|
on Economics of Human Migration |
| By: | Sari Pekkala Kerr; William Kerr; Çaǧlar Özden; Christopher Parsons |
| Abstract: | The global distribution of talent is highly skewed and the resources available to countries to develop and utilize their best and brightest vary substantially. The migration of skilled workers across countries tilts the deck even further. Using newly available data, we first review the landscape of global talent mobility, which is both asymmetric and rising in importance. We next consider the determinants of global talent flows at the individual and firm levels and sketch some important implications. Third, we review the national gatekeepers for skilled migration and broad differences in approaches used to select migrants for admission. Looking forward, the capacity of people, firms, and countries to successfully navigate this tangled web of global talent will be critical to their success. |
| JEL: | F15 F22 J15 J31 J44 L14 L26 O31 O32 O33 |
| Date: | 2016–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:22715&r=mig |
| By: | Mariani, Fabio (Université catholique de Louvain); Mercier, Marion (IRES, Université catholique de Louvain); Verdier, Thierry (Paris School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | We build a model of conflict in which two groups contest a resource and must decide on the optimal allocation of labor between fighting and productive activities. In this setting, a diaspora emanating from one of the two groups can get actively involved in the conflict by transferring financial resources to its origin country. We find that the diaspora influences the war outcome and, above a certain size, contributes to the escalation of violence. Given the characteristics of the conflict equilibrium, the two groups of residents prefer to negotiate a peaceful settlement if there exists a sharing rule that makes both of them better off than war. We then identify the characteristics of the economy such that the diaspora acts as a peace-wrecking force or triggers a transition towards peace. A dynamic version of the model with an endogenous diaspora allows us to analyze the joint evolution of migration and conflict in the home country, discuss the role of openness to migration and the possibility of multiple equilibria, and draw some policy implications. |
| Keywords: | diasporas, conflict, international migration |
| JEL: | F22 D74 O1 |
| Date: | 2016–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10274&r=mig |
| By: | Dao, Thu Hien (IRES, Université catholique de Louvain); Docquier, Frédéric (Université catholique de Louvain); Parsons, Christopher (University of Western Australia); Peri, Giovanni (University of California, Davis) |
| Abstract: | Emigration first increases before decreasing with economic development. This bell-shaped relationship between emigration and development was first hypothesized by the theory of the mobility transition (Zelinsky, 1971). Although several mechanisms have been proposed to explain the upward segment of the curve (the most common being the existence of financial constraints), they have not been examined in a systematic way. In this paper, we develop a novel migration accounting methodology and use it to quantify the main drivers of the mobility transition curve. Our analysis distinguishes between migration aspirations and realization rates of college-educated and less educated individuals at the bilateral level. Between one-third and one-half of the slope of the increasing segment is due to the changing skill composition of working-age populations, and another third is due to changing network size. The microeconomic channel (including financial incentives and constraints) only accounts for one fourth of the total effect in low-income countries, and for less than one fifth in lower-middle-income countries. Finally, our methodology sheds light on the microfoundations of migration decisions. |
| Keywords: | Migration, Development, Aspirations, Credit Constraints |
| JEL: | F22 O15 |
| Date: | 2016–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10272&r=mig |
| By: | Dustmann, Christian; Fasani, Francesco; Frattini, Tommaso; Minale, Luigi; Schönberg, Uta |
| Abstract: | This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of refugee migration, with emphasis on the current refugee crisis. After first reviewing the institutional framework laid out by the Geneva Convention for Refugees, we demonstrate that, despite numerous attempts at developing a common European asylum policy, EU countries continue to differ widely in interpretation and implementation. We then describe key features of the current refugee crisis and document the overall magnitudes and types of refugee movements, illegal border crossings, and asylum applications to EU member states. We next turn to the economics of refugee migrations, contrasting economic and refugee migrants, discussing the trade-offs between long-term asylum and temporary protection, and highlighting the economic advantages of increasingly coordinating the different national asylum policies. Finally, we illustrate the economic integration of past refugee migrants to EU countries and conclude with several policy recommendations. |
| Keywords: | Asylum Policy; asylum seekers; refugee crisis |
| JEL: | F22 J15 J61 |
| Date: | 2016–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:11557&r=mig |
| By: | Comino, Stefano; Mastrobuoni, Giovanni; Nicolò, Antonio |
| Abstract: | We analyze the consequences of illegally residing in a country on the likelihood of reporting a crime to the police and, as a consequence, on the likelihood to become victims of a crime. We use an immigration amnesty to address two issues when dealing with the legal status of immigrants: it is both endogenous as well as mostly unobserved in surveys. Right after the 1986 US Immigration Reform and Control Act, which disproportionately legalized individuals of Hispanic origin, crime victims of Hispanic origin in cities with a large proportion of illegal Hispanics become considerably more likely to report a crime. Non-Hispanics show no changes. Difference-in-differences estimates that adjust for the misclassification of legal status imply that the reporting rate of undocumented immigrants is close to 11 percent. Gaining legal status the reporting rate triples, approaching the reporting rate of non-Hispanics. We also find some evidence that following the amnesty Hispanics living in metropolitan areas with a large share of illegal migrants experience a reduction in victimization. This is coherent with a simple behavioral model of crime that guides our empirical strategies, where amnesties increase the reporting rate of legalized immigrants, which, in turn, modify the victimization of natives and migrants. |
| Date: | 2016–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esx:essedp:17806&r=mig |
| By: | Andrees, Beate.; Nasri, Alix.; Swiniarski, Peter. |
| Keywords: | migrant worker, recruitment, trafficking in persons, forced labour, migration policy, role of ILO, case study, travailleur migrant, recrutement, trafic d'êtres humains, travail forcé, politique migratoire, rôle de l'OIT, étude de cas, trabajador migrante, contratación, trata de personas, trabajo forzoso, política migratoria, papel de la OIT, estudio de casos |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ilo:ilowps:994880853402676&r=mig |
| By: | Manuela Stranges; François-Charles Wolff (Dipartimento di Economia, Statistica e Finanza, Università della Calabria) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the trajectories of illegal migrants in Italy using unique individual data stemming from a centre for reception of refugees and asylum seekers located in the southern region of Calabria during the period 2008-2014. We find that inflows in the centre have some peaks associated to political crises and wars in origin countries and lead to frequent overcrowding, but economic conditions also matter. There are large differences in the timing of exit decisions. Exit motives related to the obtainment of any form of international protection increase time spent in the centre. Conversely, more than 80% of migrants from Syria or Palestine have left the centre by their own only one month after their entry, meaning that those origin groups do not intend to settle in Italy. Overall, our results put in evidence the limits of the Dublin system which does not allow migrants to reach the country they wish to live. |
| Keywords: | Illegal migrants, Refugees, Asylum seekers, Italy, Administrative data |
| JEL: | O15 F22 N3 |
| Date: | 2016–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:clb:wpaper:201610&r=mig |
| By: | Guillaume Daudin (LEDa - Laboratoire d'Economie de Dauphine - Université Paris-Dauphine); Raphaël Franck (Bar-Ilan University - Bar-Ilan University [Israël]); Hillel Rapoport (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, PSE - Paris School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | France experienced the demographic transition before richer and more educated countries. This paper offers a novel explanation for this puzzle that emphasizes the diffusion of culture and information through internal migration. It tests how migration affected fertility by building a decennial bilateral migration matrix between French regions for 1861-1911. The identification strategy uses exogenous variation in transportation costs resulting from the construction of railways. The results suggest the convergence towards low birth rates can be explained by the diffusion of low-fertility norms by migrants, especially by migrants to and from Paris. |
| Keywords: | Fertility,France,Demographic Transition,Migration |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-01321952&r=mig |
| By: | Laurent Gobillon (PSE - Paris School of Economics, PSE - Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC), CEPR - Center for Economic Policy Research - CEPR, University of Pennsylvania [Philadelphia]); Matthieu Solignac (University of Pennsylvania [Philadelphia]) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the difference in homeownership rates between natives and first-generation immigrants in France, and how this difference evolves over the 1975-1999 period, by using a large longitudinal dataset. We find that the homeownership gap is large and has increased. Entries into the territory have a large negative effect on the evolution of homeownership rates for immigrants. Although entrants have on average better education than people staying in the territory for the entire period (i.e. stayers), they are younger and thus at an earlier stage in the wealth accumulation process. They are also located in large cities, where the homeownership rate is lower, and the returns to their characteristics are lower than those for stayers. Leavers have a positive effect on the evolution of homeownership rates for immigrants because they have a low access to homeownership and they exit the country. But this effect is only one-third that of entrants. For stayers, we show that returns to characteristics change in favor of immigrants, which is consistent with assimilation theories. However, among stayers who access homeownership, immigrants end up in owned dwellings that are of lesser quality than natives. |
| Keywords: | Homeownership,Immigrants,Longitudinal data |
| Date: | 2015–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-01233069&r=mig |
| By: | Mike Waugh (New York University); Ahmed Mobarak (Yale University); David Lagakos (University of California, San Diego) |
| Abstract: | To what extent do the large urban-rural wage gaps in developing countries reflect a spatial misallocation of labor? We answer this question using a dynamic model of internal migration that encompasses two broad interpretations of these gaps. The first is that workers are misallocated across space due to uninsurable migration risk and incomplete markets. The second is that workers are heterogenous and sort efficiently across space given migration costs. We discipline the model quantitatively using evidence from a controlled migration experiment in Bangladesh and new survey evidence about migration opportunities for potential migrants. We then use the model to compare the status quo to the efficient spatial allocation of workers chosen by a benevolent planner. We conclude that urban-rural wage gaps mostly reflects sorting and migration costs, though improved access to financial markets would still reduce misallocation and improve living standards substantially for some workers. |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:red:sed016:1032&r=mig |