nep-mig New Economics Papers
on Economics of Human Migration
Issue of 2019‒05‒20
nine papers chosen by
Yuji Tamura
La Trobe University

  1. Migration of higher education students from North Africa Region By Satti Osman Mohamed Nour, Samia
  2. Ethnic Identity and the Employment Outcomes of Immigrants: Evidence from France By Isaure Delaporte
  3. Does Prior Achievement Matter? Early Tracking and Immigrant Children in Europe By ALIEVA Aigul; HILDEBRAND Vincent
  4. Refugee education: Integration models and practices in OECD countries By Lucie Cerna
  5. Immigration and Economic Growth By George J. Borjas
  6. Migration Fear, Uncertainty, and Macroeconomic Dynamics By Michael Donadelli; Luca Gerotto; Marcella Lucchetta; Daniela Arzu
  7. Settling in motion: Nyasa clandestine migration through Southern Rhodesia into the Union of South Africa: 1920s – 1950s By Daimon Anusa
  8. Climate change, rice production, and migration in Vietnamese households By Ricciuti Roberto; Baronchelli Adelaide
  9. Crop prices and migration in Viet Nam By Narciso Gaia

  1. By: Satti Osman Mohamed Nour, Samia (Faculty of Economic and Social Studies, Khartoum University)
    Abstract: This paper uses both the descriptive and comparative approaches to provide overview of migration of higher education students from North Africa region. We fill the gap in the African literature and present a more comprehensive and recent analysis of migration of higher education students from North Africa region using UNESCO recent secondary data on international students mobility in tertiary education. We provide an interesting comparative analysis of migration of higher education students from North Africa region compared to South Africa. A novel element in our analysis is that we examine migration of higher education students from North Africa from both national and regional perspectives; mainly we discuss migration of higher education students for each individual country in North Africa region (Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Sudan and Tunisia) and then discuss the total for the entire North Africa region. Therefore, we provide an extremely valuable contribution to the increasing debate in the international literature concerning the increasing interaction between migration and increasing internationalisation of higher education. Our findings support the first hypothesis that from national perspective, the pattern and size of migration of higher education students from the North Africa region increased substantially over the past years but the distribution showed considerable variation across North African countries. Our results corroborate the second hypothesis that the increasing trend of migration of higher education students from the North Africa region is caused by several push-pull factors (e.g. economic, social, political, cultural and educational). Our results support the third hypothesis that migration of higher education students from the North Africa region lead to mixed positive and negative impacts (e.g. transfer of knowledge, brain gain and skill acquisition for returned migrant students, but weak capacity to retain talents and brain drain for non-returned migrant students). Our findings corroborate the fourth hypothesis that skills of migrant higher education students from North Africa region can be better mobilised in their countries of origin by addressing the push-pull factors that determine migration of skills from the North Africa region.
    Keywords: Migration, higher education students, International student mobility, Internationalisation of higher education, Africa, North Africa region
    JEL: J60 J61 I23 I25
    Date: 2019–04–08
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:unumer:2019010&r=all
  2. By: Isaure Delaporte
    Abstract: The objective of this paper is twofold: first, to determine the immigrants' ethnic identity, i.e. the degree of identification to the culture and society of the country of origin and the host country and second, to investigate the impact of ethnic identity on the immigrants' employment outcomes. Using rich survey data from France and relying on a polychoric principal component analysis, this paper proposes two richer measures of ethnic identity than the ones used in the literature, namely: i) the degree of commitment to the origin country culture and ii) the extent to which the individual holds multiple identities. The paper investigates the impact of the ethnic identity measures on the employment outcomes of immigrants in France. The results show that having multiple identities improves the employment outcomes of the migrants and contribute to help design effective post-immigration policies.
    Keywords: Ethnic Identity; Immigration; Employment; Polychoric Principal Component Analysis
    JEL: J15 J21 J71 Z13
    Date: 2019–05
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ukc:ukcedp:1904&r=all
  3. By: ALIEVA Aigul; HILDEBRAND Vincent
    Abstract: Educational tracking is one of the institutional barriers to more equitable societies. Students with a modest social origin and/or an immigration background are underrepresented in the academic programs of secondary schools that would make them eligible later to access tertiary education. Literature on whether track placement reflects a student's aptitude remains largely scarce. We aim to contribute to this research strand and analyze the role of achievement prior to tracking on the odds of placement in an academic program among immigrant students and native peers with a similar level of academic ability. While the overall results suggest no disadvantage among immigrant students, the results by ethnicity and geographic region of origin reveal a large ethnic penalty for those of African, Turkish, Middle Eastern, or South European background. Our paper highlights the pertinence of students' origin on educational trajectories and the persisting bias in tracking policy in European school systems.
    Keywords: academic track; vocational track; immigrant students; Europe; ethnicity and origin
    Date: 2019–05
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:irs:cepswp:2019-09&r=all
  4. By: Lucie Cerna (OECD)
    Abstract: The recent refugee crisis has put many OECD countries under considerable pressure to accommodate and integrate large numbers of refugees. Refugee students are a particularly vulnerable group due to their forced displacement, but their needs are not always met by education systems, which can hinder the integration potential of these students. This poses considerable challenges as the integration of refugee students in education systems is important for their academic outcomes as well as their social and emotional well-being. The success (or lack of) integration in schools can also affect the future labour market and social integration potential of these children and youth. While there is a growing body of research on the integration of immigrants, policy-relevant research on refugee children and youth from an educational perspective is rather limited, fragmented and case specific. Detailed surveys and research projects focusing on the current wave of refugees that allow for cross-country comparisons are not yet available. Drawing on research from previous refugee waves, the paper examines key needs of refugee students and factors that promote their integration. It proposes a holistic model of integration in education that responds to the learning, social and emotional needs of refugee students. Furthermore, the paper examines what type of policies and practices are in place in OECD countries that support the integration of refugee students. Nonetheless, evaluations of practices and policies are often missing, which makes it difficult to assess whether they are successful. The paper finishes with some policy pointers on how to promote the integration of refugee students.
    Date: 2019–05–17
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:eduaab:203-en&r=all
  5. By: George J. Borjas
    Abstract: Immigration is sometimes claimed to be a key contributor to economic growth. Few academic studies, however, examine the direct link between immigration and growth. And the evidence on the outcomes that the literature does examine (such as the impact on wages or government receipts and expenditures) is far too mixed to allow unequivocal inferences. This paper surveys what we know about the relationship between immigration and growth. The canonical Solow model implies that a one-time supply shock will not have any impact on steady-state per-capita income, while a continuous supply shock will permanently reduce per-capita income. The observed relationship between immigration and growth obviously depends on many variables, including the skill composition of immigrants, the rate of assimilation, the distributional labor market consequences, the size of the immigration surplus, the potential human capital externalities, and the long-term fiscal impact. Despite the methodological disagreements about how to measure all of these effects, there is a consensus on one important point: Immigration has a more beneficial impact on growth when the immigrant flow is composed of high-skill workers.
    JEL: J6 O4
    Date: 2019–05
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:25836&r=all
  6. By: Michael Donadelli (Faculty of Economics and Business Administration and Research Center SAFE, Goethe University Frankfurt; Department of Economics, University Of Venice Cà Foscari); Luca Gerotto (University Of Venice Cà Foscari); Marcella Lucchetta (University Of Venice Cà Foscari); Daniela Arzu (University Of Venice Cà Foscari)
    Abstract: This paper examines the effects of changes in immigration-related uncertainty and fear on the real economic activity in four advanced economies (i.e., US, UK, Germany and France). Immigration uncertainty/fear is first captured by two news-based indicators developed by Baker et al. (2015), namely the Migration Policy Uncertainty Index (MPUI) and the Migration Fear Index (MFI), and then by a novel Google Trend Migration Uncertainty Index based on the frequency of internet searches for “immigration” (GTMU). VAR investigations suggest that the macroeconomic implications of rising immigration uncertainty/fear depend on the country under examination as well as on the way in which immigration uncertainty/fear is measured. In the US and UK, MPUI, MFI and GTMU shocks induce positive long-run effects on the real economic activity. Differently, in Germany, MPUI and MFI shocks lead to expansionary reactions whereas GTMU shocks generate significant adverse effects on the economy. This suggests that increasing media attention and rising population’s interest in immigration-related issues affect people’s mood in a different way. In France, MPUI, MFI and GTMU shocks induce negative macroeconomic effects in the long-run. A battery of robustness tests confirms our main findings.
    Keywords: Immigration, Uncertainty, Fear, Google Trends, Business Cycle
    JEL: C32 E32
    Date: 2018
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ven:wpaper:2018:29&r=all
  7. By: Daimon Anusa
    Abstract: Illegal African migration into South Africa is not uniquely a post-apartheid phenomenon. It has its antecedents in the colonial/apartheid period.The South Africa colonial economy relied heavily on cheap African labour from both within and outside the Union. Most foreign migrant labourers came from the then Nyasaland (Malawi) and Portuguese East Africa (Mozambique) through official channels of the Witwatersrand Native Labour Association (WNLA). WNLA was active throughout Southern Africa and competed for the same labour resources with other regional supranational ‘native’ labour recruitment agencies, providing various incentives to lure and transport potential employees to its bustling South African gold and diamond mining industry. However, not all migrant labourers found their way through formal WNLA channels.Using archival material from repositories in Harare (Zimbabwe), Zomba (Malawi), Grahamstown (South Africa), London, and Oxford (UK), the paper casts light on illicit migration mainly by Malawian labourers (Nyasas) through Southern Rhodesia into South Africa between the 1920s and 1950s. It argues that many transient Nyasas subverted the inhibitive WNLA contractual obligations by clandestinely migrating independently into the Union. They also exploited the labour recruitment infrastructure used by the state and labour bureaus to swiftly move across Southern Rhodesia.In essence, Nyasas settled in motion, using Southern Rhodesia as a stepping-stone or springboard en-route to the more lucrative Union of South Africa. An appreciation of such informal migration opens up space for creating a more comprehensive historiography of labour migration in Southern Africa. Likewise, illicit migration is not confined to the contemporary African diaspora, but early diasporas as well. Consequently, this narrative acts as a background for understanding the precursors of the rampant illegal African migration into post-apartheid South Africa.
    Keywords: Archival,Migration,Rhodesia,WNLA
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp2018-41&r=all
  8. By: Ricciuti Roberto; Baronchelli Adelaide
    Abstract: This paper analyses the relationship between climate and migration in rural households in Viet Nam.We propose an instrumental variable approach that controls for the potential endogeneity between crop production and migration using monthly minimum temperatures in the growing season as an instrument of rice production. Results show that the rise in minimum temperature during the core month of the growing season (i.e. June) does cause a reduction in rice production which, in turn, has a positive impact on people’s propensity to migrate.This finding is robust to the use of different estimators and plausible violations to exogeneity of the instrument.
    Keywords: Food industry and trade,Migration,Climate change
    Date: 2018
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp2018-86&r=all
  9. By: Narciso Gaia
    Abstract: This paper investigates the effect of commodity prices, in particular rice and coffee, on the individual decision of migrating in Viet Nam.As most coffee production is sold by households for exports, we would expect that coffee price shocks would have a direct effect on the probability of migrating. On the other hand, we would anticipate that fluctuations in rice prices have little or no effect on migration decisions, given that rice is mainly produced for household consumption.The results of the analysis confirm our assumptions. We provide evidence that the lower the coffee price, the higher the likelihood of migrating. This evidence seems to suggest that migration acts as a shock-coping strategy.We find that rice prices have no effect on the probability of migrating. We further explore the extent of migrants’ self-selection and show that lower coffee prices increase the migration probability of individuals with lower education.
    Keywords: Migration,Price shocks
    Date: 2018
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp2018-142&r=all

This nep-mig issue is ©2019 by Yuji Tamura. It is provided as is without any express or implied warranty. It may be freely redistributed in whole or in part for any purpose. If distributed in part, please include this notice.
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