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on Economics of Human Migration |
| By: | Constant, Amelie F. (UNU-MERIT, and Princeton University); Garcia-Munoz, Teresa (University of Granada); Neuman, Shoshana (Bar-Ilan University); Neuman, Tzahi (Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center) |
| Abstract: | Previous literature in a variety of countries has documented a "healthy immigrant effect" (HIE). Accordingly, immigrants arriving in the host country are, on average, healthier than comparable natives. However, their health status dissipates with additional years in the country. HIE is explained through the positive self-selection of the healthy immigrants as well as the positive selection, screening and discrimination applied by host countries. In this paper we study the health of immigrants within the context of selection and migration policies. Using SHARE data we examine the HIE comparing Israel and sixteen countries in Europe that have fundamentally different migration policies. Israel has virtually unrestricted open gates for Jewish people around the world, who in turn have ideological rather than economic considerations to move. European countries have selective policies with regards to the health, education and wealth of migrants, who also self-select themselves. Our results provide evidence that a) immigrants to Israel have compromised health and suffer from many health ailments, making them less healthy than comparable natives. Their health does not improve for up to 20 years of living in Israel, after which they become similar to natives; b) immigrants to Europe have better health than natives and their health advantage persists up to six years from their arrival, after which they are not significantly different than natives except in one case in which the health of immigrants became worse than that of natives after 21 years. Our results are important for migration policy and relevant for domestic health policy. |
| Keywords: | self-reported health status, immigration, Europe, Israel, older population, multilevel regression, SHARE |
| JEL: | C22 J11 J12 J14 O12 O15 O52 |
| Date: | 2016–09–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:unumer:2016051&r=mig |
| By: | Xavier Chojnicki; Anthony Edo; Lionel Ragot |
| Abstract: | The question of whether migration can serve as a channel for regional adjustment to asymmetric shocks is crucial in an economic and monetary union. It is of particular interest within the Eurozone where countries do not have flexible exchange rates as an adjustment mechanism. By moving from countries with high unemployment to countries with better employment prospects, intra-European migrants should help countries to adjust to asymmetric shocks and lead to a more efficient allocation of resources within the free migration regime. This policy brief exploits the 2008 economic crisis to investigate how labor market disparities between EU15 countries affected intra-European migration. Our main contributions are threefold. First, over the period 2000-2013, we find that intra-European migration indeed responds to regional differences in employment conditions: a rise in unemployment differences between two EU15 countries fosters migration to the country with the better employment conditions. Second, we find that the 2008 economic crisis led to a strong reallocation of individuals within the EU15 between the southern countries (Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain) which were the most affected by the crisis and the least affected countries, such as Denmark and the UK. Third, our results indicate that responsiveness to regional employment disparities is far greater among non-EU15 immigrants, compared to European-born people. This finding suggests that the mobility of Europeans within the EU15 could be greater, a hypothesis that is consistent with the higher mobility observed in the United States. Improving cross-country portability of social rights within the EU could thus be a relevant reform to foster intra-EU mobility. |
| Keywords: | Intra-European Migration;Labor mobility;Regional adjustment;Regional shocks;European Union;Employment;Economic crisis |
| JEL: | F22 J61 J68 |
| Date: | 2016–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cii:cepipb:2016-13&r=mig |
| By: | Emanuele Forlani (University of Pavia and Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano); Elisabetta Lodigiani (University of Padova and Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano); Concetta Mendolicchio (Institute for Employment Research) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we assess the impact of international migration, and the induced homecare service labour supply shock, on fertility decisions and labour supply of native females in Germany. Specifically, we consider individual data of native women from the German Socio-Economic Panel and we merge them with the data on the share of female immigrants and other regional labour market characteristics. We find that an increase of the share of female immigrants at the local level induces women to work longer hours and positively affects the probability to have a child. This effect strengthens for (medium) skilled women and, among them, for women younger than 35 years of age. The negative change in household work attitude confirms the behavioural validity of our results. |
| Keywords: | Female labour, time allocation, fertility, international migration |
| JEL: | J13 J22 J61 |
| Date: | 2016–10–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csl:devewp:404&r=mig |
| By: | Ferdinand Rauch; Christopher Parsons |
| Abstract: | Under apartheid, black South Africans were severely restricted in their choice of location and many were forced to live in homelands. Following the abolition of apartheid they were free to migrate. Given gravity, a town nearer to the homelands can be expected to receive a larger inflow of people than a more distant town following the removal of mobility restrictions. Exploting this exogenous variation, we study the effect of migration on urbanisation and the distribution of population. In particular, we test if migration inflows led to displacement, path dependence, or agglomeration in destination areas. We find evidence for path dependence in the aggregate, but substantial heterogeneity across town densities. An exogenous population shock leads to an increase of the urban relative to the rural population, which suggests that exogenous migration shocks can foster urbanisation in the medium run. |
| Keywords: | Economic geography, migration, urbanisation, natural experiment |
| JEL: | R12 R23 N97 O18 |
| Date: | 2016–07–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oxf:wpaper:800&r=mig |
| By: | Bredtmann, Julia; Martínez Flores, Fernanda; Otten, Sebastian |
| Abstract: | Research on the relationship between high-skilled migration and remittances has been limited by the lack of suitable microdata. We create a unique cross-country dataset by combining household surveys from five Sub-Saharan African countries that enables us to analyze the effect of migrants' education on their remittance behavior. Having comprehensive information on both ends of the migrant-origin household relationship and employing household fixed effects specifications that only use within-household variation for identification allows us to address the problem of unobserved heterogeneity across migrants' origin households. Our results reveal that migrants' education has no significant impact on the likelihood of sending remittances. Conditional on sending remittances, however, high-skilled migrants send significantly higher amounts of money to their households left behind. This effect holds for the sub-groups of internal migrants and migrants in non-OECD countries, while it vanishes for migrants in OECD destination countries once characteristics of the origin household are controlled for. |
| Abstract: | Auf Basis von Haushaltsbefragungen in fünf Ländern Sub-Sahara Afrikas untersuchen wir den Einfluss der Bildung von Migranten auf deren Rücküberweisungen an ihre im Heimatland verbliebenen Haushalte. Das Vorhandensein umfangreicher Informationen über die Migranten als auch über die Haushalte im Heimatland sowie die Verwendung von Haushalts-Fixed-Effects-Schätzungen erlauben es uns, das Problem unbeobachtbarer Heterogenität zwischen den Herkunftshaushalten zu adressieren. Unsere Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die Bildung der Migranten keinen signifikanten Einfluss auf deren Wahrscheinlichkeit hat, Rücküberweisungen zu schicken. Gegeben, dass Rücküberweisungen gesendet werden, überweisen Migranten mit einem Universitätsabschluss jedoch signifikant höhere Beträge an ihre Herkunftshaushalte als geringer qualifizierte Migranten. Schätzungen für unterschiedliche Gruppen von Migranten zeigen, dass dieser Effekt für interne Migranten sowie für Migranten in Nicht-OECD-Ländern bestehen bleibt. Für Migranten in OECD-Ländern finden wir hingegen keinen signifikanten Einfluss des Bildungsniveaus auf deren Rücküberweisungen sobald Charakteristika des Haushaltes im Herkunftsland in den Modellen berücksichtigt werden. |
| Keywords: | migration,remittances,skill level,brain drain,Sub-Saharan Africa |
| JEL: | F22 F24 O15 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:rwirep:654&r=mig |
| By: | Jan Brzozowski (Cracow University of Economics); Nicola Daniele Coniglio (Università degli Studi di Bari "Aldo Moro”) |
| Abstract: | The existing economic literature focuses on the benefits that return migrants offer to their home country in terms of entrepreneurship, human and financial capital accumulation. However, return migration can have modest or even some detrimental effects if the migration experience was unsuccessful and/or if the migrant fails to reintegrate into the home country's economy. In our paper, we empirically show which factors - both individual characteristics and features related to the migration experience - influence the likelihood of a sub-optimal employment of returnees' human capital employing an original dataset on a representative sample of return migrants in Silesia (Poland). |
| Keywords: | return migration; international migration; economic performance; regional development |
| JEL: | O15 F22 J24 R23 |
| Date: | 2016–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bai:series:series_wp_08-2016&r=mig |
| By: | Fasani, Francesco |
| Abstract: | Do general amnesty programs lead to reductions in the crime rate among immigrants? We answer this question by exploiting both cross-sectional and time variation in the number of immigrants legalized generated by the enactment of repeated amnesty programs between 1990 and 2005 in Italy. We address the potential endogeneity of the "legalization treatment'' by instrumenting the actual number of legalized immigrants with alternative predicted measures based on past amnesty applications patterns and residential choices of documented and undocumented immigrants. We find that, in the year following an amnesty, regions in which a higher share of immigrants obtained legal status experienced a greater decline in non-EU immigrant crime rates, relative to other regions. The effect is statistically significant but relatively small and not persistent. In further results, we fail to find any evidence of substitution in the criminal market from other population groups - namely, EU immigrants and Italian citizens - and we observe a small and not persistent reduction in total offenses. |
| Keywords: | illegal migration; legalization; migration policy |
| JEL: | F22 J61 K37 |
| Date: | 2016–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:11603&r=mig |
| By: | Hendricks, Lutz; Schoellman, Todd |
| Abstract: | We reconsider the role for human capital in accounting for cross-country income differences. Our contribution is to bring to bear new data on the pre- and post- migration labor market experiences of immigrants to the U.S. Immigrants from poor countries experience wage gains that are only 40 percent of the GDP per worker gap, which implies that "country" accounts for 40 percent of income differences, while human capital accounts for 60 percent. Our approach handles selection by comparing the wage of the same individual in two different countries. We also provide evidence on and a correction for skill transfer. |
| JEL: | O11 J31 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:cfswop:557&r=mig |
| By: | Anna Rosso (University of Milan and Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, I examine wage developments among Eastern European immigrants versus UK natives between 1998 and 2008 by measuring the extent to which intergroup wage differentials are explainable by these groups’ changing attributes or by differences in returns to these characteristics. Specifically, by applying unconditional quantile regression to immigrant-native wage gaps before and after the 2004 EU enlargement to Eastern countries, I show that a major part of the decrease in the average wages of Eastern European migrants in the UK results from a large decrease in wage levels at the top of the distribution. At all distribution points, major role is played by occupational downgrading, which increases over time. The results further suggest that the decreased wage levels at the top of the distribution stem mainly from low transferability of skills acquired in the source country. |
| Keywords: | migration, EU enlargement, labour market outcomes |
| JEL: | J31 J61 F22 |
| Date: | 2016–10–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csl:devewp:405&r=mig |
| By: | Poot, Jacques (University of Waikato); Alimi, Omoniyi (University of Waikato); Cameron, Michael P. (University of Waikato); Maré, Dave C. (Motu Economic and Public Policy Research Trust) |
| Abstract: | For at least half a century, and building on observations first made a century earlier, the gravity model has been the most commonly‐used paradigm for understanding gross migration flows between regions. This model owes its success to, firstly, its intuitive consistency with migration theories; secondly, ease of estimation in its simplest form; and, thirdly, goodness of fit in most applications. While fitting gravity models of aggregate migration flows started taking backstage to microdata analysis in the 1980s, a recent comeback has resulted from increasing applications to international migration and from the emergence of statistical theories appropriate for studying spatial interaction. In this paper we review the status quo and argue for greater integration of internal and international migration modelling. Additionally we revisit the issues of parameter stability and distance deterrence measurement by means of a New Zealand case study. We argue that gravity modelling of migration has a promising future in a multi‐regional stochastic population projection system – an area in which the model has been to date surprisingly underutilised. We conclude with outlining current challenges and opportunities in this field. |
| Keywords: | gravity model, internal migration, international migration, population projection |
| JEL: | F22 J61 R23 |
| Date: | 2016–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10329&r=mig |
| By: | Dotti, Valerio |
| Abstract: | I investigate the effects of population ageing on immigration policies. Voters' attitude towards immigrants depends on how the net gains from immigration are divided up in the society by the fiscal policy. In the theoretical literature this aspect is treated as exogenous to the political process because of technical constraints. This generates inconsistent predictions about the policy outcome. I adopt a new equilibrium concept for voting models to analyse the endogenous relationship between immigration and fiscal policies and solve this apparent inconsistency. I show that the elderly and the poor have a common interest in limiting immigration and in increasing public spending. This exacerbates the effects of population ageing on public finances and results in a high tax burden on working age individuals and further worsens the age profile of the population. Moreover, I show that if the share of elderly population is suffciently large, then a society is unambiguously harmed by the tightening in the immigration policy caused by the demographic change. The implications of the model are consistent with the patterns observed in UK attitudinal data and in line with the findings of the empirical literature about migration. |
| Keywords: | Immigration , Ageing , Policy , Voting |
| JEL: | D72 C71 J61 H55 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mnh:wpaper:41185&r=mig |
| By: | Pinotti, Paolo |
| Abstract: | We estimate the effect of immigrant legalization on the crime rate of immigrants in Italy by exploiting an ideal regression discontinuity design: fixed quotas of residence permits are available each year, applications must be submitted electronically on specific ``Click Days'', and are processed on a first-come, first-served basis until the available quotas are exhausted. Matching data on applications with individual-level criminal records, we show that legalization reduces the crime rate of legalized immigrants by 0.6 percentage points on average, on a baseline crime rate of 1.1 percent. |
| Keywords: | crime; legal status; regression discontinuity design |
| JEL: | J61 K37 K42 |
| Date: | 2016–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:11597&r=mig |
| By: | Constant, Amelie F. (UNU-MERIT, and Princeton University); Krause, Annabelle (IZA Bonn); Rinne, Ulf (IZA Bonn); Zimmermann, Klaus F. (UNU-MERIT, and Princeton University) |
| Abstract: | We analyse the reservation wages of first- and second-generation migrants, based on rich survey data of the unemployed in Germany. Our results confirm the hypothesis that reservation wages increase over migrant generations and over time, suggesting that the mobility benefit of immigration may be limited in time. |
| Keywords: | Migration, Unemployment, Job Search, Reservation Wages |
| JEL: | J15 J61 J64 |
| Date: | 2016–09–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:unumer:2016050&r=mig |
| By: | Rémi BAZILLIER; Daniel MIRZA; Francesco MAGRIS |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:leo:wpaper:2446&r=mig |
| By: | Pekkala Kerr, Sari (Wellesley College); Kerr, William (Harvard Business School); Ozden, Caglar (World Bank); Parsons, Christopher (University of Western Australia) |
| 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. |
| Keywords: | migration, talent, diaspora |
| JEL: | F15 F22 J15 J31 J44 L14 L26 O31 O32 O33 |
| Date: | 2016–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10328&r=mig |
| By: | Cristina Cattaneo (FEEM and CMCC); Valentina Bosetti (Bocconi University, FEEM and CMCC) |
| Abstract: | Population movements will help people facing the impact of climate change. However, the resulting large scale displacements may also produce security risks for receiving areas. The objective of this paper is to empirically estimate if the inflows of climate-induced migrants increase the risk of conflicts in receiving areas. Using data from 1960 to 2000, we show that climate-induced migrants are not an additional determinant of civil conflicts and civil wars in receiving areas. |
| Keywords: | Conflict, Global Warming, Emigration |
| JEL: | Q54 F22 Q34 H56 |
| Date: | 2016–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fem:femwpa:2016.63&r=mig |
| By: | Muyanga, Milu; Otieno, Dennis; Jayne, T.S. |
| Abstract: | One of the key drivers of youth migration of inequitable distribution of land which denies them access to work environment. Youths hold limited small land sizes even when they migrate and this limits there involvement in agriculture. Majority of the rural youths have low education levels and professional skills which hindered their ability to access decent jobs. The results of the hypothesis test revealed that there is relationship between the ages of migrants and their reasons for migration to the cities while migrant’s marital status was not significantly related to their reasons for migrating motives. This study recommends that the government and non-governmental organizations should endeavour to establish skill acquisition in the devolved counties in Kenya centres in the rural areas to stem the rate of rural-urban migration. |
| Keywords: | Youths, Migration, land, agriculture and Employment, Labor and Human Capital, Land Economics/Use, |
| Date: | 2016–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaae16:249288&r=mig |
| By: | Umakrishnan Kollamparambil |
| Abstract: | The impact of internal migration on regional income inequality of the receiving areas has hitherto gone largely unstudied. This dearth of literature is especially surprising because income inequality and in-migration into urban centres of growth are two issues that many developing economies are faced with and tackling these issues effectively involves understanding the interactions between these two related phenomena. This study is therefore a first attempt to analyse the impact of internal in-migration on receiving areas and is placed in the context of South Africa. Based on a conceptual analysis the study argues that In-migration into formal sector of the receiving areas will in general reduce inequality while in-migration into informal or unemployed sector increases inequality. Using individual panel data the study further tests empirically at the district level the impact of in-migration and finds that rising urban inequality in the urban areas can be attributed at least in part to rural-urban migration. This works through both the wage as well as employment channel. The employment channel can be said to have a stronger impact than the wage channel as indicated by the coefficients estimated through our system GMM regression analysis. |
| Keywords: | internal migration, In-migration, Income Inequality |
| JEL: | O15 R23 |
| Date: | 2016–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rza:wpaper:646&r=mig |
| By: | Thierry BAUDASSE; Rémi BAZILLIER; Ismaël ISSIFOU |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:leo:wpaper:2448&r=mig |
| By: | Dramane Coulibaly; Blaise Gnimassoun; Valérie Mignon |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the growth-enhancing effect of openness to trade and to migration by focusing on African countries. Relying on robust estimation techniques dealing with both endogeneity and omitted variables issues, our results show a varying impact of openness for Africa depending on the type of the partner country. Specifically, while trade between Africa and industrialized countries has a clear and robust positive impact on Africa's standards of living, trade with developing countries fails to be growth-enhancing. Moreover, our findings show that migration has no significant effect on per capita income in Africa regardless of the partner. Finally, exploring the trade openness transmission channel, we establish that the growth-enhancing effect of Africa's trade with industrialized countries mainly occurs through an improvement in total factor productivity. |
| Keywords: | Trade;International migration;Income per person;Africa |
| JEL: | F22 F4 O4 O55 |
| Date: | 2016–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cii:cepidt:2016-25&r=mig |
| By: | Constant, Amelie F. (UNU-MERIT, and Princeton University); Zimmermann, Klaus F. (UNU-MERIT, and Princeton University) |
| Abstract: | While Europe feels inundated by the 2015 refugee waves, the policy responses of the European Union and its member countries exhibit signs of helplessness. The Dublin system assigning responsibility to the country of first-entry has failed. Identifying true asylum seekers effectively and distributing them fairly across Europe requests loyalty to the once accepted humanitarian standards and solidarity with the principles of Europe. A turnaround of the European asylum policy is needed: Commonly organised registration, selection and distribution systems have to be followed by an early access of asylum seekers to the European labour markets. |
| Keywords: | Refugees, Asylees, Asylum Policy, Migration, Labour Market Access |
| JEL: | F51 F55 H75 J61 J64 J68 O15 |
| Date: | 2016–11–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:unumer:2016062&r=mig |
| By: | Ng’ang’a, Stanley Karanja; Bulte, Erwin; Giller, Ken E.; McIntire, John M.; Rufino, Mariana C. |
| Abstract: | Climate change will affect the livelihoods of pastoralists in arid and semi-arid lands. We use new data from Samburu District, northern Kenya, to explore whether migration of household members affects adoption of adaptive measures. Specifically, we seek to test whether migra-tion and adaptation are complementary mechanisms to protect the household against adverse shocks, or whether they are substitutes. Do remittances relax capital market constraints and facilitate the uptake of adaptive measures, or do they render adaptation superfluous? Our data suggests migration –via remittances – facilitates the adoption of self-protective measures in the areas of origin of the migrants. Supporting our interpretation that credit constraints constitute the main mechanism linking migration to adoption, we document that the effects of migration on self-protection are only significant in locations where villagers lack access to credit. |
| Keywords: | Adaptation to climate change, pastoralism, capital market imperfections, insurance, remittances, Environmental Economics and Policy, Land Economics/Use, |
| Date: | 2016–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaae16:246271&r=mig |
| By: | Ljunge, Martin (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents evidence of how attitudes toward gender roles in the home and market are shaped by Hofstede’s six cultural dimensions. Children of immigrants in a broad set of European countries with ancestry from across the world are studied. Individuals are examined within country of residence using variation in cultural dimensions across countries of ancestry. The approach focuses attention on how gender roles are shaped across generations within families. Both influences on the father’s and mother’s side are studied. Ancestry from more masculine cultures shape more traditional gender roles on both parents’ sides. On the father side more pragmatic cultures foster gender equality on the mother’s side power distance promote equality attitudes, although this influence differs markedly between daughters and sons. Pragmatism is in several circumstances the strongest influence on gender norms. |
| Keywords: | Gender roles; intergenerational transmission; Hofstede cultural dimensions; Gender |
| JEL: | D13 D83 J16 Z13 |
| Date: | 2016–11–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:1137&r=mig |