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on Economics of Human Migration |
| By: | Shun Wang (Korea Development Institute (KDI) School of Public Policy and Management, 263 Nansojeong-ro, Sejong, Korea); Weina Zhou (Department of Economics, Dalhousie University, 6214 University Avenue, Halifax, NS, Canada) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses the China General Social Survey (CGSS) 2003 to evaluate the long-term consequences of a forced migration, the state’s “send-down” movement (shang shan xia xiang, or up to the mountains, down to the villages) during the Chinese Cultural Revolution, on individuals’ nonmaterial well-being. The send-down program resettled over 16 million urban youths to the countryside to carry out hard manual labor over the years 1968-1978. Most of them were allowed to return to urban areas when the Cultural Revolution ended. We find that those who had the send-down experience have worse marriage outcome, lower-quality social network, and lower level of happiness than their non-send-down counterparts. The negative effects of the forced migration are robust against a detailed set of family backgrounds and personal characteristics. |
| Keywords: | Send-down movement, Forced migration, Marriage, Social network, Happiness |
| JEL: | I31 J12 J18 J61 |
| Date: | 2016–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hic:wpaper:213&r=mig |
| By: | Anja Prummer; Jan-Peter Siedlarek; ; |
| Abstract: | We offer a novel explanation for why some immigrant groups and minorities have persistent, distinctive cultural traits – the presence of a rigid institution. Such an institution is necessary for communities to not fully assimilate to the mainstream society. We distinguish between different types of institutions, such as churches, foreign-language media or ethnic business associations and ask what level of cultural distinction these institutions prefer. Any type of institution can have incentives to be extreme and select maximal cultural distinction from the mainstream society. If institutions choose positive cultural distinction, without being extremist, then a decrease in discrimination leads to reduced assimilation. |
| Date: | 2014–10–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cam:camdae:1465&r=mig |
| By: | Supriya Singh (RMIT University) |
| Abstract: | Material and immaterial remittances shape each other among recent Indian migrants to Australia. A transformation of the nature and flow of material remittances has been accompanied by changes in family structures and norms. I draw on my qualitative research between 2005 and 2014 on Indian migrants to Australia to show that material remittances have increasingly been going two ways since 1996. These two-way material remittances together with greater communication via mobile phones, satellite TV from India, reciprocal visits and policies relating to paid family reunion are bringing the normative structures and practices of the patrilineal joint Indian family to Australia. However, the developmental cycle of the joint family is different. The first generation of migrants who came as professionals between the 1970s and 1990s spoke of the loss of family, the narrowing of the boundaries of the extended family, and tensions relating to the one-way flow of money and communication. Recent migrants who came as student and skilled migrants between 1996 and the present, speak of everyday communication with their families, parents’ contribution to their material and social well being and their own plans for temporary or permanent extended and joint family living in Australia. This focus on how material and immaterial remittances are received and translated in the country of destination complements the study of the sending of remittances to the source country. |
| Keywords: | Australia, India, remittances |
| Date: | 2014–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pri:cmgdev:15-01f&r=mig |
| By: | Keola, Souknilanh; Kumagai, Satoru |
| Abstract: | Ad-hoc population dynamics in Krugman’s type core and periphery models adjust population share of a region, based on its real wage rate deviation from national average, at pre-specified speed of population mobility. Whereas speed of population mobility is expected to be different across countries, for geographical, cultural, technological, etc. reasons, one common speed is often applied in theoretical and simulation analysis, due to spatially patchy, and temporally infrequent, availability of sub-national regional data. This article demonstrates how, increasingly available, high definition spatio-temporal remote-sensing data, and their by-products, can be used to measure speed of population mobility in national and sub-national level. |
| Keywords: | Southeast Asia, Population, Migration, Population movement, Regional data, Regional migration |
| JEL: | R10 R23 |
| Date: | 2016–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jet:dpaper:dpaper574&r=mig |
| By: | Sergio A. Lago Alves |
| Abstract: | I expand the standard model with labor frictions and matching function, to account to the endogenous decision to either leave the labor market or migrate to a different sector, after a stochastic training period. Sectors (manufacturing and services) are asymmetric, firms are subject to price stickiness, have specific labor force, post vacancies advertisement and explore both the intensive as the extensive margin of labor. After estimating the model with 13 quarterly data from the goods and labor market, from 2003:Q1 to 2014:Q4, I show that the estimated version of this model is able to account for the heterogeneous dynamics of the labor and goods market in Brazil |
| Date: | 2016–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bcb:wpaper:421&r=mig |
| By: | Oriana Bandiera; Myra Mohnen; Imran Rasul; Martina Viarengo |
| Abstract: | By the mid-19th century, America was the best educated nation on Earth: significant financial investments in education were being undertaken and the majority of children voluntarily attended public schools. So why did US states start introducing compulsory schooling laws at this point in time? We provide qualitative and quantitative evidence that compulsory schooling laws were used as a nation-building tool to homogenize the civic values held by the tens of millions of culturally diverse migrants who moved to America during the 'Age of Mass Migration'. Our central finding is that the adoption of compulsory schooling by American-born median voters occurs significantly earlier in time in states that host many migrants who had lower exposure to civic values in their home countries and had lower demand for common schooling when in the US. By providing micro-foundations for such laws, our study highlights an important link between mass migration and institutional change, where changes are driven by the policy choices of native median-voters in the receiving country rather than migrant settlers themselves |
| JEL: | D02 F22 I28 O15 P16 |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:stieop:057&r=mig |
| By: | Matthew Roskruge (University of Waikato); Jacques Poot (University of Waikato); Laura King (University of Waikato) |
| Abstract: | Both migrant entrepreneurship and social capital are topics which have attracted a great deal of attention. However, relatively little econometric analysis has been done on their interrelationship. In this paper we first consider the relationship between social capital and the prevalence of entrepreneurship. We also investigate the relationship between social capital and the living standards of entrepreneurs. In both cases we ask whether these interrelationships differ between migrants and comparable native-born people. We utilize unit record data from the pooled 2008, 2010 and 2012 New Zealand General Social Surveys (NZGSS). The combined sample consists of 15,541 individuals who are in the labour force. Entrepreneurs are defined as those in the sample who obtained income from self-employment or from owning a business. Social capital is proxied by responses to questions on social networks, volunteering and sense of community. The economic standard of living is measured by either personal income or by an Economic Living Standards Index (ELSI) score developed by the New Zealand Ministry of Social Development. We find significant differences between migrants and the native born in terms of the attributes of social capital that are correlated with entrepreneurship, but volunteering matters equally for both groups. The positive association between social capital attributes and ELSI scores is similar between migrant and natives. Social capital contributes little to explaining incomes of either group. |
| Keywords: | migration, social capital, entrepreneurship, income, standard of living |
| JEL: | F22 J15 L26 Z13 |
| Date: | 2016–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:1607&r=mig |
| By: | Tuccio, Michele (University of Southampton); Wahba, Jackline (University of Southampton); Hamdouch, Bachir (University Mohammed V - Agdal Rabat) |
| Abstract: | This paper focuses on the impact of international migration on the transfer of political and social norms. Exploiting recent and unique data on Morocco, it explores whether households with return and current migrants bear different political preferences and behaviours than non-migrant families. Once controlling for the double selection into emigration and return migration, findings suggest that having a returnee in the household increases the demand for political and social change, driven by returnees mostly from Western European countries, who have been exposed to more democratic norms at destination. However, we find a negative impact of having a current migrant on the willingness to change of the left-behind household, driven by migrants to non-West countries, where the quality of political and social institutions are lower. Our results are robust to also controlling for destination selectivity. Finally, findings suggest that migration not only affect political attitudes but also actual behaviour: regions with higher returnee shares have had greater participation rates in the 2011 political elections. |
| Keywords: | international migration, political change, transfer of norms, Morocco |
| JEL: | D72 F22 O15 O55 |
| Date: | 2016–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9794&r=mig |
| By: | De Paola, Maria (University of Calabria); Brunello, Giorgio (University of Padova) |
| Abstract: | We examine the role of education in fostering the economic integration of immigrants. Although immigrants in Europe are – on average – slightly less educated than native individuals, there is a large heterogeneity across countries. We discuss evidence on student performance in international tests showing that children with an immigrant background display worse results than natives. While in some countries, such as Denmark and France, this gap is almost entirely explained by differences in socio-economic background, in others (Finland, Austria, Belgium and Portugal) the factors driving the gap are more complex and have roots also outside socio-economic conditions. We investigate how educational policies in the host count can affect the educational outcomes of immigrants. We focus our attention on pre-school attendance, school tracking, the combination of students and teacher characteristics, and class composition. |
| Keywords: | education, immigration, European migration policies, school tracking, class composition |
| JEL: | I20 I21 I28 J24 J61 |
| Date: | 2016–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9836&r=mig |
| By: | Jason Long; Henry E. Siu |
| Abstract: | We construct longitudinal data from the U.S. Census records to study migration patterns of those affected by the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. Our focus is on the famous "Okie" migration of the Southern Great Plains. We find that migration rates were much higher in the Dust Bowl than elsewhere in the U.S. This difference is due to the fact that individuals who were typically unlikely to move (e.g., those with young children, those living in their birth state) were equally likely to move in the Dust Bowl. While this result of elevated mobility conforms to long-standing perceptions of the Dust Bowl, our other principal findings contradict conventional wisdom. First, relative to other occupations, farmers in the Dust Bowl were the least likely to move; this relationship between mobility and occupation was unique to that region. Second, out-migration rates from the Dust Bowl region were only slightly higher than they were in the 1920s. Hence, the depopulation of the Dust Bowl was due largely to a sharp drop in migration inflows. Dust Bowl migrants were no more likely to move to California than migrants from other parts of the U.S., or those from the same region ten years prior. In this sense, the westward push from the Dust Bowl to California was unexceptional. Finally, migration from the Dust Bowl was not associated with long-lasting negative labor market effects, and for farmers, the effects were positive. |
| JEL: | J61 J62 N12 N32 |
| Date: | 2016–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:22108&r=mig |
| By: | Melanie Morten; Jaqueline Oliveira |
| Abstract: | How integrated are labor markets within a country? Labor mobility is key to the integration of local labor markets and therefore to understanding the efficacy of policies to reduce regional inequality. We present a comprehensive framework for understanding migration decisions, focusing on the costs of migrating. We construct and then estimate a spatial equilibrium model where mobility is determined not only by idiosyncratic tastes, but also by moving costs that are origin-destination dependent. We use rich data on the inter-municipality moves of 18 million people together with exogenous variation in the road network caused by the construction of a capital city to identify the bilateral costs of moving between two regions. The mean observed migration cost is between 0.8-1.2 times the mean wage. 84% of the migration cost is a fixed cost, 3.5% depends on the distance between locations, and 9.6% is dependent on the travel time on the road. This imperfect integration of labor markets has two key implications. First, costly migration generates heterogeneity in regional responses to economic shocks. A region 10% more connected will have a 5.6 percentage point higher population elasticity to wage shocks. Second, costly migration changes the incidence of regional shocks. We estimate that 37% of the total incidence of a shock falls on residents, compared to 1% in a model where migration is costless. Our results have important implications for understanding the impact of economic development as well as the impact of place-based development policies. |
| JEL: | J61 O18 O54 |
| Date: | 2016–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:22158&r=mig |
| By: | Jed Armstrong; Chris McDonald (Reserve Bank of New Zealand) |
| Abstract: | Net immigration increases both labour demand and labour supply. Historical data suggests that the demand impact is larger than the supply impact, but in the current migration cycle the boost to net demand appears to be smaller than expected. This paper explores why the unemployment rate has been higher than expected, given the high level of net immigration. |
| Date: | 2016–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nzb:nzbans:2016/02&r=mig |
| By: | Andreas Steinmayr |
| Abstract: | An important concern about the surge in the number of refugees arriving in Europe is increased support for far-right, nationalist, anti-immigration parties. This paper studies a natural experiment in an Austrian federal state to identify the causal effect of exposure to refugees in the neighborhood on the support for the far-right Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ). In the Upper Austria state election in September 2015 the FPÖ doubled its vote share with a fierce anti-asylum campaign. Since only 42 percent of Upper Austrian communities hosted refugees at the time of the election, direct exposure to refugees varied at the local level. To account for the potential endogeneity in the distribution of refugees, I use pre-existing group accommodations as instrumental variable. To cope with the sudden inflow of large numbers of refugees, these buildings were used for refugee accommodation and thus strongly increase the probability of refugee presence in the community. In line with the contact hypothesis I find that hosting refugees in the community dampens the positive overall trend and decreases FPÖ support by 4.42 percentage points in state elections. Further analysis using exit poll data reveals a positive effect on the optimism in the population that the integration of refugees can be managed. Placebo tests show that there were no effects in elections prior to 2015. |
| Keywords: | Immigration, refugees, political economy, voting |
| Date: | 2016–03–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wfo:wpaper:y:2016:i:514&r=mig |