has been approaching or exceeding that of skilled natives. We offer theoretical propositions and empirical tests consistent with these trends via a general-equilibrium model of endogenous growth where human capital, population, income growth and distribution, and migration trends are endogenous. We derive new insights about the impact of migration on long-term income growth and distribution, and the net benefits to natives in both destination and source countries. |
| JEL: | F22 F43 O15 O4 |
| Date: | 2015–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:21699&r=mig |
| By: | Garas, Antonios; Lapatinas, Athanasios; Poulios, Konstantinos |
| Abstract: | We explore the relationship between human migration and OECD’s Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) using a complex systems’ approach, and we demonstrate how complex systems’ techniques can contribute new insights and advance macroeconomic empirical analysis in alternative ways. More precisely, we find a strong correlation between the migration network and the outward-FDI network, and we highlight the existence of a weaker FDI relationship in pairs of countries that are more central in the migration network. Illuminating this result, we show that inward migrants coming from third-party countries which are linked (a) either to FDI-parent country or to FDI-host country or (b) both to FDI-parent and FDI-host country are FDI marring. |
| Keywords: | FDI; migration; graph theory; complex systems |
| JEL: | B00 B41 C13 F2 |
| Date: | 2015–12–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:68341&r=mig |
| By: | Verwimp,Philip; Maystadt,Jean-Francois Paul Claude |
| Abstract: | Most reports on refugees deal with the immediate needs of displaced people. This paper seeks to go beyond the emergency phase and explore the challenges surrounding protracted refugee situations. The paper examines the refugee situation in Sub-Saharan Africa from a long-term angle, from the perspective of refugees'own agency as well as from the perspective of the host community. The paper aims to shed light on the economic lives of refugees in their host communities. Starting with an overview of the situation of refugees in Sub-Saharan Africa, the paper draws on findings from the literature to debunk some entrenched beliefs about refugees. The discussion of refugee crises in Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda draws some lessons. The decision to return is discussed and it is argued that the decision depends on the socioeconomic condition in the host country versus the country of refuge, integration versus return policies in place, the individual set of skills of each refugee, and his or her subjective perception of the political climate in both countries. |
| Keywords: | Education For All,Post Conflict Reconstruction,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Population Policies,Street Children |
| Date: | 2015–12–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:7517&r=mig |
| By: | Giovanni Peri; Vasil Yasenov |
| Abstract: | We apply the synthetic control method to re-examine the wage and employment effect of the Mariel Boatlift in Miami. We focus exclusively on workers with no high school degree. They are the group competing more closely in the labor market with the newly arrived. We compare Miami's labor market outcomes with those in a control group of cities chosen using the synthetic control method so as to match Miami's wages and other labor market features in the period 1972 to 1979. Using most samples and different outcomes we find no departure between Miami and its control between 1979 and 1983. Significant noise exists in many samples but we never find significant negative effects especially right after the Boatlift, when they should have been the strongest. We point out that the very different conclusions in a recent reappraisal by George Borjas (2015) stem from the use of a small sub-sample of high school dropouts in the already very small March-CPS sample. That sample is subject to substantial measurement error and no other sample provides the same findings. Being imprecise about the timing of the data and the choice and validation of the control sample further contribute to the impression of an effect from the boatlift in Borjas (2015). We also revisit the non-Boatlift of 1994, considered by Angrist and Krueger (1999) and we do not find consistent deviations of Miami outcomes from the appropriate control that could be mistaken for labor market effects of a Cuban inflow. |
| JEL: | J3 J61 |
| Date: | 2015–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:21801&r=mig |
| By: | Maryna Tverdostup; Jaan Masso |
| Abstract: | This paper extends the earlier literature on the effects of return migration by studying selection and labour market performance in terms of the wages of young returnees in particular. The topic is motivated by young people’s various labour market issues and their high exposure to the consequences of the recent financial crisis. We use the Estonian Labour Force Survey data and the Estonian Population and Housing Census 2011 data in combination with the Estonian Tax and Customs Office data on individual payroll taxes. The econometric analysis focuses on the selection to temporary migration and estimation of wage premium to return, along with the decomposition of the returnee-stayer wage gap using the Oaxaca-Blinder approach and an investigation of wage premium dynamics over time after the return. The results generally show higher returns from temporary labour migration for young people relative to older people, and among youth the share of the unexplained fraction of the wage premium is also higher. These results imply a stronger role of experience gained abroad on earnings for youth. |
| Keywords: | return migration, labour market outcomes, Central and Eastern Europe |
| JEL: | F22 J31 J61 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mtk:febawb:98&r=mig |
| By: | McGinnity, Frances; Darmody, Merike; Murray, Aisling |
| Date: | 2015–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esr:wpaper:wp512&r=mig |
| By: | Ferdinando Monte; Stephen J. Redding; Esteban Rossi-Hansberg |
| 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. |
| JEL: | F16 J6 J61 R0 |
| Date: | 2015–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:21706&r=mig |