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on Economics of Human Migration |
| By: | Margit Osterloh; Bruno S. Frey |
| Abstract: | We propose an immigration policy based on the model of cooperatives. Incoming migrants have to acquire a participation certificate. In exchange, the immigrants may enter the country of choice without danger. The revenue goes to the country of the recipient nation rather than to human smugglers. The cost would be much lower than today’s efforts to secure the borders. Asylum seekers get back the money paid for the certificate. Immigration is therewith regulated more efficiently than today. Not all entrance barriers and coercive measures to prevent illegal entry would disappear. However, the pressure of illegal migrants is strongly reduced. |
| Keywords: | immigration, asylum, cooperatives, participation certificates, borders |
| JEL: | D71 F22 J61 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_6364&r=mig |
| By: | Vaalavuo, Maria (National Institute for Health and Welfare); van Ham, Maarten (Delft University of Technology); Kauppinen, Timo M. (National Institute for Health and Welfare) |
| Abstract: | Concentration to disadvantaged neighbourhoods may hinder immigrants' opportunities for social integration, so equal chances of translating available economic resources into mobility to less disadvantaged neighbourhoods are important. This paper adds to existing research on exits from poor neighbourhoods by focusing on the effects of income increase on residential mobility. We analyse intra-urban residential mobility from low-income neighbourhoods into non-low-income neighbourhoods among immigrants and native-born residents in three urban regions in Finland. We use longitudinal register data for the 2004–2014 period for the full Finnish population, allowing a dynamic analysis of changes in income and neighbourhood of residence. Based on multinomial logit modelling of migration outcomes, we found that an increase in income is associated with moving both to low-income and non-low-income areas even when controlling for initial income level. Upward income mobility was connected to exit from low-income areas in a quite similar way among immigrants and native-born Finns. The findings suggest that policies e.g. improving the labour market opportunities of immigrants are effective in reduction of residential segregation. However, we were not able to completely explain the differences between native-born Finns and immigrants in moving patterns. The differences between the cities were opposite for immigrants and native-born Finns, corresponding to differences in immigration history and levels of ethnic segregation. Therefore, the local context matters for spatial integration outcomes. |
| Keywords: | immigration, segregation, housing, residential mobility, income mobility, register data, Finland |
| JEL: | O15 O18 P25 R23 |
| Date: | 2017–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11076&r=mig |
| By: | Albert, Christoph (Pompeu Fabra University); Monras, Joan (CEMFI, Madrid) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the causes and effects of the spatial distribution of immigrants across US cities. We document that: a) immigrants concentrate in large, high-wage, and expensive cities, b) the earnings gap between immigrants and natives is higher in larger and more expensive cities, and c) immigrants consume less locally than natives. In order to explain these findings, we develop a simple quantitative spatial equilibrium model in which immigrants consume (either directly, via remittances, or future consumption) a fraction of their income in their countries of origin. Thus, immigrants not only care about local prices, but also about price levels in their home country. Hence, if foreign goods are cheaper than local goods, immigrants prefer to live in high-wage, high-price, and high-productivity cities, where they also accept lower wages than natives. Using the estimated model we show that current levels of immigration have reduced economic activity in smaller, less productive cities by around 3 percent, while they have expanded the activity in large and productive cities by around 4 percent. This has increased total aggregate output per worker by around 15 percent. |
| Keywords: | immigration, location choices, spatial equilibrium |
| JEL: | F22 J31 J61 R11 |
| Date: | 2017–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11075&r=mig |
| By: | Cigdem Börke Tunali; Jan Fidrmuc; Nauro F. Campos |
| Abstract: | The vast literature on the effects of immigration on wages and employment is plagued by likely endogeneity and aggregation biases. Ours is among the first papers to address both of these issues by means of causality analysis and by accounting for human capital endowments. Our analysis confirms the previous finding of limited effect of immigration on unemployment and wages in aggregate analysis. We do find, however, evidence of distributional effects when accounting for human capital of non-migrants. |
| Keywords: | immigration, unemployment, wages, UK, European Union |
| JEL: | F22 J21 J61 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_6452&r=mig |
| By: | Maryna Tverdostup, Tiiu Paas |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the immigrant-native wage gap and incorporates cognitive skills to approximate an individual human capital profile. Based on data from the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) for 15 European countries, we document that on average foreign-born respondents achieve substantially worse scores in literacy and numeracy test domain, and the observed gap in cognitive skill declines over the period of the host-country stay. The results of the analysis show that once we account additionally skill use at work in wage regressions, along with actual skill level, no statistically significant gap in earnings across immigrants and natives remains. These findings indicate that, despite similar cognitive skill levels and background traits, immigrants and natives may apply their skills at work to different extents, yielding a difference in their wage returns. Therefore, disparity in skill use at work plays an important role in explaining the immigrant-native wage gap. This leads us to conclude that immigrants are not yet sufficiently well integrated in European labour markets, and the potential for the development and application of their human capital is still underutilised. Further policy measures should profoundly consider these indications, taking into account that the role of immigrants and their labour supply is increasing remarkably in European societies. |
| Keywords: | migration, human capital, cognitive skills, PIAAC |
| JEL: | J15 J24 J31 J61 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mtk:febawb:104&r=mig |
| By: | Lorenzo Caliendo; Luca David Opromolla; Fernando Parro; Alessandro Sforza |
| Abstract: | The economic effects from labor market integration are crucially affected by the extent to which countries are open to trade. In this paper we build a multi-country dynamic general equilibrium model with trade in goods and labor mobility across countries to study and quantify the economic effects of trade and labor market integration. In our model trade is costly and features households of different skills and nationalities facing costly forward-looking relocation decisions. We use the EU Labour Force Survey to construct migration ows by skill and nationality across 17 countries for the period 2002-2007. We then exploit the timing variation of the 2004 EU enlargement to estimate the elasticity of migration ows to labor mobility costs, and to identify the change in labor mobility costs associated to the actual change in policy. We apply our model and use these estimates, as well as the observed changes in tariffs, to quantify the effects from the EU enlargement. We find that new member state countries are the largest winners from the EU enlargement, and in particular unskilled labor. We find smaller welfare gains for EU-15 countries. However, in the absence of changes to trade policy, the EU-15 would have been worse off after the enlargement. We study even further the interaction effects between trade and migration policies and the role of different mechanisms in shaping our results. Our results highlight the importance of trade for the quantification of the welfare and migration effects from labor market integration. |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_6600&r=mig |
| By: | Hsin, Amy (Queens College, CUNY); Ortega, Francesc (Queens College, CUNY) |
| Abstract: | Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) is the first large-scale immigration reform to affect undocumented immigrants in the United States in decades and offers eligible undocumented youth temporary relief from deportation and renewable work permits. While DACA has improved the economic conditions and mental health of undocumented immigrants, we do not know how DACA improves the social mobility of undocumented immigrants through its effect on educational attainment. This paper uses administrative data on students attending a large public university to estimate the effect of DACA on undocumented students' educational outcomes. The data are unique because they accurately identify students' legal status, account for individual heterogeneity, and allow separate analysis of students attending community colleges versus baccalaureate-granting, 4-year colleges. Results from difference-in-difference estimates demonstrate that as a temporary work-permit program, DACA incentivizes work over educational investments but that the effect of DACA on educational investments depends on how easily colleges accommodate working students. At 4-year colleges, DACA induces undocumented students to make binary choices between attending school on a full-time basis or dropping out of school to work. At community colleges, undocumented students have the flexibility to simply reduce course work to accommodate increased work hours. Overall, the results suggest that the precarious and temporary nature of DACA creates barriers to educational investments. |
| Keywords: | immigration, undocumented immigration, education, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, natural experiment |
| JEL: | J15 J24 |
| Date: | 2017–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11078&r=mig |
| By: | Anthony Edo; Hillel Rapoport |
| Abstract: | We exploit the non-linearity in the level of minimum wages across US States created by the coexistence of federal and state regulations to investigate how minimum wages affect the labor market impact of immigration. We find that the effects of immigration on labor market outcomes of native workers within a given state-skill cell are more negative in U.S. States with low minimum wages (i.e., where the federal minimum wage is binding). The results are robust to instrumenting immigration as well as state minimum wages, and to implementing a difference-in-differences strategy comparing U.S. States where effective minimum wages are fully determined by federal standards over the whole period considered (2000-2013) to U.S. States where this is never the case. Our results therefore underline the important role played by minimum wages in mitigating any adverse labor market effects of immigration. |
| Keywords: | immigration, minimum wage, labor market |
| JEL: | F22 J61 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_6547&r=mig |
| By: | Céline Teney (Universität Bremen, SOCIUM and ZenTra); Regina Becker (Universität Bremen, SOCIUM and ZenTra); Katharina Bürkin (Universität Bremen, SOCIUM and ZenTra); Max Spengler (Universität Bremen, SOCIUM and ZenTra) |
| Abstract: | This working paper presents the initial results of our representative survey of physicians working in Germany who are non-German EU citizens and who have recently immigrated to Germany (N: 1712). We address the education and training obtained by respondents by investigating the country in which they completed their medical studies and specialist training as well as their field of specialisation. We then focus on various topics relating specifically to migration, such as the reasons for leaving the country of origin or for immigrating to Germany and other factors that may have had an influence on their migration decision. Third, we provide a description of the working conditions of the non-German EU physicians surveyed, including their professional positions and conditions of work as well as subjective evaluations of the professional situation. We then describe aspects of the socio-cultural integration of European physicians, such as social networks in Germany and feelings of belonging. This working paper ends with an assessment of the non-German EU physicians´ intentions to remain in Germany or plans to immigrate to another country or return to the country of origin. |
| Keywords: | intra-EU immigration, highly skilled immigration, physicians, Germany, survey |
| Date: | 2017–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zen:wpaper:76&r=mig |
| By: | Anthony Edo |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the dynamics of wage adjustment to an exogenous increase in labor supply by exploiting the sudden and unexpected inflow of repatriates to France created by the independence of Algeria in 1962. I track the impact of this particular supply shift on the average wage of pre-existing native workers across French regions in 1962, 1968 and 1976. I find that regional wages decline between 1962 and 1968, before returning to their pre-shock level 15 years after. While regional wages recovered, this particular supply shock had persistent distributional effects. By increasing the relative supply of high educated workers, the inflow of repatriates contributed to the reduction of wage inequality between high and low educated native workers over the whole period considered (1962-1976). |
| Keywords: | labor supply shock, wages, immigration, natural experiment |
| JEL: | F22 J21 J61 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_6595&r=mig |
| By: | Alejandro Esteller-Moré (IEB, Universitat de Barcelona); Amedeo Piolatto (IEB, Universitat de Barcelona); Matthew D. Rablen (University of Sheffield) |
| Abstract: | The taxation of high-income earners is of importance to every country and is the subject of a considerable amount of recent academic research. Such high-income earners contribute substantial amounts of tax and generate significant positive spillovers, but are also highly mobile: a 1% increase in the top marginal income tax rate increases outmigrations by around 1.5 to 3%. We review research into taxation of high-income earners to provide a synthesis of existing theoretical and empirical understanding. We offer various avenues for potential future theoretical and empirical research. |
| Keywords: | High-income earners, mobility, tax avoidance |
| JEL: | H26 H31 K34 K42 |
| Date: | 2017–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:xrp:wpaper:xreap2017-06&r=mig |
| By: | Leonid V. Azarnert |
| Abstract: | This article analyzes the effect of migration from a less advanced economy to a more advanced economy on economic growth. The analysis is performed in a two-country growth model with endogenous fertility, in which congestion diseconomies are incorporated. The model shows that out-migration increases fertility and reduces human capital in the source economy. At the same time, in-migration reduces fertility and can increase or decrease the average level of human capital in the host economy. I show how migration affects the inter-temporal evolution of human capital in the world economy. I also demonstrate that a tax imposed on immigrants in the host economy can increase human capital accumulation in the receiving and sending economies and the world as a whole. |
| Keywords: | migration, congestion diseconomies, fertility, human capital, growth, brain drain, brain dilution tax |
| JEL: | D30 F22 J10 O00 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_6508&r=mig |
| By: | Bauer, Thomas K.; Giesecke, Matthias; Janisch, Laura M. |
| Abstract: | We examine the long-run effects of forced migration from Eastern Europe into postwar Germany. Existing evidence suggests that displaced individuals are worse off economically, facing a considerably lower income and a higher unemployment risk than comparable natives even twenty years after being expelled. We extend this literature by investigating the relative performance of forced migrants across the entire life cycle. Using social security records that document the exact date of death and a proxy for pre-retirement lifetime earnings, we estimate a significantly and considerably higher mortality risk among forced migrants compared to native West-Germans. The adverse displacement effect persists throughout the earnings distribution except for the top quintile. Although forced migrants are generally worse off regarding mortality outcomes, those with successful labor market histories seem to overcome the longlasting negative consequences of flight and expulsion. |
| Keywords: | forced migration,differential mortality,lifetime earnings,economic history |
| JEL: | I12 J61 O15 R23 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:rwirep:713&r=mig |
| By: | Michael A. Clemens; Jennifer Hunt |
| Abstract: | Recent research has challenged the consensus that sudden inflows of refugees have little or no impact on natives' wages and employment, claiming instead that there are uniformly large detrimental effects on natives without school qualifications. Michael Clemens and Jennifer Hunt demonstrate the flaws in this analysis: the labour market impact of immigration is small even on natives with low skill levels. |
| Keywords: | refugees, immigration, instrumental variables |
| Date: | 2017–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepcnp:519&r=mig |
| By: | Bertoli, P.; Grembi, V.; Kazakis, P.; |
| Abstract: | We investigate the consumption of health care by immigrants by using newborn- and motherlevel data from birth certificates. We use a predictive algorithm based on machine learning to identify the observables affecting birth health outcomes and the use of prenatal care. Using these observables, our empirical analysis pinpoints an advantage of immigrants over natives regarding newborns’ birth weight and a lower use of prenatal care and of c-sections by immigrant mothers. To disentangle the healthy immigrant effect explanation for our results from an over-medicalization of pregnancy explanation, we use an IV approach. Our results support the over-medicalization of pregnancy hypothesis. |
| Keywords: | Healthy Immigrant Effect; Deliveries; Prenatal Care; Consumption of Health care; |
| JEL: | I12 I14 J15 |
| Date: | 2017–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:yor:hectdg:17/26&r=mig |
| By: | Brunello, Giorgio (University of Padova); Lodigiani, Elisabetta (University of Padova); Rocco, Lorenzo (University of Padova) |
| Abstract: | While there is a vast literature considering the labour market effects of immigration, less has been done to investigate how immigration affects the educational choices of young natives. Using Italian provincial data and an instrumental variables strategy, we show that the recent increase in the immigration of low skilled labour has produced human capital polarization, i.e. the contemporaneous increase in the share of natives with less than high school and not enrolled in school and in the share with a college degree or enrolled in college. This evidence is stronger for males than for females. We adapt the standard Card's model of educational choice and spell out under what conditions human capital polarization occurs. We estimate wage equations by gender and find that these conditions are satisfied, especially for Italian males. |
| Keywords: | low skilled, immigration, human capital, Italy |
| JEL: | J26 H55 J21 J14 J11 |
| Date: | 2017–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11062&r=mig |
| By: | Peter Haan; Martin Kroh; Kent Troutman |
| Abstract: | Motivations to participate in the labour market as well as to invest in labour market skills are crucial forthe successful integration of refugees. In this paper we use a unique dataset – the IAB-BAMF-SOEPRefugee Survey, which is a representative longitudinal study of all refugees reported on administrativerecords in Germany – and analyse which determinants and characteristics are correlated with highmotivation and intention to participate in the labour market. We find that overall men have a strongintention to work and to invest in human capital. The result for women is different: among women,having children, lack of German language skills, and having no previous work experience significantlyand consistently correlate with lower expectations and intentions of future economic integration.Furthermore, we find a significant relationship between the degree of traditional or patriarchal views ofwomen’s societal roles, and our corresponding outcomes of interest. |
| JEL: | F22 J22 J24 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp937&r=mig |