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on Economics of Human Migration |
| By: | Schmitz, Sophia (Federal Ministry of Finance); Weinhardt, Felix (DIW Berlin) |
| Abstract: | We study the local evolution of cultural norms in West Germany in reaction to the sudden presence of East Germans who migrated to the West after reunification. These migrants grew up with very high rates of maternal employment, whereas West German families followed the traditional breadwinner-housewife model. We find that West German women increase their labor supply and that this holds within household. We provide additional evidence on stated gender norms, West-East friendships, intermarriage, and childcare infrastructure. The dynamic evolution of the local effects on labor supply is best explained by local cultural learning and endogenous childcare infrastructure. |
| Keywords: | cultural norms, local learning, gender, immigration |
| JEL: | J16 J21 D1 |
| Date: | 2019–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp12509&r=all |
| By: | Martén, Linna; Hainmueller, Jens; Hangartner, Dominik |
| Abstract: | There is widespread concern in Europe and other refugee-receiving continents that living in an enclave of co-ethnics hinders refugees’ economic and social integration. Several European governments have adopted policies to geographically disperse refugees. While many theoretical arguments and descriptive studies analyze the impact of spatially concentrated ethnic networks on immigrant integration, there is limited causal evidence that sheds light on the efficacy of these policies. We provide evidence by studying the economic integration of refugees in Switzerland, where some refugees are assigned to live in a specific location upon arrival and by law are not permitted to relocate during the first five years. Leveraging this exogenous placement mechanism, we find that refugees assigned to locations with many co-nationals are more likely to enter the labor market. This benefit is most pronounced about three years after arrival and weakens somewhat with longer residency. In addition, we find that among refugees employed by the same company, a high proportion share nationality, ethnicity or language, which suggests that ethnic residential networks transmit information about employment opportunities. Together, these findings contribute to our understanding of the importance of ethnic networks for facilitating refugee integration, and they have implications for the design of refugee allocation policies. |
| JEL: | N0 |
| Date: | 2019–08–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:101385&r=all |
| By: | Cevat Giray Aksoy; Panu Poutvaara |
| Abstract: | About 1.4 million refugees and irregular migrants arrived in Europe in 2015 and 2016. We model how refugees and irregular migrants are self-selected. Using unique datasets from the International Organization for Migration and Gallup World Polls, we provide the first large-scale evidence on reasons to emigrate, and the self-selection and sorting of refugees and irregular migrants for multiple origin and destination countries. Refugees and female irregular migrants are positively self-selected with respect to education, while male irregular migrants are not. We also find that both male and female migrants from major conflict countries are positively self-selected in terms of their predicted income. For countries with minor or no conflict, migrant and non-migrant men do not differ in terms of their income distribution, while women who emigrate are positively self-selected. We also analyze how border controls affect destination country choice. |
| Keywords: | refugees, self-selection, human capital, predicted income |
| JEL: | J15 J24 O15 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_7781&r=all |
| By: | Ulceluse, Magdalena; Kahanec, Martin |
| Abstract: | The paper contributes to the on-going debates concerning the effectiveness of immigration policies, by investigating the case of the transitional arrangements implemented during the European Union enlargement rounds of 2004 and 2007. It has been argued that instead of deterring immigration, the arrangements rather altered the channels of entry. The hypothesis is that, as self-employed workers were not subjected to the transitional arrangements, these migrants used self-employment as a strategy to circumvent restrictions. Our results suggest that this might indeed have been the case post-2007, but not post-2004. We argue that in the latter case, migrants did not need to use self-employment as a strategy, because of alternative, restrictions-free destinations like Ireland and the UK. Our results point to the importance of immigration policies in shaping destination choices and have implications for future EU enlargement rounds. |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:379&r=all |
| By: | Murat, Marina |
| Abstract: | This paper measures the links between aid from 14 rich to 113 developing economies and bilateral asylum applications during years 1993 to 2013. Dynamic panel models and Sys-GMM are used. Results show that asylum applications are related to aid nonlinearly in the level of development of origin countries, in a U-shaped fashion, where only the downward segment proves to be robust to all specifications. Asylum inflows from poor countries are negatively, significantly and robustly associated with aid in the short run, with mixed evidence of more lasting effects, while inflows from less poor economies show a positive but weak relation with aid. Moreover, aid leads to negative cross-donor spillovers. Applications linearly decrease with humanitarian aid. Voluntary immigration is not linked to aid. Overall, the reduction in asylum inflows is stronger when aid disbursements are conditional on economic, institutional and political improvements in the recipient economy. |
| Keywords: | foreign aid,asylum seekers and refugees,development |
| JEL: | F35 F22 J15 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:378&r=all |